The Mother of God of Hodigitria

Theotokos Hodegetria of the Passion icon, Russia, 19th c. The brass, enamelled icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria of the Passion forms the central part of a so-called 'skladnia', i.e. an icon consisting most often of three or two wings joined with hinges. In Russia, cast objects of worship were very popular among the Old Believers, who did not accept the liturgical reform Moscow's Patriarch Nikon introduced in the middle of the 17th c. In contrast to other depictions of Hodegetria (see S.12677MŁ), in the Theotokos of the Passion icons, Christ poses in a characteristic way: he grasps the hand of Mary with both of his own and turns his head towards one of two archangels holding the instruments of passion as a foretoken of Christs death on the cross. The origins of this representation stretch back to the 17th c., but the genesis of the original is unknown. The legend attributing miraculous power to the icon mentions the possessed Cathrine from the village of Palica, who, fulfilling the direction of the Mother of God, went to Nizhny Novgorod and was healed before the icon of the Theotokos with the instruments of Lord's Passion, painted on a board by a certain Gregory. The local boyar Boris Lykov brought the painting to Palica, but on the orders of Tsar Aleksey I Mikhaylovich, it was transferred to Moscow. There, in 1654, a female convent of the Passion was funded. The icon had been housed there until 1919, when the convent was closed and, in 1937, demolished. The painting of the Mother of God was moved to the Church of the Resurrection in Sokolniki, Moscow. The feast of the Theotokos of the Passion icon, known as 'the Suffering One' in Russia, is celebrated on the 13th of August and on the sixth Sunday after Easter in the Julian calendar. It is interesting that the depiction of Hodegetria of the Passion is also venerated in West Christianity under the name of Theotokos of Perpetual Help, which is described under S.12840MŁ. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967