Icon of the Mother of God of Kiev-Brotherhood. Icon of the Mother of God of Kiev-Bratsk

Icon of the Mother of God of Kiev-Brotherhood.  Icon of the Mother of God of Kiev-Bratsk
Icon of the Mother of God of Kiev-Brotherhood. Icon of the Mother of God of Kiev-Bratsk

KIEV-BRATAL ICON OF THE MOTHER OF GOD


Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God. 70–90 XVII century, 1st half. - sir. XVIII century (NHMU) (celebration May 10 and September 6), miraculous. One of the main shrines of Kyiv, it was especially revered in the 17th-18th centuries. Lists K.-B. And. and engravings with her image were distributed throughout Ukraine. The name of the icon is associated with the Kyiv Orthodox brotherhood and the Kiev-Brotherly monastery in Podol in honor of the Epiphany, where the miraculous image was located.

According to monastic tradition, on May 10, 1662, the icon sailed along the Dnieper from Vyshgorod, devastated by the Tatars, where it was in charge (temple) in the church. Saints Boris and Gleb. Leaving Vyshgorod, the Tatars began to cross the Dnieper, but they were drowned by a rising storm. Only one Tatar was able to escape, grabbing the icon of the Mother of God like a life-raft. The icon stopped in front of the Bratsky Monastery and was honorably taken out of the water by the monks. The Tatar, having experienced the action of God's Providence, believed in Jesus Christ and was baptized. The icon was placed in the wooden fraternal Borisoglebskaya church.

The earliest printed reproduction of the legend about the icon is the text placed on the cartouche at the bottom of the engraving “The Miraculous Icon of the Mother of God of Brotherhood” (1706) by Mon. Hilarion (Migura) (prints unknown, copper plaque kept in the department visual arts NBUV; mon. Hilarion (Migura) repeatedly engraved K.-B. i., eg. in 1704 - panegyric to Archimandrite. Gideon (Odorsky): " (1662) Us Arcam curauit R: Hilarionnes Migura Metropolis Kiyoviensi Archidiacong. A 1706" (Askochensky. 1856. P. 346; see also: Rovinsky. Folk pictures. 1881. Book 3. No. 1224). The text on the engraving with the date indicated in Cyrillic - 1662 - acquired the significance of a document, and the dating given in it for the acquisition of K.-B. And. has become generally accepted.

Meanwhile, mention, probably, of the miraculous icon of the Bratsky Monastery is found in the archidiak’s travel diary. Pavel of Aleppo, who visited Kyiv in 1654 and 1656. The icon appears in the notes made in July 1656: “On Wednesday, the rector of the Epiphany Monastery, located in the middle of the city, arrived to invite our Bishop the Patriarch to serve mass there, on the feast of the miraculous image of the Lady, brought from the country of the Poles (Poland. - G. B.). We went and celebrated mass, in the presence of all the townspeople, and then went to the meal” (Pavel of Aleppo. Travel. 1898. Issue 4. P. 186). Doubt as to whether the records include an archdeacon. Pavel Aleppo speech about K.-B. and., is caused by the fact that then, in the 50s. XVII century, under Metropolitan. Silvestre (Kosovo), to the abbot of Lazar (Baranovich), to the Bratsk Monastery, the miraculous Kupyatitsky Icon of the Mother of God was brought from the Kupyatitsky Monastery captured in 1655 by the Uniates near Pinsk (later transferred to Saint Sophia Cathedral Kyiv). It is possible that the mentioned mass in July 1656 was celebrated in front of the Kupyatitsky icon.

