In the history of Christianity there are a great many icon painters. And only a few of them managed to create miraculous images. More precisely, God made them miraculous, allowed them to be such in order to help people, to preserve and increase faith. The Trubchevskaya Icon of the Mother of God is one of these icons. Her story is very interesting.
The history of the icon
In 1765, in the city of Trubchevsk, located in the Bryansk region (formerly the Oryol province), the hieromonk, whom everyone in the Cholnsky Monastery called Evfimy, painted an icon. On the icon he depicted the Mother of God with the Savior in her arms. The monk adorned the head of the Ever-Virgin with a crown. The fact that the icon was painted by Hieromonk Euthymius is evidenced by the inscription on the very image of the Virgin - "1765 EVF". When donations were collected for the Trinity-Scanov Monastery, the monk turned out to have nothing more valuable than the Trubchevskaya Icon of the Mother of God.
Trinity-Scan Monastery - a haven of the Trubchevskaya icon
Trinity-Scan Monastery was located in the city of Narovchat and belonged to the Penza diocese.
The monastery is famous for its caves, which are longer than the caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The caves in the latter stretched for more than five hundred meters, and in the Trinity-Skanov Monastery - for two kilometers. The monks settled in the caves, leading a hermit life with the blessing of the abbot of the monastery, carrying out obedience, performing a feat by fasting and prayer, testing themselves and their faith.
The Trubchevskaya Icon of the Mother of God performed many miracles, and they were not long in coming. It is a pity that there is no documentary confirmation of the phenomena emanating from the icon - the fire in the monastery took away all the documents stored there.
Miraculous Image
The Mother of God Trubchevskaya, according to old-timers, in the 19th century saved many people from cholera, the epidemic of which twice overwhelmed Narovchat and its environs. People were in a panic. They came to the monks and asked for help. The monks and all the local residents made a religious procession, with the removal of the miraculous image of the Ever-Virgin from the walls of the monastery, around the city. Prayers were heard, the Mother of God saw the zeal of the faithful. After that, the epidemic stopped, and since then the monks have not known what diseases are at all. People believed in the miraculous power of the icon. The Trubchevskaya icon of the Mother of God has become one of the most revered, people have reached out to her.
When the temple was built in honor of the icon
Not far from the burial place of the victims of the cholera invasion, people grateful for the salvation built a temple in honor of the Trubchevskaya Mother of God. The temple was consecrated on October 3 according to the old style, October 16 according to the new style, 1853. Since then, the Trubchevskaya icon has been especially revered on this day. Believers, gathering in churches, remember how the Trubchevskaya Icon of the Mother of God helps people. Akathist is read in honor of her on this day. Throughout its history, the image has experienced a lot. But by God's will, the icon has survived to this day.
Tough Trials
The power of the Bolsheviks was a test for many people, especially believers. The Red Army soldiers ravaged and closed churches, destroyed everything that was connected with religion.
This fate did not pass the Trinity-Scan Monastery, and with it the miraculous image of the Virgin. In the 30s of the twentieth century, the new government closed the monastery, organizing a poultry farm in it. The caves, which were once inhabited by hermit monks, were blown up. It remains only 600 meters from the two-kilometer caves. All the decoration was looted, and the Trubchevskaya icon of the Mother of God was turned into a stand for museum exhibits in the regional museum of A. I. Kuprin. All precious decoration was removed from the icon. And, of course, no one cared about the safety of the miraculous canvas, they even put indoor flowers on the holy image. In 1975, another inventory was made in the museum and they wrote that the Trubchevskaya Icon of the Mother of God had been lost. But 18 years later, thanks to the search for the missing museum valuables, the image of the Virgin, painted in Trubchevsk, was found in the storerooms of the same museum.
The miraculous return of the icon
When Mother of God Trubchevskaya returned to the Trinity-Scan Monastery (in 1993), she hadmade three lists. One day they decided to take a picture of the miraculous image.
