Mother of God with closed eyes. Zinovinskaya miraculous healing icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In Greece, Panagia, the Blessed Virgin Mary, is greatly revered. The Greeks dedicate many temples and monasteries to Her and do not tire of singing praises, calling the icons of Panagia Portaitissa - Goalkeeper (Iveron), Glycophilus - Sweet Kiss, Cardiotissa - Heartfelt, Spiliotissa - Cave, Chrysopolitissa - Golden-Golden, Eleusa - Merciful, Gerontissa - Elder... It’s impossible to count all the praising names.

Corfu is no exception. There are about 400 temples and monasteries on this small island, and many of them are dedicated to Panagia.

My Greek friend, a resident of Corfu, once asked me:

– Olga, have you ever heard about the image of Panagia Megalomat, revered by the inhabitants of Kerkyra, which is located in a small paraclis chapel near the sea?

- No never.

“Then get ready: I’ll show you my favorite temple!”

Suddenly the captain saw a bright light through the fog, realized the mistake and saved the ship

Kerkyra, the capital of the island of Corfu, is a small city, and twenty minutes later we were already standing on the seashore, where, right inside the Venetian medieval fortress wall, in a cave, there is an ancient paraklis with a miraculous 15th-century image of Panagia Megalomata - Big Eyes, written on stone.

The shore at that hour turned out to be deserted, there was no one in the paraklis either, only lit lamps and candles indicated that believers came here during the day.

This is what Renee (Irina) Vergos told me:

– Few people know about this chapel; tourists and pilgrims do not crowd here, but this place is completely unusual! My mother told me about it (she is now 92 years old), and my grandmother told this story to my mother - this is how the legend is passed on from mouth to mouth.

In the 15th century, a ship sailed to our island. There was a strong fog, and the captain could not see the ground, meanwhile the ship was in dire danger of breaking on the rocks.

Suddenly the captain saw a bright light through the fog, realized the mistake and saved the ship and crew. The next day he went to look for the source of this unusually bright light - and discovered on the shore, in a cave, an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos depicted on a stone. A wonderful radiance emanated from the halo of Panagia.

In the 18th century, a small chapel was built in the cave - all the indigenous inhabitants of Kerkyra know about it. There is no officiating priest in the chapel, but people come to pray in silence.

Megalomat is an icon of Faneromeni, that is, the Revealed One. No one drew an image - She appeared on her own

Megalomat is an icon of Faneromeni, that is, the Revealed One. This means that no one painted an image of Panagia - She appeared Herself in response to fervent prayer.

In September 1943, Luftwaffe planes bombed Corfu. During the bombing, the residents of Kerkyra hid in the tunnels of the ancient fortress and cave chapel. Among them are my grandmother, born in 1899, and my mother, who was a teenager at that time. Panagia saved them from death.

In 1957, my mother carried me under her heart - and the pregnancy was very difficult. Mom came here, to this paraklis, to Panagia Megalomat, and asked for help. After each prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos, she felt better and was able to bear a child. She begged me. Panagia Megalomata (Big-Eyed) has big eyes, and these are the eyes of the Mother, Who notices everything, sees all the troubles and sorrows of Her children, feels them with Her Maternal heart.

Panagia Big-Eyed has big eyes, the eyes of a Mother Who sees all the troubles and sorrows of Her children

My mom told me to come here and pray here. Look: there is no watchman or security in the chapel - but it is decorated with flowers, candles are burning. Everyone tries to bring something as a gift to Panagia, someone embroiders napkins, someone donates money to the temple...

It is interesting that the candles stand in the water - as a sign that Panagia cares for those at sea.

There are a lot of people in an ordinary church, but here there is silence: only you and Panagia.

Most Holy Theotokos, pray to God for us!

Why are there so many icons of the Virgin Mary?

One young man began visiting an Orthodox church and asked his father:
— Why are there so many different, different from one another, icons of the Mother of God in the church? After all, the Mother of God is one, but Her icons are many and all are different. Can this really happen?
Then the father brought an old, already well-worn family photo album, and began leafing through its cardboard pages together with his son. He pointed to photographs that were yellowed and cracked in places and asked his son who was depicted in them:
- Mom is here, she’s three years old, as you can see from the date.
- And this?
- This is her in first grade. Here it is written: “Secondary school No. 2.”
- And here?
— Here she is already at the prom.
My father missed several sheets of photographs from his student days, then there were wedding photographs and those where the thin girl was already a young mother with a child. Here she is, already noticeably changed, an adult woman... Now with gray hair in her dark and still thick curls.
- Well, here is my mother in Vladivostok visiting Aunt Lisa... And this is after the operation... the year before last...
“You see, son,” said the father, “mom is different in all the photographs and at the same time, everywhere it is not just anyone, but her.” So it is with the icons of the Most Holy Theotokos. There is only one Mother of God, but She showed Herself and Her help to people at different times and in different places. And each of Her appearances was then reflected by different people in icons. And from those icons accepted for veneration by the Church, copies and lists were made by other people. Each icon painter had his own style of painting. And it was often believed that the Holy Spirit showed His grace on completely artless icons and miracles were created from them. In the book of Evgeniy Poselyanin alone at the end of the 19th century, more than 600 miraculous icons of the Mother of God are described. But if people recorded every manifestation of the holy help of the Queen of Heaven in our lives, then there would be countless such “photographs” of Her. And that's why. In the works of the holy fathers we often find mention that the righteous, who were worthy of ascension to the heavenly abodes, did not find the Queen of Heaven Herself there. “Where is the Mother of God?” they asked, and the answer invariably followed: “She is not here. She saves sinners on earth."

It is not for nothing that we call the Queen of Heaven “Quick to Hear,” “Helper of Sinners,” “Joy of All Who Sorrow,” “Seeker of the Lost,” “Merciful,” “Joy or Consolation,” “Healer,” “Hodegetria” (“Guide”).

