Our Lady of Chernobyl

[Jonathan Michael]

Has anyone heard of this icon? I have a copy of it that I got from the Church of the Dormition, on the grounds of the Russian Embassy in Beijing. There is a Russian explaination on the back, but as I don't speak Russian it isn't much use to me. Searching the internet using English does not return any results for this icon. I have taken a picture of the icon and placed it on photobucket. You can see it here:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j63/theo__/icon.jpg

and here

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j63/theo__/closeup.jpg

An Orthodox friend of mine, a cradle Russian Orthodox emigre, did translate the explaination of it for me last year, but this was done informally so I don't know all the details. All I know is the icon was completed in 2004, by a local woman who saw a vision of the Theotokos in the skies and was told to copy the vision as an icon. After getting permission from her priest (she wasn't an iconographer or a monastic) she wrote the icon. The original is supposedly miracle working and also exudes strongly fragranced myhrr.

I know nothing else, even where the icon is placed now, and would appreciate anything else members here might be able to add.

Hope you enjoy the icon, I think it is very beautiful myself.

[Yuri Zharikov]

Has anyone heard of this icon? I have a copy of it that I got from the Church of the Dormition, on the grounds of the Russian Embassy in Beijing. There is a Russian explaination on the back, but as I don't speak Russian it isn't much use to me. Searching the internet using English does not return any results for this icon. I have taken a picture of the icon and placed it on photobucket. You can see it here:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j63/theo__/icon.jpg

and here

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j63/theo__/closeup.jpg

An Orthodox friend of mine, a cradle Russian Orthodox emigre, did translate the explaination of it for me last year, but this was done informally so I don't know all the details. All I know is the icon was completed in 2004, by a local woman who saw a vision of the Theotokos in the skies and was told to copy the vision as an icon. After getting permission from her priest (she wasn't an iconographer or a monastic) she wrote the icon. The original is supposedly miracle working and also exudes strongly fragranced myhrr.

I know nothing else, even where the icon is placed now, and would appreciate anything else members here might be able to add.

Hope you enjoy the icon, I think it is very beautiful myself.

I did a quick search in Ru.net and there was nothing specific on this icon, other than that it is new.
Yura

[Olga]

Hello Jonathan

Would it be possible to photograph or scan the Russian text on the back of your icon, and post it on the forum? I’m sure a translation won’t be long in coming from Russian-speaking forum members.

[Jonathan Michael]

Yes Olga, a good idea. I don't have a scanner, so I took a photograph and uploaded it. I had to take it with no flash, otherwise the text would have been obscured, so it's not perfectly clear; however I think it's big enough to read (but then, I can't read Russian so what would I know!)

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j63/theo__/P1010003.jpg

[Seda S.]

Dear Jonathan

The text on the back of your icon the name of which is 'Vozzvakh ko pokayaniyu' ('I called for repentance' or smth like this) consists of a kondak (I don't know its English equivalent), a prayer to Holy Mother of God and a short information about the icon. The latter says:

"This icon appeared in the sky in the yard of the Church of the Holy Trinity of the Monastery of Kitayevsk, not far from the tomb of Schiarchimandrite Feofil (Theophylus), on 22 March 2004, on the day of 40 Martyrs, when the sinful servant (bondmaid) of God I. asked to permit her to draw the icon. The name [of the icon] "Vozzvakh ko pokayaniyu" was heard [by her] in half dream, at the dawn of 7 Sept. 2004. There were many sorrows during the drawing the icon. The icon exudes myrrh".

Sorry for the errors in the translation. Someone else here could do it better, of course.

With love,

S.

[Jonathan Michael]

Thank you! Seems it is not Chernobyl after all then? I should change the title of this thread to the correct name of the ikon, but am not sure what the most orthodox translation of 'Vozzvakh ko pokayaniyu' would be.

I don't think there is an English word for "kondak", though kontakion is the more commonly used word; would kondak be Slavonic and kontakion be Greek, I wonder?

[Olga]

I don't think there is an English word for "kondak", though kontakion is the more commonly used word; would kondak be Slavonic and kontakion be Greek, I wonder?

Yes, Jonathan. The Greek words troparion and kontakion are rendered in Slavonic as tropar' and kondak. Most verse-hymns can be called troparia (plural), though the term is most often used for the dismissal hymn of the requisite feast. The kontakion of the feast is also sung at most services, such as at the Divine Liturgy, during the Canon at Matins, etc.