Patriarch Kirill announced the discovery of the original icon of the Kazan Mother of God

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ presented in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin the original icon of the Kazan Mother of God, which was considered lost more than a hundred years ago.

“This event can be attributed to historical events. We see before us the original of the miraculous image of the Kazan Mother of God, in front of which Pozharsky and Minin prayed, and which saved our people from foreign intervention and unknown from what consequences of this intervention,” said Patriarch Kirill (quoted from “RIA News“).

According to the primate, experts concluded that this icon belongs to the era in which the Kazan image was created. “And since this icon is, as it were, an exact, most accurate copy of that created icon, it is absolutely obvious that two identical icons could not have been created at that time and that we are talking about a miraculous image, about the very image in front of which both Minin and Pozharsky prayed,” the patriarch is convinced (quoted from “Interfax“).

According to church tradition, the icon of the Kazan Mother of God appeared in 1579. In June 1904, the icon was stolen from the Kazan Mother of God Monastery. The thieves were found, but investigators believed that the stolen icons, including the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, were burned in the apartment of one of the suspects.