How the veneration of the Mother of God began

Six centuries before the birth of Christ, the “Old Testament evangelist” Isaiah prophesied thus to the chosen people of God: Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call His name Immanuel (Is. 7:14).
Emmanuel means God is with us. And this directly points to the mystery of the two natures of the God-man Jesus Christ.

However, even after this prophecy came true, not only the Pharisees and Sadducees, who had long since lost the Spirit of God and worshiped the letter of the law, did not believe it, but also some of the Christians refused to honor the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God. Even a sect arose under the leadership of the heretic Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius. It took several centuries before the Third Ecumenical Council was held in 431 in Ephesus, in a temple erected in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos. He condemned the heresy of Nestorius and approved the dogma of calling the Virgin Mary the Mother of God. The Church, through the mouth of St. Cyril of Alexandria, prophesied for all eternity: “Whoever does not confess that Emmanuel is the true God, and therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God, for She carnally gave birth to the Word of God made flesh, let him be anathema.”

The Holy Fathers affirm that the Virgin Mary gave birth to the God-Man, Who is the true God. It was approved to call the Virgin Mary “Theotokos”, but not in the sense that She gave birth to God, Who is pre-eternal and is the Creator and Savior of Mary Herself. But the fact is that initially the entire fullness of the Divinity is contained in the One born of Her. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9), writes the Apostle Paul.

“Truly, what is impossible with men is possible with God,” writes St. Simeon the New Theologian. “Just as God created a woman from Adam’s rib without a seed, so from Adam’s daughter—the Ever-Virgin and Mother of God Mary—he borrowed virgin flesh without a seed and, putting on it, became a Man similar to the primordial Adam.”

All types of individual Orthodox piety originate in liturgical piety. The theological teaching and church veneration of the Mother of God are most clearly and fully formulated in liturgical texts. In them our Orthodox faith, worship of God and veneration of the Mother of God by the people of God are fully manifested.

The veneration of the Mother of God is reflected in the Divine Liturgy, in the rites of Vespers, Matins, the Hours, in the daily, weekly, and annual circles of worship. In addition, every Wednesday of the week is dedicated to the Mother of God.

Church veneration of the Mother of God is also affirmed by the dogma of her ever-virginity, which is attested in the Holy Gospel by the Apostles Matthew and Luke and included in the Creed, approved in 325 by the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. In the third member of the Creed, together with the dogmas about the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, we confess: “For our sake man and our salvation came down from heaven and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human.” In this part we confess that Christ, as the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, is omnipresent and therefore has always been in heaven and on earth, but on earth He was previously invisible, incorporeal; that the incarnation of Christ, His acceptance of human nature, was accomplished with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, so that the Most Holy Virgin Mary, as she was a Virgin before conception, remained a Virgin at conception and after the birth of the Infant God.

Here is how Saint Gregory of Nyssa, brother of one of the three ecumenical teachers of Basil the Great, speaks about this: “It is impossible to use the word “conception” in the proper sense, because the word “virginity” and “carnal conception” are incompatible in One and the Same. But just as the Son was given to us without an (earthly) father, so the Child is born without carnal conception. The Virgin, just as she did not know how the body acceptable to God was formed in Her body, did not feel the birth. According to prophecy, She was born without illness: “Before Her pain came, She was resolved by the Son.”

The Virgin Mary Herself testifies to Her future veneration in the Holy Gospel - during her visit to her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of the Prophet John the Baptist. Elizabeth, seeing the Virgin Mary, was suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit, whose grace was felt by the baby whom she carried in her womb for the sixth month, and exclaimed: And where is it from me that the Mother of my Lord came to me? (Luke 1:43).

The Virgin Mary answered: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, that He has looked upon the humility of His Servant, for from now on all generations will bless me; that the Mighty One has done great things for Me, and holy is His name (Luke 1:46-49).

The Mother of God herself reveals in these words the reason for such strong veneration of Her among “all generations.” Humility and love for God became the basis for the greatness that the Lord created for Her. For then He Himself, having taken on the flesh of the humble, will admonish us fallen for salvation: Learn from Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart (Matt. 11:29).

“Everything is the palace of the Spirit, everything is near God”
Venerable John of Damascus.

According to the words of St. John of Damascus, “the naming of the Mother of God contains the entire history of the divine economy in the world.”

“The Ever-Virgin is above all the saints,” wrote Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov), “both for the reason that she became the Mother of the God-Man, and for the reason that She was the most constant, the most attentive listener and implementer of the teachings proclaimed by the God-Man. Just as the Lord replaced Adam with Himself, so He replaced Eve with the Mother of God. Eve, being created as a virgin, transgressed the commandment of God and could not retain in herself the holy feeling of virginity... The Mother of God, being conceived and born in the sin of her forefathers, prepared Herself with a chaste and God-pleasing life into a vessel of God.”

And the answer to the question comes naturally: why none of the people born at all times is revered above the Mother of God. So, for example, we not only do not honor, but also do not know the name of the mother of the holy forefather Abraham, who gave the world the offspring of the chosen people of God. We also know nothing about the mother of the holy king and prophet David, from whose family the Virgin Mary herself came.
And we should not be embarrassed by the fact that the Holy Gospel does not speak of Her deeds at those moments when the earthly glory of Her Divine Son shone especially brightly. Out of Her deep humility, as the holy fathers explain, She did not allow the apostles to describe Her exploits.

There should be no confusion when we read in the Holy Gospel about how the Mother of God and His brothers in the flesh, unable to get to Him because of the crowd of people in order to speak with Him, asked to tell Him that they were waiting for Him, and He answered: My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it (Luke 8:21). And whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother, and sister, and mother (Matthew 12:50).

There is no contradiction or belittlement of the Mother of God here. For the Mother of God was the only one of the people who, from childhood, was raised in the temple of God, always listened to and fulfilled the word of God. And just as She carried the Son of God in Her arms during His earthly infancy, so He, having given Her due glory, took Her soul into His arms at the beginning of Her heavenly life. Moreover, fulfilling the law given by Him about the honoring of parents by children, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself honored His Most Immaculate Mother by resurrecting Her on the third day and ascending to Himself into the Kingdom of Heaven along with Her most pure body.

