Icon of the Mother of God, 'Addition of mind'

[Rick Joines]

I'm wondering about the icon of the Theotokos callled "Addition of Mind": in Russian "pribavlenie uma" / "Прибавление ума"

http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Images/im2472.htm

There doesn't seem to be much in English about the icon.

I've been told it's often given to the "mentally deficient," but I'm hoping there's a more "philosophical" sense behind this icon and that it is more than a thing to put on a poor student's desk before an exam.

??

[Paul Cowan]

Hot dog, another Texan. Sorry, Eugene, small things excite me.

Thank you for this icon. I have not seen it before. I will add it to my collection.

Paul

[Olga]

There is the strong possibility that this icon is originally of Roman Catholic origin, given the composition. It has some strong similarities to various non-Orthodox representations of the Christ-child and the Mother of God. I am looking into whether this icon (and others like it) is consistent or compatible with Orthodox tradition.

[Denys Kosovsky]

This icon is very ancient and it comes from the original house of the Lord Himself from Nazareth. The house was moved to Italy and later to Russia. The Icon heals the infirmities of the mind, and endows wisdom. It helps in making decisions and understanding the word and the will of God. It is an aid to students and all seeking the truth. There is an akathist to the Icon which tells a bit about it as you read it.

[Andreas Moran]

It is an aid to students

This is what my wife tells me; students pray to this icon. She hadn't heard of its use for mental deficiencies.

[Rick Joines]

This icon is very ancient and it comes from the original house of the Lord Himself from Nazareth. The house was moved to Italy and later to Russia. The Icon heals the infirmities of the mind, and endows wisdom. It helps in making decisions and understanding the word and the will of God. It is an aid to students and all seeking the truth. There is an akathist to the Icon which tells a bit about it as you read it.

Could you provide more information about "the original house of the Lord Himself?"

Do you know if there the Akathist exists in an English translation?

Thanks for the other information.

[Paul Cowan]

This icon is very ancient and it comes from the original house of the Lord Himself from Nazareth. The house was moved to Italy and later to Russia.

I don't know much about anything, but I don't think this is accurate. St. Luke painted the first icon after the Lord's resurrection. actually he painted 72 or 73 of them. Regardless, Christ gave His mother to St. John the Theologian as a mother and he took her into his house . St. Joseph the Betrothed had already passed away several years earlier, so there was not a house to put it into.

How do you say the house was moved to Italy and then to Russia? The actual house? I don't think so as the Theotokos sailed off with St. John the Theologian and at one point landed on Athos. She was on her way to Iberia (Georgia) as this was the lot that fell to her for her ministry. No house in tow.

Do you have supporting material for this thought?

Paul

[Olga]

May I offer the following:

According to Roman Catholic tradition, the house where it is said the Mother of God was born, and lived with St Joseph and the young Christ, and where the Annunciation took place, was miraculously transported by angels from Nazareth to Dalmatia (present-day Croatia) in the late 13th century, apparently to prevent its destruction or desecration by the Saracens, who had invaded the Holy Land at the time. A few years later, the house was relocated to the Italian city of Loreto, where it remains to this day, so I am unsure of the claim of it being taken to Russia.

The statue of Our Lady of Loreto, showing the Virgin and Child, both wearing crowns, swathed in an elaborately decorated garment, is the prototype for the image. The original statue probably dates from no earlier than the 13th century, at best. From my investigations, the earliest images rendered in an iconographic style of this type are of no earlier than the early 17thC. There are several elements which are worth noting: the frequent absence of the stars of perpetual virginity on the omophorion of the Mother of God; the Christ-child holding an orb, denoting earthly power, rather than the usual Orthodox motif of a scroll, representing the holy wisdom of God; and the crowns on the heads of the Virgin and Child, a motif which did not exist in iconography before about the 17th century, and which began appearing in regions with strong Venetian and other western influence.

[Misha]

I can assure you that this type of icon of Theotokos there is no where in Greece.It's an unknown iconographic type for the Greek iconographers,old and contemporary.

[Olga]

Misha, neither are the icons Kazanskaya, Unexpected Joy, Bogolyubskaya or Joy of All Who Sorrow part of the Greek canon, as these icons arose within the Russian/Slavic Orthodox tradition in specific local circumstances. There are also perfectly canonical Greek icons which do not feature in Slavic tradition, so this cuts both ways.

My uneasiness with the Pribavlenie Uma image is that it does not appear to have arisen from Orthodox sources, based on its history and compositional elements.

[Denys Kosovsky]

Yes! Olga I was talking about the house in Loreto, let me check the details. Unfortunately they are in Russian which is why I had to get to the crux of the matter.

[Denys Kosovsky]

My uneasiness with the Pribavlenie Uma image is that it does not appear to have arisen from Orthodox sources, based on its history and compositional elements.

The akathist is Orthodox and so is the commentary. Maybe I shouldn't have taken the akathist's words literally, but what can I do I am a believer! :)

[Denys Kosovsky]

Here is a picture http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Images/im2472.htm.

Here is the commentary:

file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/TETYAN%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg The Icon of the Mother of God “The Addition of Mind” is prayed to for successful study, for the enlightenment of the mind in learning. This icon owes its origins to the deep faith of the Orthodox in the Blessed Virgin as the Intercessor before God and Her Son about the gift of spiritual and material blessings to people, among which the enlightenment of the mind and the heart by the Divine Truth holds the most important place. Parents, who notice in their children a weakness of the mind in the learning of the beginning foundations of faith and literacy, address the Blessed Theotokos and the Divine Infant Christ with prayer, as the fount of wisdom and reason, and the addition of the mind for their children. The special particularity of this icon consists of the following: the Supra-Holy Virgin and the Infant Jesus have kingly crowns on their heads; and the Lord Jesus blesses with the right hand and in the left has the sceptre; the Mother of God and the Eternal Infant are pictured as if covered by the cloth together; their heads remain above the cut-off ellipse with lines, between which are situated various stones, pearls, and sewing. Probably, these decorations appeared later, and before were portrayed in height the Theokotos with the Infant Jesus on her hands; on the sides are pictured Angels kneeling on their knees, four with burning candles. Underneath the feet of the Godmother is Cherubim with wings spread wide apart. The icon had been in a town Rybinsk of the Yaroslav region in the Spaso-Preobrazhenskom Cathedral.



