A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 6 Number 28 - Tuesday, July 13th, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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The Orthodox Christian News Service |
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Famed Icon Returns to Tikhvin The Associated Press TIKHVIN, Northwestern Russia -- Thousands of pilgrims gathered Thursday to greet the return of one of the most significant Russian Orthodox icons, the miracle-working Virgin of Tikhvin, to its home at the Tikhvin Assumption Monastery after six decades in the United States. The icon arrived in Tikhvin in a special train car from St. Petersburg, 220 kilometers away. Russian priests in dark robes carried the icon aloft toward the monastery, where it will be placed in an ornate nook and protected by guards. Orthodox tradition holds that the icon was painted by Jesus Christ's apostle St. Luke. It was lost in Constantinople some time in the 14th century, but then on July 9, 1383, the icon reappeared in Tikhvin. Legend says it appeared floating above the River Tikhvinka, and as priests and pilgrims prayed, the icon descended into the hands of the priests. Witnesses interpreted that as a sign from Mary that she wanted the icon to remain there and so they started to build a church. However, the next day the icon was found on the other side of the river, and this was to become the site of the Tikhvin Virgin Assumption church.
The site was closed by the Bolsheviks and the icon
was taken to the city of Pskov, which was seized
by Nazi troops in Wold War II. In 1944, retreating
German soldiers took the icon to Riga, Latvia,
where it was saved by the city's Orthodox
archbishop, Janis Garklavs, who emigrated to the
United States in 1949. Last month, the icon
arrived back in Russia on a flight from Chicago. |
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