Origin of K.-B. And. with Orthodox Ukrainian lands that remained at that time part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Galicia, Volyn, Podolia), or from the Belarusian region seems quite possible, because in Western Ukraine. lands similar to her, the so-called icons of the Mother of God were revered. Krekhovsko-Verkhratsky type. Distinctive features icons of this type are the hand of the Child lying in the hand of the Mother of God, and the tender touch of Their faces (Milyaeva. 1994. P. 126). It is based on the type of iconography of the “Roman” Mother of God, which, according to N.P. Kondakov, arose under the influence of Italo-Cretan iconography (Kondakov. Iconography of the Mother of God. Vol. 2. P. 179). Similar Ukrainian iconography ser. XVII century could have appeared on the borderland of modern Belarus, Poland and Ukraine (Zamosc (now Zamosc) - Lutsk - Pinsk). From there, icons of the Mother of God of this type spread to the adjacent regions of Galicia and Volhynia. Sample of this type is the miraculous Werkhrata Icon of the Mother of God from the Krekhov Monastery, according to legend, brought to Werkhrata from Zamosc in 1682 (currently in the Krekhov Monastery). Close to this type is the icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness” of 1656 from the village. Mestkovichi near Pinsk (NHM RB), icon of the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. brushes hiero. Job (Kondzelevich) from the Belostotsky monastery near Lutsk, etc. The Mother of God icon of this type may have been brought before 1656 (or between 1654 and 1656) from the Pinsk region along with the Kupyatitsky icon to the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery, where it began to be revered as miraculous. In this case, the documentary data is archdiac. Paul of Aleppo do not agree with the legendary information about the arrival of the icon along the Dnieper from Vyshgorod. One can only assume that during the Russian-Polish. wars of 1654-1667 The miraculous image of the Mother of God could have been damaged or lost, but in 1662 it was renewed or painted anew, or replaced by an icon that “floated” from Vyshgorod.

Scene with K.-B floating along the Dnieper. And. presented in engravings. On one of them, on copper, called “Epiphany”, created in honor of the consecration in 1693 of the new Epiphany Cathedral of the Kiev Brotherhood Monastery (Lyuta T. Mogilyansky “Theatrum Gloriae” by Ivan Mazepi // Memories of Ukraine. 2013. No. 1 (183), p. 57), depicts the “Baptism of the Lord” in the Jordan-Dnieper, along the waves of which a boat with K.-B. is sailing. To the left of the river is the Vyshgorod Church of Saints Boris and Gleb, and on On the opposite mountainous bank there are Kiev churches, below which, on Podol, is the Epiphany Cathedral of the Brotherly Monastery, near which a group of people is depicted led by Prince Vladimir and with Saints Boris and Gleb. At the bottom in the center is the coat of arms of Hetman I. S. Mazepa. , the patron of the monastery; the image of the elements of the coat of arms is repeated several times (NBV; see: Deluga W. Grafika z krgu Ławry Pieczarskiej i Akademii Mohylańskiej XVII and XVIII w. Kraków, 2003. Tab. XXXI). ) with an image of K.-B. and. by Stefan Savitsky there is also a scene with a floating icon at the bottom (the copper plaque is kept in the fine arts department of the NBUV; see: Popov. 1926. P. 92).

On the engraving mon. Hilarion (Migura) 1706 K.-B. And. in a chasuble is placed in a luxurious baroque icon case, decorated with carvings and picturesque medallions. In the engraving-panegyric of B.P. Sheremetev in 1713, K.-B. And. depicted in a chasuble decorated with ornaments, a notable detail of which are angels holding a crown over the head of the Mother of God (reproduction: Printing house of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra / Comp.: Archpriest F. I. Titov. K., 1916. T. 1. P. 473; board and prints unknown).

Baroque icon case with K.-B. And. could have been installed in the new Epiphany Cathedral during its consecration in 1693. The first mention of the location of the icon in the interior of the cathedral was recorded in a document of 1743: “...opposite the Annunciation” (Mukhin. 1893, p. 163). The same place is indicated in the bishop's inventory. Irenaeus (Falkovsky) 1803, according to which in the Epiphany Cathedral, in addition to the ancient Mazepa iconostasis, there were also 2 small new ones: one of them housed a miraculous icon, and the other - an image of the Annunciation (the cathedral had an Annunciation chapel) (Ibid. S. 205). The inventory also states: “The miraculous icon had many pendants and decorations, between which there was a diamond necklace donated by Ekaterina Evfimovna Galagan, which cost 2 thousand rubles” (Ibid. p. 207).

