“A Virgin Before and After Giving Birth” Icon of the Mother of God

This wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God "A Virgin Before and After Giving Birth” is located in Saint Nicholas Monastery, Dmitrovsky County, Moscow. It was transferred to Saint Nicholas Monastery by the Moscow merchant Alexei Grigorievich Mokeyev. Around the year 1780 Alexei joined the Monastery brotherhood, giving all his wealth to Archimandrite Makarios, the Igoumen of the Monastery, but kept the holy Icon in his cell.

After Alexei's repose, the Icon was brought to the Archimandrite, who noticed that the Icon had been painted with oils on canvas, and not according to the prescribed rules of iconography (using egg tempera on wood), so he placed it over the door of the chapel dedicated to the Monastery's founder, Saint Methodios of Peshnosha († June 4 or 14, 1392), which was on a street not far from the Monastery.

The Icon was glorified with numerous miracles in 1827. One night, as Captain Platon Osipovich Shabashev of the Jäger Infantry Regiment (which was camped near Peshnosha Monastery) was passing by the chapel, he saw an extraordinary light coming from the Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. Later, Captain Shabashev received the first blessing from the Queen of Heaven when he had a vision of the Icon at a time in his life when he found himself in difficult circumstances.

At that time, Shabashev was unjustly accused of some offense which served as a reason to remove him from his position. Not finding any presumption of innocence concerning his case on the part of earthly rulers, the Captain decided to seek the truth from the Queen of Heaven. With fervent tears, he bowed down before her most pure Icon in the Monastery. Later, in a dream, he beheld the radiant Icon of the Mother of God in the clouds over the chapel of Saint Methodios, and he heard a voice saying "If you want to be delivered from temptation, have a silver riza made for the Icon."

Captain Shabashev obeyed the instructions of the Mother of God. He was acquitted and his sorrows ended.

The Icon has been behind the klēros since 1848. In that year of cholera, numerous miracles of healing occurred before it.

This Icon of the Mother of God is of the Hodēgḗtria type. The Mother of God and the Christ Child appear with crowns on their heads. At the top of the Icon is the inscription "A Virgin Before and After Giving Birth," and the Lord of Hosts is depicted with two Angels supporting the crown of the Mother of God. The Holy Righteous Joseph the Betrothed is also depicted.

The Icon "A Virgin Before and After Giving Birth” is a beautiful painting measuring 12 verts high and 9 verts wide. The Most Holy Theotokos is depicted frontally to the waist, and holds the Pre-Eternal Child on her left arm.

The Divine Child is painted in regal majesty, with a crown, a scepter, and an orb in His hands. The Mother of God holds the scepter from below, as if to help Him.

The liturgical basis for Icons of this type is a liturgical text for the Theotokos (Tone 7): "A Virgin before giving birth, in giving birth, and after giving birth, you still remained a virgin." Moreover, the Troparion for the Feast of the Dormition says: "In giving birth, you preserved your virginity, in falling asleep you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos. You were translated to life, O Mother of Life, and by your prayers, you deliver our souls from death."

The iconography has been influenced by such Western patterns as an image common in medieval Germany: "Dreimal wunderbare Mutter" (Thrice-Wondrous Mother).

Of the other well-known images in Russia the most closely related are the icons of Lomovskaya, Czestochowa (March 6), Mishkovskaya, and Chubkovskaya from Starodubye.