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Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir. "Witn scenes" |
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 The Most Pure Virgin saveguards our Homeland, and Her icons form a heavenly protection granted by Our Lord Jesus Christ through Her intercession.
Our northern frontiers are protected and blessed by the old icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, western — by icons of Our Lady of Smolensk and of Pochayev, southern — by the Kasperova icon, while our East is illumined by the Divine Grace of the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Kazan.
The icon of Our Lady of Vladimir witnessed major events in the history of the Russian Church: election and enthronisation of Bishop Iona (1448), of Bishop Job, the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (1589), and of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon (1917).
The scenes show events from the history of the miraculous icon.
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Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir |
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 This icon, as the legend goes, was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist and brought to Rus from Constantinople. When moving to Vladimir, St. Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky took the miraculous icon from Vyshgorod in Kiev.
On September 21, 1164, it was brought to the Cathedral of the Dormition where it was kept for 230 years. In 1395, during the disastrous Tatar — Mongol yoke, a festal procession brought the icon to Moscow, and on August 26, the day of public prayer to the Intercessor, the magnificent Woman surrounded by Heavenly Warriors appeared in brilliant radiance before brutal Tamerlane and told him to leave Russia.
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Presentation of the Blessed Virgin in the Temple |
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 The legend says that at the age of three the Virgin Mary was brought by Her parents, righteous Joachim and Anna, to the Jerusalem Temple to be presented to God.
Inspired from above the Virgin Mary climbed the steps on her own, and high priest Zacharias presented Her not only in the Temple but also in the Holy of Holies which he himself could enter only once a year, on the day of purification.
The presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple and in the Holy of Holies heralded Her future destiny as the Mother of God. While in the Temple She was fed by Angels.
Feast day — November 21 (December 4).
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The icon shows the Byzantine image of Christ Pantocrator, the All-Powerful, adopted by the Russian iconography.
Christ is the Lord, the Ruler of the Universe perceptive of His beauty and obedient to His law.
Christ rules people with the power of His Word recorded in the Gospels.
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 Descent from the Cross is an event of the Holy Week, which is recorded by the four Evangelists.
The body of the crucified Christ was taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea who had long been Christ's disciple in secret. He was „a good man and a just".
With the permission of Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate he took down the sacred body from the cross, and wrapped it in linen clothes with the spices, and laid our Lord Jesus Christ in the sepulchre cut in the rock.
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 The Resurrection of Christ is the Feast of Feasts and the Triumph of Triumphs.
According to the iconographic tradition it is described as descent into hell of the Resurrected Christ who delivers of the nether world Adam and Eve destroyed by original sin.
The Resurrection of Christ overcomes death and the pit itself becomes a witness and participant of a universal triumph. |
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