After the fire of 1811 in Podol, K.-B. And. moved to Borisoglebskaya Church. (reconsecrated in the name of the Holy Spirit) Bratsky Monastery. In 1824, the miraculous image was returned to the restored Epiphany Cathedral. There he was placed in a new gilded icon case in the Empire style, made at the expense of the Kyiv vice-governor V. S. Katerinich. In Fig. K. P. Mather, 1851, in the foreground there is an icon case with the image of the Annunciation, and in the depths of the cathedral, near the pillar, there is an icon case with K.-B. And. (Mazer K.P. Images of Kiev, mid-nineteenth century. Nystrems, 1999. Ill. 38). The icon cases, like the new iconostasis of the cathedral, were designed by architects. A. I. Melensky. In 1831, under Archimandrite. Innocent (Borisov), in front of the icon cases with K.-B. And. and the “Annunciation” icon, new cast-iron gratings imported from Tula were installed, and in 1878 marble stairs were made.

During the fire of 1864 in the Epiphany Cathedral, K.-B. And. worn around the temple and monastery (Mukhin. 1893. pp. 264-266). The iconostasis and the decoration of the altar were saved from the fire, during which the liturgy and thanksgiving prayer were served. Until 1878 K.-B. And. from the unheated Epiphany Cathedral on winter time She was transferred to the warm Holy Spiritual Church, where she remained until the service for the removal of the shroud on Good Friday. Prof. KDA N.F. Mukhin in 1893 described in detail the architic icon case. Melensky, in which the icon remained until the end of its monastic history: “In the middle part of the temple, on the right and left sides of it... there are two gilded icon cases, very elegantly carved. The upper part of each of the icon cases, arranged in the form of a canopy, rests on eight gilded columns of the Corinthian order, picturesquely arranged in two rows. Between them rises marble staircase in several steps. Both icon cases are fenced with cast-iron gratings equipped with copper sockets for candles. In the right (southern) icon case there is a miraculous icon of the fraternal Mother of God, and in the left (northern) there is an icon of St. Nicholas” (Ibid. p. 278).

In the 40-50s. XIX century information about K.-B. And. appear in publications devoted to the antiquities of Kyiv. She is mentioned in the publications of Metropolitan. Makariy (Bulgakov), I. I. Fundukley, V. I. Askochensky, N. V. Zakrevsky and others.

Information supplementing the legend about the origin of the icon was published in 1890 by priest. Theodore Manikovsky, cleric of the Borisoglebskaya Church. in Vyshgorod. In the Vyshgorod church at that time in the iconostasis there was a list of K.-B. And. (“true image and measure”), where on the face of the Mother of God, as well as on the miraculous image, Manikovsky noted a “wound” from a saber, inflicted, according to him, in 1651, even before the icon sailed to Kyiv, by a Lithuanian soldier. army book J. Radziwill. The prince, after the Mother of God appeared to him in a dream, ordered the execution of the criminal soldier, after which Radziwill’s army was able to leave Vyshgorod without hindrance (Manikovsky, 1890, p. 34). Mukhin’s description of 1893 also mentions a “wound” on the face of the Virgin Mary: “This ulcer, running from the eyebrow of the left eye almost across the entire right cheek, is visible on the face of the Mother of God to this day” (Mukhin. 1893. P. 20). It is significant that before Manikovsky, in none of the descriptions of K.-B. And. The “wound” is not mentioned on the face of the Mother of God, nor is it found on the lists of the icon from the 18th-19th centuries. The only time “about the plague of 1651” was said in the “Song of Kyiv”, included in the handwritten “Bogoglasnik” (1734), found in Zap. Carpathians. “Song...” was published by I. Ya. Franko as composed by someone “who did not have a clear idea of ​​the area (Kiev - G.B.), but used only book reminiscences” (Song of Kiev. 1992. P. 110, 594). It is possible that the “wound” could have been applied to the face of the Virgin Mary intentionally to give credibility to the legend shortly before the publication of the works of Manikovsky and Mukhin.