Even during the life of the Most Holy Theotokos, the veneration of Her icons began. Several images of Her Most Pure Image made by the Evangelist Luke have survived to our time. One of the images belonging to the evangelist’s letter, according to Tradition, is the famous Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, which played a great role in the fate of Russia.

Tradition has also preserved for us the history of the miraculous image of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Lydian Temple. It is associated with the preaching of the Gospel by the apostles Peter and John in the city of Lida, where they built a temple in the name of the Most Pure Virgin. Returning to Jerusalem, the apostles asked the Mother of God to consecrate the temple with Her presence.

"Go and rejoice, I will be there with you", - She answered.

Arriving in Lida, they discovered on one of the internal pillars of the temple an image of the Mother of God created by an unknown person and with the greatest art.

With the arrival of the Mother of God in the Lydian temple, who rejoiced at the sight of Her image and those praying to it, the icon received grace-filled power.

Silence is the shield of the Virgin Mary

The earthly path of the Mother of God was the path of renunciation from all earthly goods and pleasures, the path of simplicity and non-covetousness, voluntary deprivation, sacrificed to God. At the same time, She had all the glory that a person could have at all times of human existence. “If you were to ask me,” writes Saint Demetrius of Rostov, “who is the strongest and strongest in the Celestial Empire?..,” I would answer: “There is nothing stronger and stronger on earth and in heaven after our Lord Jesus Christ than our Most Holy Lady.” Mother of God, Ever-Virgin Mary." She is strong on earth: for She erased the head of the invisible serpent and trampled upon the power of hell. Victories are built by it, enemies are brought down by it. She is strong in heaven: for God, the Almighty and Mighty, binds with prayers and propitiates us. She binds, I say, with her prayers God, whom she once bound on earth with swaddling clothes, for when He, angered by our sins, wants to execute us... She stretches out pleading hands to Him... so that He does not destroy sinners with their iniquities.”

Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow calls the life of the Most Holy Theotokos unparalleled for the rest of humanity, because the sacrament of the Mother of the Lord is unique and non-generalizable, but at the same time it warns us against the idea that the virtues of the Mother of God are inimitable. “The example of the holiness of the Blessed Virgin is given to us by the Gospel not only for our reverence and wonder, but also for our edification and imitation,” said this wise mentor.

The earthly life of the Mother of God, like the life of many Christians of that time, was full of innumerable sorrows and sorrow. And the Blessed Virgin throughout Her life preferred silent suffering.
To suffer in silence was Her constant lot on earth.
She was silent when, on a cold winter night, She had nowhere to shelter her Newborn Son and when only domestic animals warmed the King of those reigning in the Bethlehem den with their breath.
She was silent when, in fear for Her Divine Child, she fled with Him to distant Egypt from the cruel Herod, when she fell into the hands of robbers.
She was silent when she raised her Son in a poor house on the funds obtained by the carpentry work of old Joseph, which, perhaps, was not always enough to feed their family.
She was silent when the Son left Her and went to His great work of preaching the word of God to the people.
She was silent when He, Her Divine Son, stood beaten with whips, spat upon, wearing a crown of thorns, under which blood was caked on his beloved brow. When He, falling, spurred on by the legionnaires, carried His Cross through the streets of Jerusalem.
She was silent when the sounds of a heavy hammer driving nails into the body of Her Divine Son reached Her ears.
She was silent when He, hanging on the Cross, abandoned by his beloved disciples, experienced torment that absorbed the torment of all humanity, all the bitterness of our sins and the severity of guilt before God of all people of all times and peoples.
She looked and was silent, ready at any moment to give Her life for His life, to ease His torment with Her torment... Supported only by the thought that the suffering of Her Son was the free suffering that He often spoke about.

The significance of these minutes in the life of mankind is great.

In silence, a new feat was revealed to Her soul - the feat of saving people, all thirsting for faith and languishing in doubt, eternally in need of help and mercy. Her “cherubic service” to the Divine Son—and “cherubic” literally means “full of multitudes of intelligence”—was supplemented by a new service, without any benefit, for the sake of Divine love, to the entire human race...

Since then, the Mother of God has been faithfully fulfilling the covenants of the Divine Son, continuously and with great zeal working to save our souls.

According to church tradition, the Virgin Mary humbly prayed for Saul, the future Apostle Paul, when he, with Pharisaic bitterness, persecuted Christians and participated in their executions...

Veneration of the Mother of God in Russia

Initially, in the writings of the holy fathers we find indications of only two portions of the Mother of God: Iberia and the holy Mount Athos. However, very soon after the adoption of Orthodoxy in Rus', the situation changed.

With great reverence and trepidation, our ancestors allowed themselves to boldly include the third inheritance of the Most Holy Theotokos - the Russian land, our Russia, into which the light of the faith of Christ penetrated back in the 1st century together with the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, who erected the Cross on the Kyiv Mountains.

Since the holy apostle founded the first Christian community and founded the temple in Chersonesos, Russia has gone through a centuries-long journey from fragmented pagan tribes to an Orthodox state with its capital Moscow - the third Rome.

By accepting Orthodoxy in Holy Baptism, the Russian people received the full manifestation of their historical personality in Christ. Over the centuries, our people have represented and continue to represent the one Church of Christ, the body of Christ. The Ever-Virgin Mary, being the Mother of the Most Pure Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, is also the Mother of the Church as the Body of Christ. And this means that the Church of Christ is inevitably communicated the features and properties of the Mother of God, in the image of Her service to Her Son Christ.

This was surprisingly accurately felt and perceived by the Russian people. In his spiritual appearance a pronounced “Virgin character” appeared, which was noted by many researchers of Russian holiness.

