Found items - 14
As legend says, the initial miracle-working image of the Mother of God with seven arrows was drawn in remote antiquity. According to 19th century publications, this icon is over five hundred years old. In pre-revolutionary Russia there was a famous and respected copy of the icon, which was identified with its legendary original. However, particularities of the image iconography and the fact that the said copy was made on a canvas glued to a wooden board indicate its late origin. The copy was made in the 18th century, probably from the initial icon that had not been preserved and dated back to the 17th century, i.e. the time when many elements of Western iconography emerged in Russian painting. The wonderworking icon of the Mother of God “Seven Arrows” comes from northern Russia. Before the revolution it was kept in the Church of John the Divine on the bank of ToshnyaRiver, not far from Vologda. The legend about the icon resembles similar stories about Mother’s of God images seen in visions by different people. A peasant from Kadnikovsky uyezd (district) suffered from lameness for many years and had no hope already to get cured. Once he was sleeping, and a Divine voice ordered him to find an icon of the Mother of God in the Church of John the Divine bell tower where old icons were kept, and to pray in front of the icon with faith for his disease cure. Having come to that church, the peasant could not do right away what he’d been ordered in the vision. Only after his third request clergymen who did not trust his words let him enter the bell tower and go upstairs. It turned out the icon, being covered with dust and dirt, served as a simple wooden stair on which bell ringers stepped while going up or down the tower. Being terrified with their unintentional sacrilege, clergymen cleaned the icon and held a service in front of it, whereupon the peasant totally recovered. Several years later, the memory of the miracle started gradually fading away and could vanish totally, if it were not for a new God’s affair when the miraculous power of the Mother’s of God icon manifested itself again. In 1830, a horrible cholera epidemic overtook a major part of European Russia, including Vologda province. During the pestilence many sacred items were brought to Vologda from Toshnya, including the icon of the Mother of God with seven arrows, and placed in the “cold” (summer) Church of Dmitry Prilutsky on Navolok, in Vologda Zarechye, to the right of the main city bridge. Christ-loving inhabitants of Vologda held a religious procession with the Seven Arrows icon around the city. After the universal prayer in front of the wonderworking image, cholera abated just as suddenly as it had come.
I remember my first visit to the church about fifteen years ago. Someone said there was a monastery in Pechersk district of Kiev, where a wonderworking icon of the Mother of God was kept, and, supposedly, if one came there early in the morning, stood at the entire first acathistus and prayed, he or she could ask for certain things, and everything would come true. Yes, this was exactly how I memorized it fifteen years ago: “ask, and everything will come true”. A bait of miracle and wishes fulfilment in those rather troubled times. And I certainly went there, not so much for the sake of asking, but rather to see the icon which was so miraculous to fulfil all people’s wishes. Was it really wonderworking? Just to mention, I was not gullible at all, quite the contrary, but for some reason the mysterious wonderworking icon and the nationwide worship of the Mother of God – the authority – became convincing for me.
This article lay idle for a month and a half in my desk. The composition of it involved numerous obstacles, and even after the final article version was prepared and thoroughly edited on the website in the offline mode, the text suddenly and enigmatically disappeared, so that I had to rewrite everything all over again. Nonetheless, after a while I decided to go back to this story for a reason unknown to me.
In my previous publication entitled Grace of the Most Holy Mother of God I disclosed some details of my biography associated with my past spiritual awakening, if such pathos expression would be appropriate for an ordinary non-pathos life situation. In my case I could stop on that, since I am neither a select nor awarded with any particular divine marks or signs. However, something probably clicked inside, and the memory suddenly exposed a very interesting and long-forgotten story from the same time period, which story’s directly connected with Virgin Mary or rather her manifestation during my ordeals of those days. I gave myself a while to mull over whether I should present the story to a wide audience, and if so, in which form should I do that. I was and am still harried by certain contradictions: firstly I wouldn’t like to seem immodest, and secondly I fear to dilute the emphasis, since for better understanding it’s necessary to give details of my life situation in the first part of the story, while that situation had nothing to do with spirituality. Moreover, the whole story looks rather improbable today even for me, and I’m simply astounded what a fine fellow I was in those years.
Iconography is an art that keeps many secrets. Such secrets are ciphered in signs and symbols which conceal information, concepts and details unapparent for a cursory glance of an average person, but reveal a deep sacral meaning to an inquisitive heart of the one who seeks more than the entire material world can offer to its two-legged batteries. Probably, there is no person on the earth (other than representatives of tribes living in jungles) who hasn’t seen an icon of the Mother of God at least once, namely an icon where there is an up-horned crescent in the lower part of the image or a veil held in Virgin Mary’s hands while her elbows are bent. Icons drawn in such a style have always been particularly nice and attractive for me. Grace and tenderness beyond expression are coming from such images which, like a light amidst impenetrable darkness, are capable of rescuing anyone who asks for Virgin Mary’s help from the quagmire of existence in the brutal world created by people themselves.
Nowadays, Kiev Pechersk Lavra is a famous male monastery. Yet, not many people are aware of the historical fact that the Kiev Pechersk cloister initially accommodated both a nunnery and a monastery, representing a unique combination of female and male monastic communities and an abode for all people who endeavoured to learn their inner spiritual world, regardless of their nationality, age or sex. The nunnery (maiden convent), further referred to as the Ascension Convent, was an integral part of the Pechersk monastery complex and occupied one of central locations on the “holy mountain” – the place indicated by the Mother of God to Elder Antony.