So here is another commentary:

The wondrous Icon has another name – the “Giver of Intellect”. The prototype of the icon was the icon was the statue of the Supra-Holy Theokotos which had been in the Italian city of Loreto in the Holy House, built from stones taken from the earthly house in Nazareth of the Supra-Pure Virgin. The emissaries of Prince Vasiliy Ivanovich in 1528 ‘saw this holy church 300 verst from Rome and sent us this knowledge’, it says in the records of the first half of the 16th century kept in the Moscow Spiritual Academy library.

In the town Nazareth, it is told in the ‘Tale about the chapel of the Holy Virgin, where She was born from Joakim and Anna’ – in the house where She was visited by Archangl Gabriel and later dwelt the Holy Family, was built a chapel – one of the first in Palestine. In it was the icon of the Theokotos with the Infant by the apostle Luke and according to tradition Their sculptural image in full height cut out from wood also by him. The altar of the chapel was raised according to tradition by the apostle Peter and it was sanctified by the apostle Jacob.

The earthly house of the Virgin Mary was of two parts: a cave in the rockface (this is now one of the main holies of the Annunciation Basilica in Nazareth) and the add-on buildings from stone along the rockface.

By the end of the 11th century the significant part of the East including Palestine was conquered by the Turks. Many relics of the East were moved to the West to save them form desecration and destruction. The house was moved by sea to Dalmatia according to tradition.

The Virgin Mary appeared to an sick episcope in Loreto and told him that Her humble house will shortly arrive on his shores and he was gifted healing.
The pine? Statue of the standing Blessed Virgin Mary in a golden dress and a blue coat on her shoulders, holding Christ, according to tradition, also arrived in Loreto.

! Upon the return of the emissaries to Moscow the icon of the ‘Addition of mind’ was painted by the iconographers summoned by the tsar Ivan the Terrible.

The house was found in Loreto in 1962.

The most ancient of the known icons of the Mother of God ‘Addition of Mind’ is in the church of an ancient town Tutaev on the shores of Volga.

The icon has worked miracles on those with mental and psychological problems and those whose minds were possessed by demons.

[Denys Kosovsky]

Hey Rick!

I was wrong then about a lot of it and I apologize.

You see for me an icon is still in icon if it is still painted in the same style, so given that St Luke carved a statue, and later this statue was used to paint the icon... the akathist wasn't particularly clear sorry

As for the house moved to Russia - they must have been talking about the icon but because they used 'it' I mistakenly assumed it was the house and the icon.

Anyway I'm new to this forum thing, sorry guys

Denys

[Olga]

Denys, you wrote:


You see for me an icon is still an icon if it is still painted in the same style ...

You are not alone in thinking this way. However, there are many images, particularly in recent years, painted in similar styles to those used in icons, but which are not icons at all. Icons must conform to scripture, liturgical content and doctrines of the Church. Images which resemble icons in artistic style, but which fall short of being faithful to (or contradict) what the Church teaches and proclaims could be called "religious art" at best. Artistic style does not, of itself, make an image an icon. It's worth your while to look up the thread on the iconography of St Joseph the Betrothed from a few months ago, it will shed more light on this matter.

Having said that, there are a range of depictions of the Mother of God, which, while having been lovingly and piously venerated for centuries, are in a doctrinal and theological "grey area" with regard to Orthodox doctrine. Pribavlenie Uma is one of these. Are these images true icons, conforming to Orthodox teaching? Tough one to answer.

[Denys Kosovsky]

Are these images true icons, conforming to Orthodox teaching? Tough one to answer.

But Olga was this icon not painted by iconographers by the order of the Tsar? Has it not proved its worth through miracles?

Casting out demons is something very Orthodox, and that part about the icon shedding light in the heart or something...

[Rick Joines]

Here's some more info: Click (http://www.akathistofthanksgiving.com/wonderworking_icons_of_the_most_holy_theotokos/index.album/b-imother-of-godbrincrease-of-intelligence?i=115&s=1)


http://www.akathistofthanksgiving.com/wonderworking_icons_of_the_most_holy_theotokos/Icon_of_the_Mother_of_God__the_Enlightener_of_Mind s.jpg

This is an icon of an extremely rare iconographic type. The origin of its name and the miraculous cures wrought by it arc unknown. In the icon, the Mother of God with the Pre-Eternal Infant, surrounded by Heavenly Powers, is shown against the background of the portal of the entrance to Paradise, at the foot of which the Heavenly Jerusalem in the form of miniature houses is to he seen. The figures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ are covered up to the shoulders with a bell-shaped cloak— a symbol of sorrow and glorification. On the upper ledges of the porlal are burning lamps and in the hands of the angels sitting on clouds are burning candles symbolizing the light of the truth. The symbolism of the icon reilecls the basic idea of Christianity—the idea of Jesus Christ's redemptive sacrifice which opened for people the road to the Heavenly Jerusalem. There is no special feast day in honor of this icon.

[Yolanda]

I want to print the icon, because i couldn’t get it, but i need a big big picture......

If someone provide a big big picture here, i would appreciate it.