The Mother of God spirit and the character of the Russian soul were formed primarily under the influence of monasticism, which began and developed with the emergence of the famous Kiev-Pechersk monastery, founded at the beginning of the 11th century by the Monk Anthony of Pechersk and which became a model for all future monasteries in Russia under Theodosius of Pechersk, through whose efforts the The Studite monastic charter was introduced in the Lavra (the charter of St. Theodore the Studite, written for the Studite monastery, describes in detail the duties of monastic positions and obediences - editor's note).

It was no coincidence that the Monk Anthony of Pechersk appeared in Kyiv. For a long time the ascetic remained on the holy Mount Athos, until the abbot of the monastery was instructed by God to release Anthony to Russia. And so, as the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon narrates, “Antony... having come to Kyiv... and going up the hill and loving that place, he prayed to God with tears, saying: “Lord, may the blessing of the holy Mount Athos be in this place.” ... and they fell there, diligently digging a large cave with their hands... Then the Monk Theodosius... and others came to the Monk Anthony in the cave.”

And soon the entire Russian people were under the prayerful protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, transforming the Russian land into the Third inheritance of the Mother of God with the prayers of their holy ascetics.

What was the Blessed Virgin Mary like?

The Church carefully preserves traditions about the earthly appearance of the Most Holy Theotokos, in which contemporaries drew attention to the similarity of the Mother and Her Divine Son.

“She was of average height, or, as others say, somewhat more than average. Her hair was golden, her eyes were lively, her eyebrows were arched and dark, her nose was straight and elongated, her lips were blooming, her face was not round or pointed, but somewhat elongated, her arms and fingers were long. (One of the memoirs of contemporaries about the Mother of God also said that She had light brown eyes, the color of mature tobacco - ed.). During the conversation, She maintained modest dignity, did not laugh, was not indignant, and was not especially angry. Completely artless, simple, She did not think at all about Herself, and, far from effeminacy, she was distinguished by complete humility. She was content with the natural color of her clothes, as Her sacred head covering now proves. In short, a special grace was revealed in all Her actions” (Nicephorus Callistus, “Ecclesiastical History”).

“She was a Virgin not only in body, but also in soul: humble in heart, circumspect in words, prudent, reticent, a lover of reading... hardworking, chaste in speech, considering not man, but God as the Judge of Her thoughts. Her rules were not to offend anyone, to be kind to everyone, to honor elders, not to envy equals, to avoid boasting, to be sensible, to love virtue. Has She ever offended her parents, even with the expression of her face, or been in disagreement with her relatives, been proud of herself in front of a modest person, laughed at the weak, or shirked the poor? She had nothing stern in her gaze, nothing imprudent in her words, nothing indecent in her actions: modest body movements, quiet gait, even voice; so Her appearance was a reflection of the soul, the personification of purity” (St. Ambrose of Milan).

Even during the life of the Mother of God, Dionysius the Areopagite, who specially came from Athens to Jerusalem to see the Mother of God, wrote to his teacher the Apostle Paul:

“I testify by God that, besides God Himself, there is nothing in the Universe so filled with Divine power and grace. From Her grace my heart fainted, my spirit fainted. If I had not remembered your instructions, I would have considered Her to be the true God. It is impossible to imagine greater bliss than the one I felt then.”

On the third day after Her blessed Dormition, the Mother of God resurrected and now lives in Heaven in body and soul. She not only lives in Heaven, She reigns in Heaven... The Holy Church, turning with petitions to all the greatest saints of God, to all the Angels and Archangels, says to them: “Pray to God for us.” She asks the Mother of God alone: ​​“Save us” and “Have mercy”!

We, men, are only calm then,
when our wives are like the Mother of God,
with children in my arms.
We look at you like that icon.
We see the Mother of God in you.

There is a Russian mother at the metro station, selling Russian berries. Dressed shabbyly, standing, hunched over. He stands there all day and doesn’t eat a single berry, but there hasn’t been a drop of poppy dew in his mouth all day. You can’t eat it - you need to sell it, because your son is disabled at home, your pension is pennies, but you need to live somehow. A Russian policeman will come and drive the Russian mother away. She will sigh heavily and wander off, bending over even more. He will wander slowly. She will stop around the corner, wait until the Russian policeman leaves and stand again where she stood. People run past, indifferent, disgusting rain drips from the leaden sky - the mother is standing. It’s been standing for a day, it’s been standing for two, it’s been standing for a quarter of a century. If only someone would take some berries, but... People, take our berries, our Russian ones! They don't take it. Today our people are not interested in Russian berries - they run past, they have business to do. They didn’t run like this before - they seemed to live more friendly. Yes, and you, mother, did not stand at the subway with a basket of blueberries and cranberries, begging people for compassion. But she could stand with her hand outstretched, but her conscience does not allow her - her upbringing is not the same. Weak, old, but you can put together a basket of this, you can give something to these people in exchange for their compassion. There you stand. If I stood there with my hand outstretched, you’d see there would be more “compassion”. Well, okay, mother - should we be discouraged?

And people are running, not paying attention to anyone - their eyes are angry, their eyebrows are furrowed, they are stumbling - they are muttering curse words under their breath. Russian people... So the day will pass. The mother will not sell anything - well, God be with him, she will wander back home. He comes home, and his son is at home - the stump of the second Chechen, in the 2000s, was blown up by a mine near Komsomolskoye. A drunken falcon is lying down, sleeping - waiting for his mother, in his sleep he is running barefoot on the green grass, and the grass is so soft, soft... The middle one died the first time near Grozny, it was New Year, everyone was watching TV - they were worried. And the eldest, about ten years old, was already burned out from vodka, he kept dreaming of Afghanistan - he fought in a dream. The smaller one is also fighting... Ohohoh... My falcons are blue-eyed. Cry mother, cry. A Russian mother is a soldier's mother. What about your master? Did your heart fail? I've been building all my life, a “drummer” you say? And does the certificate itself have any? Yes, I know, mother, I know... I look at you, mother, and it’s as if I recognize mine - your eyes are just as sad and bright. You sit by the window, hands folded on your knees, looking into the distance. And tears are running down your wrinkled face. And then I see in your sad and bright eyes, all these Russian pregnant women who conquered its rich and numerous lands for Russia, who carried all under their hearts, malnourished, sleep-deprived Russian mothers, who gave their most valuable things to the Motherland.

