The Mother of God, Joy of the Afflicted

The words of the liturgical prayer hymn - the sticheron in honour of the Mother of God "O Virgin Theotokos, full of Grace, Joy of all who sorrow..." were the source of the name of the 'Joy of All Who Sorrow' or 'Joy of the Afflicted' icon. The first painting of this name was painted in 1683 by Ivan Bezmin, a painter employed in the workshop operating at the Kremlin Armoury, known as the Oruzheynaya Palata. The painting was based on the examples of European art, which permeated the Moscow milieu in the 17th c. It is not known for certain whether it went to the Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Ordynka. In 1688, the Joy of the Afflicted icon from the aforementioned Orthodox church became the source of grace for the miraculous healing of Euphymia, the sister of Patriarch Joachim. Since then, around the Mother of God on the Joy of the Afflicted icons, the sick and needy began to be depicted, see S.12800MŁ, S.12806MŁ, S.12835MŁ, S.12863MŁ. This widely revered and reproduced depiction was popularised in many different variants. Legend has it that one of these icons was fished out of the Neva in St. Petersburg. The painting became the property of the Kurakin merchants and, through marriage, passed to the Matveev family, who placed it in a nearby suburban wooden chapel which stood near a glass factory. During a powerful storm in 1888, the chapel was struck by lightning which charred its interior. Only the Joy of the Afflicted icon was not damaged but the twelve coins, scattered by the lightning strike from a nearby donation box, permanently adhered to the face of the painting. From then on, the miraculous icon was called the Mother of God Joy of the Afflicted with pennies. On its copies, coins were painted on in the background, like on the displayed image. A separate feast day was established for it on the 5th of August (July 23 in the Julian calendar), independently of the feast day of the Moscow icon on the 6th of November (October 24 in the Julian calendar). Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967