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 Late
11th - early 12th century, Byzantium.
The earliest references to the icon are found in the oldest chronicles
(entries for 1155). The first Story was compiled in Vladimir at Prince
Andrei Bogolubsky's court in the 1160s. Prince Andrei took the icon with
him when he acquired the throne of Vladimir and Suzdal. He ordered for
the holy image a gold case, and placed it in the new Dormition Cathedral
of Vladimir. Though some miracles of the icon were known in Kiev, the
peak of its glory came in Vladimir. When Tamerlane's horde invaded Russia
in 1395, the image was brought to Moscow for heavenly intercession to
ward off the city's doom — and miraculous deliverance did come. The Story
was composed some years later, when the worship of the icon became even
more dedicated.
It came to Moscow for good in 1480. In the next century the icon became
the palladium of Moscow and the most important among Russian holy relics.
The icon is commemorated three times a year: August 26 (Moscow's deliverance
from the Tartar siege of 1395), June 23 (final transfer of the icon to
Moscow, and the bloodless victory over Tartars on the Ugra river, 1480),
and May 21 (Moscow's deliverance from Khan Mahmet Ghirei in 1521). At
these feasts there were the liturgical processions with the original icon
or its copy.
The image belongs to the iconographic type known as Tenderness (Umilenie)
or Eleusa. It prototyped many Russian iconographic variants
of the Virgin Tenderness, connected with some miraculous icons of local
worship.
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