I see an infinite number of all these Matryona, Klav, Thekl, Marf. They stand still and watch without blinking. And I begin to distinguish their faces.

I see Tasso Gazdanova! You gave seven sons to the Motherland. Seven times the elders came to your house with terrible news. After the third funeral, your heart couldn’t stand it. All seven never returned from that last Great War. I bow to the ground to you, Russian mother, for seven heroes!

I see Paraskovya Volodichkina! You brought nine sons into this world. All nine went to the front. Six did not return. Three died of their wounds immediately after that last Great War. After the third funeral, your heart couldn’t stand it. I bow to the ground to you, Russian mother, for your nine heroes!

I see Epestinia Stepanova! It also fell to you to lead all your sons on the hard roads of war. Nine times you went out the gate, holding on to your son’s duffel bag. The road from the farm first went through a field and then went up a mountain; a man in a soldier’s overcoat was clearly visible. That’s how you remembered your sons leaving. Your seventeen-year-old first-born Sashka was killed by the White Guards back in the eighteenth. Cry mom! Fedka was killed by the Japanese at Khalkhin Gol. And then that war began. That last Great War. You gave your whole life to your children, your work, your country. What more could you give? You gave your sons to defend your Motherland, your little Motherland! Bow to the ground to you, Russian mother! For four years, four long years, you waited for news from your sons. “We will soon return to our native places. I assure you that I will beat the rabid bastard for my native Kuban, for the entire Soviet people, I will be faithful to the military oath until my last breath, as long as my heart beats in my chest... We will finish, then we will arrive. If there is happiness,” wrote the youngest Sashka, Little Zinchik, that’s what his brothers called him. He was the last of his brothers to go to war. And then there were no letters. They were not from Pavel, Philip, Ilya, Ivan...

Sasha died in 1943. He was twenty. After graduating from military school, junior lieutenant Alexander Stepanov fought in Ukraine. When crossing the Dnieper near the village of Selishche, all the soldiers of his unit died. Then he, the commander, the only survivor, holding a grenade in his hand, went out to meet the Nazis... Posthumously, Alexander Stepanov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Ilya died on the Kursk Bulge. Near Dnepropetrovsk, partisan intelligence officer Vasily Stepanov died. Ivan's grave is on Belarusian soil. One of the defenders of the Brest Fortress, Pavel Stepanov, went missing. In the fascist concentration camp Forelcruz, Philip was tortured...

You didn't get a funeral right away. She didn’t wear a black mourning scarf, she believed that her sons were alive, but they couldn’t send news. But days and months passed, and they did not respond. And you kept waiting for letters from them, but received notifications of death. Only one returned, he also went on the attack at night, called his brothers, and even survived him. For a quarter of a century you kept Vaska’s violin, a notebook with Vanka’s poems, a handful of soil from Sashka’s grave... But the falcons wrote: “I think about you a lot, I live mentally with you, my dear mother. I often remember my home, my family.” Cry mom!

For a quarter of a century you walked that same road from the farm. For a quarter of a century, day after day, you reached that very place - where you lost sight of your boys, sat down, and for a long, long time, fixing your sad and bright eyes on the steppe running off beyond the horizon, you waited. I see mother! I see all the nameless Russian mothers - to the horizon, and even further. They stand - aged before their time, in faded scarves, in torn rags, bare feet in ankle-deep mud, and there is no reproach in their eyes. There is love in their eyes. Heavy, unbearable love. I see that tears were streaming down your face - but they have dried up. Your little one woke up and asked for some water. Give him a Russian berry, mother, it will spoil by tomorrow anyway - no one will take it. Let him eat - maybe he will feel better. Perhaps the Russian berry will stir up the Russian spirit in him, and he will feel the heroic strength within himself, and he will stop drinking bitter drinks. He's a serious guy, he studied at the institute and went to war. He said: “Mom, I can’t do otherwise.” Son, son. So what if there are no legs. Having a head on your shoulders is already good. The main thing is that there is a soul. But we Russians don’t occupy our souls. We, the Russians, are a soulful people. You see, if he finds a wife, his grandchildren will go there too...

Well, did the mother give her son something to drink? I see that your eyes have blossomed, and you yourself seem to have become younger. That's what motherhood does. It revives. For motherhood is the highest manifestation of a woman, the apogee that brings her as close as possible to the Mother of God. This is where these Vankas, Stenkas, Vaskas, Petkas come from - blond and barefoot, wandering around somewhere until nightfall. Nettle and twig insects. Standing on peas. “I’ll give you those! Look, he and Petka wanted to go to war!” Let's go later. They walked far, for a long time. They walked for centuries and in all four directions. Conquerors, Pioneers, Creators. Conquered, Discovered, Created. And mothers gave birth - because it’s closer to God. Because, giving the world new life, even for a moment, they became Mother of God. Our Orthodox faith has raised us this way - we still want to be closer to God.

I look at you and see you in the hut, mother, in that pine five-walled building from which all of Russia came. I see a Russian oven! I see a red corner! Mother and Baby in the red corner. Oh, this image has become ingrained in the Russian peasant. We, men, are only calm when we have wives, like the Mother of God, with children in their arms. We look at you like that icon. We see the Mother of God in you. And in our eyes there is love. Big, quiet love. And it’s very bitter, mother, how many women today choose the hypostasis of the unrepentant Magdalene.