Mukhin also indicated the style and size of K.-B. i.: “The miraculous icon of the fraternal Mother of God - southern Russian letter... Its height is 1 arshin 14 vershoks, and its width is 1 arshin 6 vershoks (133 × 98 cm - G. B.)” (Mukhin. 1893. P. 278), which corresponds to the size of the icon from the collections of the National Art Museum - 133.5 × 97 cm, frame 144 × 108 cm.

Every Saturday before the liturgy, an akathist was read before the icon. Annually 1 Aug. and on the feast of Epiphany after the liturgy, heaven was served Metropolitan of Kyiv, with the participation of the entire city clergy, was performed procession to the Dnieper from K.-B. And. After the cholera epidemic in 1853, on the week of All Saints, a religious procession was established with K.-B. And. at the Zhitny market in Podol. There a prayer service was served in a specially constructed chapel, where the miraculous image was brought, in front of which the residents placed their home icons.

After the closure of the Bratsk Monastery in the 20s. XX century a church community was registered in the beginning. 30s Services were still being held. In the photographs of the iconostasis and icon cases of the Epiphany Cathedral, made in 1935, the icons are no longer in their places (Olyanina S., Svitlychna N. Iconostasis of the Epiphany Cathedral // Monuments of Ukraine. 2013. No. 1. P. 30).

In 1934, the capital of Soviet Ukraine was moved from Kharkov to Kyiv and the authorities decided to mass liquidate Kyiv churches and Mont-Rei (more than 60 churches were destroyed). Among the priority tasks, taking into account its exceptional national significance, was the demolition of the Epiphany Cathedral of the Brotherhood Monastery. Absence until the 90s. XX century information about the shrines of the monastery for a long time was perceived as confirmation of the death of K.-B. And. However, research recent years showed that K.-B. And. became one of the 5 most valuable icons of the monastery transferred to the All-Ukrainian Museum Town established in 1926 on the territory of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. In 1948, this group of icons was first recorded in the accounting book of the National Art Museum with a note that their fate was unknown before entering the museum. Re-discovery of K.-B. And. happened at the beginning 2000s, when employees of the National Art Museum established a connection between these monuments and the Bratsk Monastery. Currently time K.-B. And. is in the collection of the National Art Museum at the stage of completion of museum restoration (painting restorer T. Gerzhan, chasuble restorer A. Golovchenko; see: Belikova. 2013. P. 40).

The icon is painted on wood using the oil painting technique using tempera. Two main paint layers are observed, the dating of which remains open. Upper layer the style of painting corresponds to the Kyiv art school 1st half - gray XVIII century, but the icon retained the Ukrainian features. type of image of the Mother of God of the 70-90s. XVII century: character traits face, gilded, carved gesso background ornament (its elements - round pearls in the curls of shells - are found in the last third of the 17th century). It is possible that the ornament and the hidden lower layer of paint are earlier. As the X-ray photograph shows, when updating the image, the icon painter strove to exactly follow the original image, including in the modeling of faces and vestments. On the face of the Mother of God and on the heel of the Child, in some places there is a third layer, applied during the renovation process of the 19th century. Before the restoration began, there was a significant cut on the face of the Mother of God in the upper paint layer - diagonally from the left eyebrow through the nose and right cheek to the neck, reminiscent of a mark from a blow (described in the 19th century as a mark from a Lithuanian saber). An intact lower ink layer is visible at the site of the lunge, which may indicate that there is no “wound” in the original image (it is not shown on the x-ray).

Re-discovery of K.-B. And. is perceived as confirmation of the miraculous nature of the image. The post-revolutionary confiscation of church valuables and export to Germany during the period of fascist occupation were also able to survive the gilded silver precious stones vestments of icons of the Bratsk Monastery. Currently time on K.-B. And. there is a silver chased gilded chasuble, depicted in a photograph of 1893 in Mukhin’s book (the tsata pendant is missing). The crown, as well as the wrist plate and the star on the shoulder of the Mother of God, are decorated with diamonds, emeralds, amethysts, pearls, quartz, and citrines. A comparison of the chasuble, consisting of parts from different periods, with its reproduction in engravings shows that in general terms it is close to the image in the engraving of 1713 (the angels holding the crown over the head of the Mother of God are lost). The ornament of the central part of the chasuble allows us to date it to the 1st half of the century. XVIII century The author's GR and the city W (this is how the silversmiths of Wroclaw branded their products, but the mark is somewhat different from the Wroclaw mark, it is possible that it belonged to a German city) the marks on the chasuble are not deciphered. The background of the frame, decorated with a wavy stem with large flowers, is later than the central part. The rims and the end border around the perimeter are precisely dated. The author's mark “AM” (1896) on the crown is mentioned in the literature as belonging to an unknown Kyiv master. At the ends there is a city mark “Archangel Michael”, the author’s “EL” and an assayer “S.O/1896”, indicating the production of the ends and enamel squares (only one survived) in 1896. The assayer “S.O/1896” is listed as unknown Kiev master who worked in 1894-1897. (Postnikova-Loseva, Platonova, Ulyanova. 1995. No. 586, 588). On the reverse side of the patch on the sleeve of the Mother of God is engraved: “Engraver D. Lebedev 28.UI.1903” - and the inscription is scratched: “In the Masjersky of the Child S... through the fire of 1903 on July 15... [inaudible]”, speaking about her manufactured in 1903 in the workshop of Kyiv jeweler Joseph Rybenko. Probably, the star on the shoulder of the Mother of God was also made there.

Lit.: Askochensky V.I. Kyiv with its oldest school, the Academy. K., 1856. Part 1; Collection of materials for historical studies. topography of Kyiv and its environs. K., 1874; Rovinsky. Folk pictures. 1881. Book. 3; Manikovsky F., priest. Vyshgorod and its shrine. K., 18902; Mukhin N.F. Kiev-Bratsk School Monastery: Ist. feature article. K., 1893; Popov P. Materials for the Ukrainian dictionary. engraver. K., 1926; Song of Kiev // Ukrainian poetry. Ser. XVII century / Orders: V. I. Krekoten, M. M. Sulima. K., 1992. S. 110-111;

Milyaeva L. S. Miracle-working icons of the Mother of God in Kiev, XVII century. that image of Lyubetskoï of the Mother of God penzl Ivan Shchirsky // ZNTSh. 1994. T. 227. pp. 124-140; Postnikova-Loseva M. M., Platonova N. G., Ulyanova B. L. Gold and silversmithing of the XV-XX centuries. (territory of the USSR). M., 1995; Villager. Our Lady. P. 566; Belikova G. A. Monuments of the Brotherhood Monastery in the collection of the National Art Museum // Monuments of Ukraine. K., 2013. No. 1. P. 40-53.

G. A. Belikova


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Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God (prototype)

Church history and Tradition have preserved a description of miracles associated with the appearance and glorification of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon in the ancient city of Vyshgorod.

Vyshgorod is the ancient patrimony of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga (in the baptism of Helen, commemorated on July 11, Art.), and subsequently of all the Kyiv princes, has always been in a special position with its patrons. It was first mentioned in the chronicle in 946: “Be bo Vyshegorod the city of Volzin (Olzhin),” i.e., the inheritance of Saint Olga, her favorite place and city, to the organization of which she devoted a lot of care (“Description of Kyiv” by Berlinsky).

In 1131, an icon was sent from Constantinople as a gift to the holy noble prince of Kyiv Mstislav (baptized Theodore). Holy Mother of God, written by the Evangelist Luke on a board from the table at which the Lord Jesus Christ ate, known under the name Vyshgorodskaya (celebration takes place on May 21, June 23, August 26, Art.).

The icon was installed in the Maiden Monastery of Vyshgorod. Many healings and miracles came from the miraculous Vyshgorod Icon of the Mother of God. Both the ancient city of Vyshgorod and all the borders of Kyiv were henceforth under the protection of the Queen of Heaven.

The son of Yuri Dolgoruky, Saint Andrei Bogolyubsky, brought the icon to Vladimir in 1155 and placed it in the famous Assumption Cathedral, which he erected. From that time on, the icon received the name Vladimir.

Information about the Kiev-Brotherly Icon, which was also a shrine of Vyshgorod, dates back to the 17th century, when Kyiv and its borders were constantly attacked by Polish-Lithuanian and Crimean Tatar invaders.

