Icon of the Mother of God of Okonsk

There is no reliable historical information about the origin of the Okonsk Icon of the Mother of God, but it is thought that the Icon came from Georgia. According to tradition, the Okonsk Icon was received by the Georgian King Vakhtang IV from Jerusalem in the XV century, and at first it was at Gaenat Monastery in Georgia. The Georgian King’s son, George Alexandrovich, transferred the holy Icon to the cathedral church in the village of Lyskov, in Nizhny Novgorod province.

The revered Okonsk Icon is venerated by the inhabitants as miraculous, because they often receive healing from their various bodily ailments. It is said that a peasant woman who lost her husband was consequently forced to perform all his work in order to take care of her home and family.

While working in the field one day, she suddenly became ill. She felt a hardening of her fingers, and the toes of her feet. After a few days she lost the ability to control her legs and experienced unbearable pain in her hands. Initially, she treated her illness with home remedies. The Mother of God appeared to her and reprimanded her because only after the folk medicines proved ineffective did she turn to the Lord and the Most Holy Virgin.

Gradually, the pain in her hands began to subside, and the ability to control her legs returned. After a week and a half, she was already back to work.

The village where this miracle took place was not far from Tikhvin Monastery, and the peasant woman may have prayed before the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God.

The Most Holy Theotokos not only grants bodily health to those who come to her wonderworking Icon with faith, but she also heals the sorrows of the heart. In many cases, souls stricken by the storm of worldly troubles have found peace before the Icon.