Seraphim-Diveyevo Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God
The Seraphim-Diveyevo Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God belonged to Saint Seraphim of Sarov, and was the Icon he kept in his cell. The Saint anointed the sick with oil from the lampada burning before this Icon, and they received healing. The holy ascetic reposed while praying before the Icon on January 2, 1833.
After Saint Seraphim's repose. Igoumen Niphon of Sarov Monastery sent for Father Seraphim's cell attendant and ordered him to send the Tenderness Icon to the Diveyevo sisters saying: "She is bound to be there with them."
During Saint Seraphim's glorification in 1903, a participant described the Cross Procession from Diveyevo to Sarov by the nuns of Diveyevo Monastery on July 17. He noted that the wonderworking Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God was carried there: "When the procession from Diveyevo reached the chapel, two Protopresbyters removed the Icon from its case and gave it to Bishop Innocent, who blessed the people with it.
Nowadays, as before, the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery celebrates local Feasts honoring the Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God. The Feasts take place on the following days: July 28, the Feast of the Ustyuzhensk-Smolensk Hodegetria (Hodēgḗtria) Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God, and on December 9 the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos by Righteous Anna. Archimandrite Sophronios (Chichagov) composed a special Service in honor of the Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God. Two original Akathists to the Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God have been preserved to this day. One of them may have been written by the nuns of Diveyevo, and the other one was written by the Metropolitan Sergius Stargorodsky while he headed the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese.
In his book "The Pillar and Ground of the Truth" Father Pavel Florensky wrote: "The Tenderness Icon is remarkable since the Theotokos is depicted without her Child, or even before His conception – at the moment of the Archangel's greeting, when she is the Most Pure Vessel of the Holy Spirit. Saint Seraphim had seven candle holders burning before the Icon and they took up most of his cell's space. Again, it manifests the Holy Spirit in His seven gifts, seven highest spiritual gifts. Saint Seraphim commanded us to call this Tenderness Icon, the Joy of all Joys."
Saint Seraphim's cell icon did not disappear during the era of atheism. First the Diveyevo nuns who lived in Murom after the Monastery's dissolution, and later the Moscow priest Victor Shipovalnikov safeguarded the Icon.
Nowadays, the Icon remains at the Patriarchal Residence's Vladimirskaya church at Chisty Lane. Once a year, during Great Lent, it is brought into Yelokhovo's Theophany Cathedral during the Patriarchal service there.