“The Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God was formerly local to the Boris and Gleb Church in the city of Vyshgorod (Kiev), where it miraculously appeared in 1654,” this is how the story about the icon begins in the book “The Benefits of the Mother of God to the Christian Family through Her Holy Icons.”

The description of the miraculous appearance of the icon was preserved in Grushevsky’s work History of Ukraine-Rus. Lithuanian army under the leadership of his prince Radziwill, preparing to attack Kyiv in order to plunder it, stopped at a billet in Vyshgorod. Naturally, in Vyshgorod, Lithuanians - half-pagans, half-Catholics (as well as Calvinists) began to plunder the city, not stopping at the shrine. The line reached the cathedral church, where the icon of the Mother of God was located.

One of the warriors, wanting to insult all Orthodox Christians, hit the face of the Mother of God with a gun, this made a sign: blood flowed down her face as if from a wound. That same night, the Mother of God appeared to Radziwill and threatened that if he did not punish Her offender, he would not leave Vyshgorod alive. The next morning Radziwill ordered the atheist to be found and hanged, and he quickly left Vyshgorod without causing any destruction. "

And the icon, glorified by the grateful residents of Vyshgorod, became one of the revered shrines of the city.

The event took place during the war between Russia and Poland (1654 - 1667), the city suffered great damage from the Crimean Tatars who fought on the side of the Poles. The Church of the Holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb was devastated and desecrated. However, the Providence of God preserved the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, which was promptly taken out of the temple and floated along the Dnieper, and the relics of the saints were hidden under a bushel.

“One Tatar, as legend says, wanted to cross the Dnieper on an icon. The icon itself floated and stood in the middle of the Dnieper opposite the Bratsky Monastery. The Tatar sat on it and shouted; They sailed from the monastery and took the icon and the Tatar into the boat, who was then baptized and tonsured a monk... At this time, the icon of the Mother of God, brought by water to Kiev-Podil, was accepted and with due honor placed in the Bratsky Monastery, where it stands to this day.”

“Kievo-Brotherly Epiphany, second-class school monastery. This monastery is located in Kyiv on Podol and was founded in 1588 by the school Brotherhood at the school of the Epiphany parish church, located nearby; and when the Epiphany Church and school burned down, and in 1613 Anna Gugulevicheva, the wife of Marshal of Mozyrsk, gave her yard, located on the site of the current monastery, to schools, then, with the assignment of monastic teachers to them, a monastery was founded in some way. But already under Metropolitan Peter Mogila (1596-1646) in 1631, it was approved to be a perfect monastery and with it an Academy, or College. “The shrine of this temple (Church of the Epiphany) consists of: a) the miraculous icon of the Fraternal Mother of God, brought by the waves of the Dnieper from Vyshgorod, devastated by the Tatars in 1662; it is located on the right side of the temple near a pillar in a special icon case, on a raised platform; Every week on Saturdays an akathist to the Mother of God is read before the icon...”

In the book “Orthodox Russian Monastery” it is said about the Brotherly Monastery: “The Epiphany first-class non-dormitory school monastery occupies a vast space along Alexander Square, between Naberezhno-Nikolayevskaya, Volynskaya and Ilyinskaya streets, surrounded by a stone fence, crowned on the side of the square with a three-tiered bell tower... Cathedral Church Epiphany was built on the site of a wooden one by Hetman Ivan Mazepa in 1693.

This temple houses the shrines of the monastery - the miraculous icon of the Brotherly Mother of God, which sailed along the river. Dnieper in 1662 from the cathedral church destroyed by the Tatars in the city of Vyshgorod...”