According to the memoirs of journalist V. A. Polyakov, who was at that time in the temple, the day turned out to be extremely cloudy. Clouds covered the entire sky, leaving no gap. The corner in which the icon hung was barely lit by a lamp. The visitor, taking a camera and pointing the lens at the icon, decided that, although it was futile to take high-quality pictures, she still needed to try. Suddenly, sunlight poured through the lattice window, located under the very dome of the temple, illuminating the image of the Ever-Virgin so that it sparkled with colors, and a halo above the head of the Virgin lit up. Only two or three pictures were taken before the sun again disappeared behind impenetrable clouds. Everyone who was present at that moment unanimously decided that the icon rejoiced at the return to the temple. By the way, it was Polyakov - not only a journalist, but also a local historian - who did everything possible so that the icon was found. Of course, after careless handling during the years of Soviet power, the icon was badly damaged, it was covered with mold, the board and canvas were crumpled. But the miraculous icon was restored in the Holy Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The restoration took nine months. But the image was brought back to life.
Virgin Trubchevskaya works miracles again
At first, the miracles emanating from the icon were just a legend. But faith, the Trubchevskaya Icon of the Mother of God, prayer - zealous, with a contrite heart - are doing their job.
Today, howand many decades ago, many people were saved by the grace of the Queen of Heaven. The Trubchevskaya icon helps to overcome illnesses and troubles. The only difference is that before it was cholera, and now it is no less terrible tuberculosis, cancer and many other diseases. There are no such queues for this icon as there are for the Matrona of Moscow, but behind the glass on a chain there are so many gold jewelry brought in gratitude for the extension of life or the birth of a child, for salvation from death or getting rid of addiction. Each product is evidence of a miracle created through prayer to the Mother of God.
The first modern miracle occurred in the early 2000s. The mother of a four-year-old girl told the abbot of the monastery that her daughter did not speak, to which she received advice to pray at the miraculous face of the Virgin. The woman prayed, then her daughter was anointed with oil from the lamp burning near the icon. A few days later, the girl's mother reported that the baby began to talk.
Modern evidence of the miraculous icon
The nuns of the Trinity-Scanova Monastery can remember a lot of stories of parishioners who were helped by the Trubchevskaya Icon. Prayer at the icon of a resident of Penza, who was discharged from the oncology center with the last stage of cancer, gave her the opportunity for more than seven years to come to the monastery, bowing with gratitude to the face of the Virgin and replenish oil supplies, all from the same lamp that illuminates the Trubchevskaya Icon of the Mother of God.
What else do they pray for, standing in front of the miraculous face? For example, an aunt living in the city of Saransk came to the monastery to pray for her niece from America. Then to the statein which the niece's house was located, a powerful hurricane hit, erasing, as it turned out later, the whole city from the face of the earth. But one house still survived - the house of that very niece on a piece of land with a radius of ten meters. What is this if not a miracle? This is a miracle performed by the Trubchevskaya Icon of the Mother of God, prayer and faith.
And the nuns can also remember a story about a mother and daughter who is a drug addict from the Protestant sect. The exhortations of the abbess of the monastery to confess and take unction did not convince them. The women declared that only when they saw the miracle with their own eyes would they believe. After these words, her daughter's legs were so swollen that she could not move, and when the girl went through the sacrament of unction, the swelling went away by itself. A few years later, this girl returned to the monastery without her mother, but with her husband and beautiful daughter.
Trubchevskaya Icon of the Mother of God: where is it?
Having returned to the Trinity-Scan Monastery, the icon still occupies a place of honor there. Not only residents of Russia, but also believers from other countries come to the icon to pray.
The Mother of God Trubchevskaya enjoys special reverence among Catholics. The image of the Virgin in the crown is atypical for Orthodoxy, but a common phenomenon among Catholics. Due to the constant change of belonging to a particular state in the 14-18 centuries, Trubchevsk and other settlements in this area were exposed to Western Christian culture. Apparently, hence the crown of Our Lady. In Trubchevsk itself, even before the revolution, there were severallists of the Trubchevskaya icon. Through the monastery where the icon is located, many pilgrims have passed and are still passing through. This shrine is revered in many countries of the world.
To believe in God or not to believe, of course, is everyone's business. But, regardless of the faith of each person, miracles sent in the form of healings, salvation from death, through prayers to certain icons, have occurred and will continue to occur. Faced with such cases, which cannot be explained in any way, except for the help of higher powers - the Lord, the Most Holy Theotokos and other saints - a person says that this is a miracle. Even atheists are starting to wonder about the existence of God. The Trubchevskaya Icon of the Mother of God, like other miraculous icons, helps people gain and strengthen their faith.