What mother? Are you saying that I'm still too young? Are you saying that I don’t know enough women, and yet I’m right about them? I just know that nothing is impossible for a woman. And therefore, now, when you appeared before me as the Mother of God, I see in your joyful and bright eyes, all these pregnant women, all these Tanya, Kristin, Natasha, Oksana, who are already giving birth to the Motherland, strong, cheeky and foreheaded babies bursting with laughter in every way. They give birth not for war - they give birth for peace, they give birth for work, they give birth for business, for life, for the future!!! Young, brave, strong, honest, scientists, military, athletes, workers, poets, artists, new cosmonauts who will again fertilize the Cosmos with Russian consciousness. And this will be the spring of the world. I see, mother, all these Russian mothers - to the horizon, and even further. They stand - beauties! An infinite number of them - laughing, bright, perky, beautiful Mother of God. And their eyes are full of love - there is a baby at each breast. And don’t be sad, mother - everything will be fine for your little one. And you will be fine. Tomorrow you will go again to sell Russian berries to Russian people, and they will definitely buy all of them from you. And the policeman will not come and drive you away. Because it can't be otherwise. Because Russia has the eyes of the Virgin Mary...

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In Orthodoxy there are a large number of icons of different types. Among them there are familiar, rare and even quite unusual images. It is precisely these faces that include the “All-Seeing Eye”. This divine image gives people an idea of ​​the Christian universe through symbolic representation.

The main feature of the icon of the All-Seeing Eye of God is the absence of special established prayers and akathists, aspirations with which believers can turn to one or another image. After all, this is not surprising, God is omnipotent. And this is precisely why it is important that prayer comes from the heart itself.

For the first time this divine image appeared on the Vladimir lands. It was written by local artists. This is a simple but very beautiful composition. Its distinctive feature is a large number of symbols that form a harmonious composition.

Nowadays, established values ​​are constantly being replaced by more and more new ideals. It is for this reason that this sacred face begins to acquire a deep and special interpretation.

1. The meaning of the icon of the All-Seeing Eye lies in the interpretation of the symbols of the Christian spirit, which help people not to go astray and strive for light and goodness for many centuries.
2. In terms of its iconographic type, this face is considered one of the most complex. It consists of many small symbols that carry their own deep and special meaning, and together they give us a complete picture of the main idea of ​​​​our existence.
3. In the center is the image of Christ the Savior, who descends with blessing on the suffering. This image is located in a circle from which rays emanate, symbolizing the blessed light that comes from Christ to the world.
4. Next comes the second circle, which is larger in diameter. It contains human faces. All this characterizes the relationship between the human world and the higher sphere. The idea of ​​this image is expressed in the following words: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
5. Inside the third circle is the Virgin Mary. She extends her hands upward in heartfelt prayer. Its meaning is the intercession of human souls. On this circle there is the following inscription: “Isaiah’s coal revealed the sun from the Virgin’s womb, shining in the darkness and giving enlightenment to the lost.”
6. The final fourth circle is considered the most important. Its main element is the image of the Lord God, who blesses all humanity. It is depicted against the backdrop of a clear starry sky - the Kingdom of Heaven, into which only those who righteously walk their earthly path will go. He is surrounded by seraphim.

This face helps to understand the essence of the Christian universe - Jesus Christ is the center of truth and light, the Intercessor of the human race is the Mother of God, and the Lord God is the creator of all beginnings.

How does the All-Seeing Eye icon help?

Everyone knows that God is Almighty. You can turn to him in prayer for any sorrow and need. This can be spiritual enlightenment, help in any endeavor, happiness, health, resolving conflicts and enmity, blessing for doing important things. The main thing in this matter is prayer, which comes from a pure heart.

Since special akathists and prayers were not established for this image, traditional prayers to the Lord God, the Mother of God and the Savior are used. Here are some of them.

Prayer to the Mother of God

“My Most Holy Lady Theotokos, through Your saints and all-powerful prayers, drive away from me, your humble and accursed servant(s), despondency, oblivion, foolishness, negligence, and all the nasty, evil and blasphemous thoughts from from my damned heart and from my darkened mind; extinguish the flame of my passions, for I am poor and damned. And deliver me from many and cruel memories and adventures, and free me from all evil actions. For Thou art blessed from all generations, and glorified is Thy most honorable name forever and ever. Amen".

Prayer to Jesus Christ

“My many-merciful and all-merciful God, Lord Jesus Christ, for the sake of love you came down and became incarnate for many reasons, so that you would save everyone. And again, Savior, save me by grace, I pray to You; Even if you save me from works, there is no grace and no gift, but more than debt. Hey, abundant in generosity and ineffable in mercy! Believe in Me, you say, O my Christ, you will live and will not see death forever. Even if faith in You saves the desperate, behold, I believe, save me, for You are my God and Creator. Let faith instead of works be imputed to me, O my God, for you will not find works to justify me. But may my faith prevail instead of all, may it answer, may it justify me, may it show me to be a partaker of Your eternal glory. Let Satan not kidnap me, and boast to the Word that he has torn me away from Your hand and fence; but either I want, save me, or I don’t want, O Christ my Savior, let me soon, I will soon perish: For you are my God from my mother’s womb. Grant me, O Lord, now to love Thee, as sometimes I have loved that same sin; and again work for You without laziness, just as you worked before the flattering Satan. Above all, I will serve You, my Lord and God Jesus Christ, all the days of my life, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen".

What does the All-Seeing Eye icon protect from?

This image is often used in white magic rituals, as it carries very great power. This face is not particularly popular and not all churches have it in their collections.

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What it protects from:

• Protects from negative influences;
• It helps to reveal the hidden abilities of a person;
• It also works wonders with people who have vision problems and protects them from blindness.

But it must be treated with some caution.

Where to hang the icon of the All-Seeing Eye?

This face can be hung in the house where you can see it. It is then that he will have his effect - the presence of the Lord God and his awareness of everything.

Admirers of this divine image claim that if you look at it for a long time, a dome effect appears, which changes consciousness and opens the spiritual world.

If you look at the image in even lighting and with a calm mind, then over time a feeling of rotation of the spheres arises. This image also has such an influence due to the consistency of all elements.

The main thing in faith has always been, is and will be pure prayer coming from the heart. It is also necessary to remember that it is necessary not only to ask, but also to thank!

God bless you!

In this video you will see a variety of variations of the image of the “All-Seeing Eye” icon:

"Love is patient"

He is merciful,

Love doesn't envy

Love is not exalted

Not proud

Doesn't act outrageously

Doesn't look for his own

Don't get annoyed

Thinks no evil

Doesn't rejoice in lies

And he rejoices in the truth;

Covers everything

Believes everything

Hopes in total

He endures everything.

Love never ends,

Although the prophecies will cease,

And tongues will be silent,

And knowledge will be abolished."

Apostle Paul.
**************
(1 Cor. 13:4-9)

Why am I telling this?

I was eight years old. Even at that age I loved little children very much. I dreamed of becoming a teacher, or even better, a teacher in a kindergarten or nursery. When I walked in the yard, I couldn’t pass by a single stroller or a single baby.

They died laughing at me and said:

"You'll make a good nanny!" But my mother didn’t like it at all.

She considered this quality of my character to be the most terrible stupidity. Nevertheless, mothers willingly trusted me to take a walk with their children and easily left me with strollers. The girlfriends teased, but in a kind way. Greedily devouring all the magazines that our family subscribed to, I also devoured the magazine “Family and School”, from the first page to the last. The wrong approach to children that I observed around me greatly upset me. Even then I imagined what it would be like for me when I had my own children. Looking ahead, I can say today that my dreams and intentions have come true. It’s not for nothing that I read all this, that’s what I mean.
My childhood was spent in Maryina Roshcha, in the area of ​​Streletskaya Street.
In our house, in the outer entrance, on the first floor, there lived a little girl, an infant...
I don't know how many months she was. Her dad was walking with a stroller and I saw her wrapped in a red cotton blanket and a white duvet cover. This is what my story will be about.
It was winter. When this dad and his child first appeared in our yard, he could not help but attract special, even close attention. He was a young man of very unusual, bright appearance; he did not look like anyone else.

He had very thick, anthracite-black hair, the collar of his coat was completely hidden behind it, springy curls scattered in spirals over his shoulders. It was so interesting! The bluish-pale expression on his face was a little frightening and at the same time something attractive. One look at this man was enough to remember him for the rest of his life.
That's what I remember. When he walked along a snowy street, people always turned to look at him. There was even something inexplicably alluring, exciting in his whole figure, in the way he walked, decisively, sweepingly, thinking about something only known to him. The dark silhouette moved and stopped against the backdrop of dazzling white snow, inevitably attracting attention. He was dressed in a long black coat, dark blue dirty trousers wrinkled sloppily on his worn-out shoes, his face was somehow alien, painfully detached. He always went for a walk at about the same time. I couldn’t help but notice this, because all the little children in our yard were “on my register.” I, like a cat guarding a mouse, looked out for such strollers and rushed to ask permission to take a walk with the child. I really regretted that I didn’t have a sister or brother. And when I walked, I imagined that this was my brother or sister.
It's bad to grow up alone.

This man aroused fear in me, mixed with some kind of unconscious, painful, almost painful interest. Having seen him for the first time, I could no longer take my eyes off him. My heart sank. His beauty was simply fabulous, but somehow alarming and unusual. I have already seen such faces in paintings in the Tretyakov Gallery, it seems. Trying not to miss the moment when he came out of the entrance with his low light green stroller, I was already “on duty”, standing at a distance, hiding slightly around the corner.

And then daddy with the stroller finally appeared and set off away from the house, towards the Stankolit Palace of Culture. It was considered far away. The path is not short, we had to cross the road several times.

There weren’t that many cars at that time, but still he wasn’t walking alone, and I thought it wasn’t very good to cross the road so many times with a small child, even in a stroller.

I decided to take “patronage” over him; it is clear that he cannot be left alone.

It was right. After some time, his gait became uncertain, he began to stumble, staggering strangely and suddenly turning the stroller in the opposite direction. At that moment I was afraid that he would notice that I was following him. Sometimes she even squatted down and froze in fear, not taking her eyes off him.

But he didn't notice anything. He was drunk.

This is how his walks under my “escort” continued for some time, until my dream finally came true. And my dream was to take his child, the girl Vika, from him and take her to my home. And Vika would become my little sister. What happiness that would be!
The girl’s mother, a thin little blonde with a sweet, soft, always scared face, was very happy when she met me. Everyone already knew me as a nanny girl. They knew that they could leave the stroller with me in the yard and even trust me to take the child in the stroller to the store. Sometimes Vika’s mother, Aunt Lucy, simply asked me to stay in the room while she needed to do laundry in the bathroom or run somewhere. As soon as I appeared, Vika began to crawl out of the crib with joy.

One day, when I went to my pet’s mother to ask to take a walk with the girl, I saw such despair, such defenselessness and doom in her gaze that my whole soul turned upside down. In her eyes, the color of a soft green walnut, one could read pleading, guilt for some unknown reason, and despair. Don't forget this look.

Yes, it was necessary to do something, come up with something, help somehow.
But what could I do for the unrequited Aunt Lucy, Vika’s mother? Taking a girl into your family - that’s what! And Aunt Lucy will feel better, and we will all be happy that we will have another little person in our family. We live in the same house, in different entrances, though, which means Aunt Lucy will be able to come to us come any time.
And then, one day, during one of these walks “under my supervision,” Vicky’s dad suddenly stumbled and spun in one place, not letting go of the stroller from his hands. He was very drunk, as usual. A fantastically handsome young man with a biblical, fabulous appearance , spun in one place, attracting the attention of passers-by, in a creepy dance with a stroller. The girl, wrapped in a blanket in a white duvet cover, began to cry. My heart was pounding wildly in my chest, I was very scared. But she couldn’t run away or leave the child. Suddenly the girl’s father somehow sank and fell softly, quietly, straight into a dense snowdrift. The heavy stroller overturned. I managed to grab the child before the blanket touched the asphalt.

All. My Vika was saved! I rushed with the child in my arms as if Baba Yaga was chasing me. People walking towards me followed me with curious glances.

