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 1706.
Yakov Molchanov. From the Resurrection Church at Kadashi, Moscow.
This icon is a copy of one of the most famous Russian miraculous images.
According to the chronicles, the icon miraculously appeared in summer
1383 in the environs of Novgorod. The Story of the Icon of Tikhvin (16th
century) registers its four apparitions following each other, the latest
on the left bank of the river Tikhvinka, where a Dormition Church was
first built. Later, in 1560, the Tikhvin Monastery arose on the site.
The long siege of the monastery by the Swedish army in 1613-1615 was a
crucial moment in the history of the icon worship after its miraculous
intercession for the besieged. The most detailed redaction of the Legend
of its miracles appeared in 1658, in the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich.
It included for the first time the Byzantine prehistory of the holy image,
which identified it with the Hodegetria of Constantinople, which miraculously
left the Byzantine capital to reappear in Tikhvin. A service in commemoration
of the icon, on June 26, was compiled together with the Story.  The
miracle-working original was in the Tikhvin Monastery for several century
before 1941, when the area was occupied by nazis. Taken to Western Europe,
it eventually travelled across the Atlantic, and now is at Sts. Peter
and Paul's Cathedral in Chicago.
The iconography of Our Lady of Tikhvin is close to the Byzantine type
of Hodegetria. The gesture of Christ is its most spectacular characteristic,
with the right hand in blessing over the hand of the Virgin. The icon
of Kadashi, closely repeated the iconographic type of the original, follows
traditions of the icon-painting workshop at the Armoury Palace of the
Moscow Kremlin. The choice of the marginal saints (Apostle Peter, Sergius
of Radonezh, Alexius the Man of God and John the Warrior) must have depended
on the donor's request.
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