Appearance of the Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos of Kazan

July 8

Reading:

In Kazan, in 1579, the nine-year old Matrona, whose parents' home had burned down in a fire, had a dream in which she beheld an icon of the Theotokos and heard a voice commanding her to recover this icon from the ashes of the ruined house. The icon was found wrapped in an old piece of cloth under the stove, where it may have been hidden during the Tartar invasions. The icon was finally brought to the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Theotokos, where it became renowned for the healings that the Mother of God wrought through it for the blind; hence the custom of praying before this holy icon for help in blindness and eye diseases. Tsar Ivan the Terrible had a convent built at the place of the icon's discovery; this, however, was destroyed by the Bolsheviks after the Revolution, and a factory was built in its stead. The feast was established in 1595. The icon of Kazan is one of the most beloved icons of the Mother of God in Russia.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone

O Fervent intercessor, Mother of the Lord Most High, thou prayest for all to thy Son, Christ our God, and thou causest all to be saved who have recourse to thy powerful protection. O Sovereign Lady and Queen, help and defend all of us who in troubles and trials, in pain and burdened with many sins, stand before thy most pure icon in thy presence, and pray to thee with compunction of soul, contrition of heart, and with tears, and who have unflagging hope in thee. Grant to all what is good for us, deliverance from all evil, and save us all, O Virgin Theotokos, for thou art a divine protection to thy servants.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone

Let us run, O ye peoples, to that quiet and good haven, to the speedy helper, to the ready and warm salvation, to the Virgin's protection. Let us hurry to prayer and hasten to repentance; for the most pure Theotokos poureth out of us unfailing mercy, anticipateth our needs with her help, and delivereth from great disasters and evils her upright and God-fearing servants.

Reading courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery

Apolytikion courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery

Kontakion courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery