The Mother of God of Hodigitria

Theotokos Hodegetria "Assuage My Sorrows" icon, Russia, 19th c. The icon is one of the variants of Theotokos Hodegetria - see S.12677MŁ. In Russian Orthodox Church, the presented depiction is called Our Lady of Consolation. The Mother of God, holding up the half-lying Christ with her right hand, holds her left to her face, listening for supplication prayers. According to legend the original icon was housed in Shklow, in the Mogilev Region of Belarus. In 1640, its copy was brought to Moscow by the Cossacks. The icon was placed in the Church of St. Nicholas in the Moscow suburb of Pupyshevo, located in Sadovniki, across the Moskva river, opposite the Kremlin. At the end of the 17th c., during the construction of a new brick church, this icon and many others were moved to the belfry and forgotten. The painting regained its cult in the 18th c., due to an event described in a book that documented numerous miracles but was destroyed in a fire in 1771. The document claimed that in 1760, a healing of a woman from an important family, who was completely immobilised by illness, occurred before the icon. Earlier, the Mother of God revealed herself to the sick woman and ordered her to go to the Pupyshevo church in Moscow and instructed her to pray before the Assuage My Sorrows image. However, a painting with such an inscription was not found in the temple. Having searched all possible locations, the forgotten icon of the Mother of God was retrieved from the belfry. The sick woman identified it as the painting from her vision and, after praying, was completely cured. This event took place on the 5th of February (January 25 in the Julian calendar) and initiated the restoration of the cult of the Theotokos Assuage My Sorrows icon, as well as the establishment of its feast for the same day. In 1771, prayer before this icon was considered especially effective during the cholera epidemic. This popular depiction also appears in a mirrored version, as described under S.12807MŁ. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967