As I ran, I thought with horror about how he was there, left alone in the snow, how Vicky’s dad would get home. But the child was more important.
I ran home when it was already a blue winter evening outside. Our neighbor Maria Vasilievna, who was essentially my nanny, opened the door for me. Seeing me with a child in a cotton blanket, a bundle not much smaller than my height, she was stunned.

Valechka! What is this? Who is this?! Where did you get this child from?!

Fortunately, the girl had already calmed down and looked at me with curiosity and a lot of fun. She was eight or nine months old, as it turned out later.

Marvas is strong! There, her drunken dad fell straight into a snowdrift! I saved her. She will now be ours! She will be my little sister! You have no idea how much I simply adore her! Well, look how lovely she is!

She will now live with us! I love her so much! Her mother, Aunt Lucy, will allow it, she is very, very kind! She will allow it! Do you know how hard life is for her?! She's generallyooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooplatforms owners...Vikay's daddy?! He's drunk all the time!

Valechka! Valechka! Ay-ay-ay! What a fool you are, Valechka! Well, okay, okay... Come on, let's unfold it and see, fathers, oh-oh-oh... What a disaster! Oh, what a pretty girl, look, look at her, her eyes are so smart and she’s laughing! Gorgeous! She knows you, that means?! Yes Yes Yes! How many months is she?
The most amazing thing is that little Vika was, indeed, very happy when she recognized me, and reached out to my arms. I was in seventh heaven.
-Marvas is strong! We'll feed her now! I know how to cook semolina porridge, we have cottage cheese and apples. I’ll polish everything now, I’ll do everything. I can do it, I’ve fed her this way many times already!
The girl’s eyes of extraordinary beauty, bright green, framed by thick eyelashes, shone so that it was impossible to part with her even for a second. I realized that in order to go to the kitchen, the child must be placed on the bed. But you can’t leave her alone in the room!

At that moment, I heard my mother enter the apartment, returning from work.

Marvasilna was in our room, she looked guilty and frightened. Marvasilna was not only our roommate, but also our close, almost family member. In general, we lived very friendly, like one family. Lonely, her only son Victor was killed in the war. His photograph hung in her room above the sewing machine. On the sideboard, in her seven-meter-high room, at the top, stood a multi-colored bright clay rooster, and behind the rooster - an icon... So that it would not be visible. They laughed at believers very much back then, it was considered a manifestation of extreme backwardness, to the point of indecency. I don’t have the kindest woman of soul I was hoping. And now she didn’t look after me, the girl went for a walk and came with someone over there. Oh-oh-oh... What to do!
Mom undressed, entered the room and saw an interesting scene.
Her eight-year-old daughter is sitting on the sofa with a baby girl in her arms and playing “magpie-crow” on her palm. The girl laughs loudly and jumps with pleasure.
My mother was a very strong-willed woman. She reacted to everything instantly. But here there was a glitch.
In such cases they say “she was speechless.” This is exactly what happened to my mother. She “sat there” - not knowing what to say and what to ask, afraid to hear an answer that would make things even worse, even creepier.
In a state of shock, with some kind of meek curiosity and at the same time, as if in fear, she stared at me.
Something ingratiating appeared in her face. It was clear from everything that she couldn’t even formulate a question. She was simply afraid of hearing some terrible answer. At that moment the girl pressed her cheek to me and... kissed me!
I hugged the child and cried.
- Mommy! Her dad is a drunk! He will lose her someday! He walks down the street with her drunk! Anything can happen to her!

Mom didn't say a word. Her face expressed such confusion, such amazement that it was clear from everything that she needed some time to control herself. A very rare case.
I was jubilant. The girl jumped with delight on my lap, I had already decided that this would be my long-awaited sister.
-Mom! Well, why are you looking like that? Aunt Lucy will allow it! How many times has she allowed me to go out with her!
-Which Aunt Lucy?!
-Well, from the first entrance.
-What is the first entrance?! - Mom whispered gently and quietly. An expression of tenderness appeared on her face.
-Well, in our house!
-In our house?! Her mother lives in our house?!
- Well, yes!
A second later my mother was not in the apartment. I just jumped when the door slammed. Everything sank inside me. I cried so bitterly, right out loud.
What a horror! My mom wasn't on my side. Wow, she went after Aunt Lyusya and now my child will be taken away from me.
For some reason, Vika also began to cry, hugging me even tighter with her arms. This girl was already my own.
So we both began to roar...
About five minutes later, Aunt Lucy, without a coat, in only a skirt and slip, not even a blouse, pale, with sunken cheeks, darkened red eyes, flew into our apartment.

I didn’t even have time to say my prepared prayers. The mother grabbed the girl, looked at me with a long, long grateful look, somehow impulsively kissed me on the cheek and... the door slammed again. I crawled off the sofa onto the floor, bursting into sobs from desperate grief. My dream didn't come true.

But my walks with Vika continued. There were times when Aunt Lucy even left me at home with the girl for half a day. For me it was holidays.

Never, not once did I notice that Aunt Lucy even in a word, even in a hint, complained about her fate.

It was absolutely clear to me that she loved her husband, the father of her daughter, very much.

We seemed to become related, Vika became attached to me, and I adored her.

The years passed, Vika grew up, and I had less and less free time.

According to rumors, her father hanged himself in a state of delirium tremens. A rare case among Jews.

When I met Vika by chance in the yard, she rushed towards me, arms outstretched and shining with wonderful light green eyes, like her mother’s. Thick and delicate, very curly brown hairs framing a high forehead, a happy face. The whole yard was watching us, smiling and exchanging glances, and I was already embarrassed.

How we loved each other! My friends in the yard watched with fascination and a little envy as she threw herself on my neck, seeing her from afar. How her radiant, warm eyes shone! And my heart sank. After all, it was impossible not to think that I had to be worthy of such an attitude.

I finished school and we moved to another area. Unfortunately, the connection with Vika was severed.

When I try to imagine what color the eyes of the Blessed Virgin Mary were, it seems to me that it is not difficult for me.
I’ve never told this story to anyone, but I just decided now.

And my son told me the other day that if he ever has a daughter, he will name her Vika. I wonder how.