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 1606.
Prokopii Chirin.
This icon is the oldest of all known copies of its miraculous original,
unearthed in Kazan on July 8, 1579, after the Virgin thrice appeared in
prophetic dreams to a little girl Matrona and told her the spot where
secret Christians had buried Her image before the Russian victory over
Muslim Kazan. Hermogene, Metropolitan of Kazan, active in these events,
later described them in the special Story he composed on request of Tsar
Fedor loannovich in 1595. In 1612 the miraculous icon was in the Russian
army which delivered Moscow from Polish occupiers. This success was ascribed
to the intercession of Our Lady of Kazan. The icon was considered to protect
the Romanov dynasty, and became one of Russia's best-worshipped holy images
during its reign. It is commemorated twice a year — July 8, the day it
was found, and October 22, the day of Moscow's deliverance. In these days
the liturgical processions with the icon were established: from the Dormition
Cathedral of the Kremlin to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan on the
Red Square (1636), which was the abode of the miracle-working icon. Like
the Hodegitia of Constatinople, the Kazan icon was bearing in solemn processions
along the city walls as a major protectress of Moscow.
In the early 19th century another cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan rose
in St. Petersburg, whose patron image it was. To this magnificent church
in Nevsky Avenue Fieldmarshal Kutuzov donated the trophy silver captured
from the French army in the Napoleonic War of 1812. In World War II, the
icon led a procession round the fortifica tions of the nazi-besieged Leningrad.
The icons of Our Lady of Kazan are traditionally small, following the
miraculous original (27 x 22.5 cm). An iconographic variant of the Hodegitria,
it is mainly noted for the Child standing, with the Virgin chest-length
— one of the reduced images widespread in the 16th century. Prokopii Chirin's
icon of 1606 is notable for attention to small details, characteristic
of so named Stroganov school.
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