Despite the fact that the Christan holy scripture – the Bible (New Testament) contains very few records of Virgin Mary’s words and deeds, her marvellous image and particular respect for her are found all over the world, to this day with inexplicable power attracting believers and atheists in different parts of the globe. We are returning to this wonderful luminous topic again, since we consider it to be one of the most worthy subjects to address and pay attention to. It deserves attention of all people for them to expand their limited understanding of the essence of hidden processes in the universe. Though many people are so far engrossed in earthly and transient things and fail the accept what they don’t physically see, though talks about spirituality and deep inner feelings provoke distrust and detachment, any opinion, even the most deep-rooted one, may be changed, while extinct interest may be inflamed with interesting and obvious facts, for facts are stubborn things.
Heraldic traditions came to Slavic lands from Western Europe, whereas the word gerb found in several Slavic languages originates from the German erbe meaning “heritage”, “inheritance”. In the Middle Ages, when feudal relations were strengthening in Europe, it became necessary to single out feudal lords among their vassal environment. Moreover, in the times of tournaments and crusades, when a knight was covered with armour and had a closed visor on his helmet, it was totally unclear who he was and which nation and family he belonged to. Thus, insignias were absolutely necessary. One’s coat of arms was exactly an indicator of one’s name and title. Knights mostly drew their coats of arms on their shields, and that was the origin of the major heraldic tradition. Later on city coats of arms began to emerge.
Hence, there was surely no coat of arms in Kiev in the times of Kievan Rus, though Kievan princes did have their personal seals. In fact, every prince had such a seal to mark his property and sign his orders.
Let me go back to the quest of new evidence of existence of the four human Aspects, the knowledge of which were lost by humanity many centuries ago. You might ask why I am doing this, given that the subject has been addressed on this website numerous times before. Firstly, the quest provokes a genuine interest in me. Secondly, it is so striking how everything is uniform, irrespective of cultures and continents. Well, thirdly, I do this to ensure that once a bright day will come when only a minor handful of uneducated fools will continue brushing obvious facts aside, while the reasonable majority will follow the wise recommendation of the ancients: “Know yourself!”, and the entire mankind will eventually be transfigured.
Many of you certainly attend churches, temples or houses of prayer, and believe in Single God. For sure, many of you respectfully treat the great woman depicted on numerous icons and images, revered in various religions and denominations, and named Mary. Unfortunately, today we know almost nothing about who this woman was and what was her destiny; and hardly many people have an idea of the true essence and meaning of her superior spiritual feat.
We have already dedicated a number of articles and analytical publications to her in the Holy Mother of God (Virgin Mary) section, and today we would like to post a new series of photos clearly showing that in Christian images and icons of Virgin Mary the sign consisting of a circle and a crescent is widely present – the sign that is already familiar to many readers as the AllatRa sign (more details about it may be found in our relevant analytical material).
This is the first part of a little series of articles dedicated to Mary’s help given to all of us. The subject was repeatedly addressed on this website, but it is so extensive that it’s impossible to cover it fully. There are whole books and tens of thousands of records of Her miraculous apparitions and healings via one or another Image / Face, and there are surely miracles She worked which are unrecorded in any written sources. Nobody will ever know for certain how many people She helped, because the help of a personality who follows the spiritual path is not necessarily flaunted, and exactly such help has no limits in time.
As a matter of fact, my role in preparation of these articles is quite modest and minor. It boils down to working with various sources which I will refer to as far as possible. There will be very few comments on my side and almost no analysis or comparison, since all those are needless.
The AllatRa book refers to the history of St. Sophia’s Cathedral construction in Kiev in the 11th century. It was built according to a design recommended by Agapit of Pechersk to Prince Yaroslav the Wise. Agapit partly let the prince into the secret of active signs, and Yaroslav successfully implemented the project, owing to which Kievan Rus became the “Home of the Most Holy Mother of God” (read more about the grand construction project in Kiev on pages 509-527 – allatra.us).
Below we will talk about the ways Our Lady protects Her “Home”, but first let’s tell more about St. Sophia’s Cathedral.
This is a closing part of the little series dedicated to the help rendered by Mary to all of us. As you have probably understood by the article title, we will talk about Reverend Silouan the Athonite. Recently on our website we touched upon the subject of Ezoosmos – the inner impulse. I believe it would be absolutely fair to attribute the concept of Ezoosmos to the personality’s spiritual path as well, that is in this context such impulse would be an event, e.g. a dream, a vision, or a conversation with someone. Owing to such an event, a person comes to understand he or she is not just a piece of matter, a part of this material world, but something greater…
Such event serves as a sort of an impetus that forces a person to step on the spiritual path, start improving oneself for the better in every day of one’s life, and gradually move in the right direction where he or she has been “pushed”.
Let me once again revert to the topic of Virgin Mary reverence in various cultures of the world. This time I have prepared an image collection with North American Indian motifs. There is the Holy Mother with a baby and the signs already familiar to many of our readers, which entwine the discovered forms with the single grain of knowledge. At that, Our Lady is beautiful as always!)
Mother of God, Mother of God, the Mother of light, love and good,
You are my hope, Mother of God, and the time of miraculous insights.
Mother of God, Mother of God, I love You so much with all my soul,
You are my star, You are my dawn, You are a ray of light in the earthly life.
You are Our Lady of the Don, Our Lady of Kazan, Our Lady of the Sign – all Your images are with me.
You are the Theotokos of Vladimir, Our Lady of Valaam, and Derzhavnaya above the land.
You are the heavenly joy of all the sorrowful, You are the punishment for all the killed,
Your are the Purest Bride of all virgins, You are my grief and love.
02.08.2017
10.07.2016
25.07.2016
31.07.2016
Project Aim
