How did the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God become the most popular in Russia?

A miraculous find

In the Summer of 1579, a fire raged in Kazan. The fire destroyed half of the kremlin, including the house of the Streltsy centurion Danila Onuchin. According to legend, the Mother of God soon began to appear in a dream to his daughter Matrona, telling her to go to the ashes to find her image there. Together with her mother, she went in search and found an icon untouched by the flames at the site of the burnt-down house.

Ivan the Terrible, having learned of the miracle, ordered the construction of the Bogoroditsky (Mother of God) Monastery on the site of its appearance, where the icon was kept in the Kazan Cathedral until 1904.

Monarchs, coming to Kazan, always went to worship the miraculous icon and present it with gifts. Thus, Catherine II decorated the icon with a crown with diamonds, Alexander I ordered a rich frame for it: it was made of gold and strewn with many diamonds, rubies, sapphires and pearls. And Emperor Alexander II presented a precious ribbon with diamonds. 

Protector from enemies

The Kazan icon is believed to protect the Russian land and faith. During the ‘Time of Troubles’, the Kazan squads also joined the militia of Minin and Pozharsky, who brought with them a copy of the shrine. Afterwards, it was placed in the Moscow Vvedensky Cathedral and, in 1636, it was moved to the Kazan Cathedral on the Red Square, built with funds provided by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky.

And, in 1649, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, on the occasion of the birth of his heir, established October 22 as the all-Russian holiday of the Kazan Icon and ordered a house church to be built in his residence in Kolomenskoye in the name of this icon.

Peter the Great also prayed before the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God on the eve of the Battle of Poltava. Later, the emperor moved its copy to St. Petersburg and, since 1811, the icon has been in the Kazan Cathedral. Before leaving for the war with Napoleon's troops, Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov prayed before it. The first thanksgiving service after the end of the war was also held there.

Original stolen

On the night of June 29, 1904, the Kazan Icon was stolen from the Bogoroditsky Monastery. Kazan was shaken by a daring robbery: riots broke out, believers demanded that the culprits be found immediately and punished. The thief was found hot on the trail: he turned out to be a certain Fyodor Chaikin. The investigation came to the conclusion that he had burned the icon and sold the precious frame.

In 1918, a copy of the icon disappeared in Moscow.

And, only in 2023, Patriarch Kirill announced that the image, considered lost, had been found and placed in the Kazan Cathedral on the Red Square.

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