Interesting information about the Fraternal Icon is in the book of the famous Kiev specialist and historian Konstantin Sherotsky “Kyiv. Guide." 1917 edition. It says: “In the middle of the temple, near the middle right pillar, there is a miraculous one, very popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. image of the Fraternal Mother of God. It is of Ukrainian writing from the 17th century. in the usual type of local icons and comes from the iconostasis of the Vyshgorod church, destroyed by Polish-Lithuanian troops in 1651. The story of the arrival of this icon from Vyshgorod is told in an interesting engraved image of it, made by a famous Kyiv engraver of the 17-18th century. Hilarion Migura, who considers the year of the appearance of the icon in the Brotherly Monastery to be 1654. The icon sailed along the Dnieper and was removed from there by monks who hastened to the call of the Tatar, who grabbed the icon to swim across the Dnieper. The icon has now been heavily rewritten, but old engravings make it clear that the features of the drawing are unchanged,” (Sherotsky K. Kyiv. Guide, 1917).

Every Saturday, after hours, before the liturgy, an akathist to the Mother of God was performed in front of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon.

Many monasteries of the Russian Empire ordered a copy of the miraculous Kiev-Bratsk Icon of the Mother of God, wanting to have this shrine within their walls.

So in the inventory of the shrines of the Lebedinsky Monastery of the Kyiv Diocese (now the Cherkassy Diocese) there is an indication: “There were also revered shrines in the monastery:

Icon of the Mother of God “Kievo-Bratskaya” in a silver-gold robe, with which Abbess Philareta was blessed in 1861 by the dean of the monasteries of the Kyiv Diocese, Archimandrite Ioannikios” (St. Nicholas Swan Monastery. P.8).

Lebedinsky Monastery.

The celebration of the Brotherly Icon takes place four times a year: May 10 (23 New Art), June 2 (15 New Art), September 6 (19 New Art) and the moving day of celebration in the fifth week of Great Lent on Saturday Akathist , Praise to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Since the 12th century, the veneration of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God was great among the common people, townspeople, artisans, residents of Podol, Kozhemyak and other craft districts of Kyiv.

The Podolyans did not begin any important work without prayer before the Brotherly Icon. Trade transactions (the Bratsky Monastery was located right on one of the busiest trading areas in Kyiv, Alexandrovskaya, or known as “Kontraktovaya”), matchmaking and the conclusion of marriage contracts, controversial issues, litigation, all this was decided before the Fraternal Icon of the Mother of God.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, or more precisely after 1917, the Kiev-Brotherly Icon and the Monastery, as well as the entire Orthodox people, suffered severe trials.

In 1919, the Kiev Brotherhood Monastery and the Kiev Theological Academy were officially closed by the Soviet authorities. However, the academy functioned unofficially until the mid-1920s - some teachers gave lectures and took exams in private apartments.

In the monastery churches, services were held until the early 1930s, as parish ones.

After the liquidation of the Bratsky Monastery and the closure of the Kyiv Theological Academy, the icon disappeared without a trace. When an inventory of the monastery valuables and the sacristy was carried out, due to the nationalization of church property in the 1920s, the icon was no longer there. It is known that at the time of its disappearance, the icon was decorated with an expensive gilded chasuble with many precious cameos (an inventory of the icon is kept in the archives of the Vernadsky Library in Kiev). There are no documents confirming the removal of the shrine or its transfer to another place.

After the disappearance of the icon, the destruction of the Brotherly Monastery and other familiar historical events, a period of some kind of spiritual oblivion began. The memory of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon was preserved only in church calendar and in those few icon lists that were in surviving Orthodox churches.

Until recently, it was possible to honor the memory of the Brotherhood and venerate the image in three churches in Kyiv: the Ilna Church on Podol (in the chapel of St. John the Baptist), in the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross (in the Kazan chapel) on the same Podol, and in the Kiev-Pokrovsky Convent.

In 2007, on the outskirts of Kyiv, in the village of Gorenka, Kiev-Svyatoshinsky district, with the blessing of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Vladimir His Beatitude, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, a community and parish was created in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Kievo-Bratskaya”, which begins construction work Church in honor of the great Kyiv shrine - the Fraternal Icon of the Mother of God.

In the fall of 2007, abbot Akhila (Shakhtarin) was appointed rector of the parish by decree of the Metropolitan.

The temple Kiev-Bratskaya icon of the Mother of God was painted, according to the historical description and surviving copies.

The iconography of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon, which in its composition goes back to the ancient Byzantine icon “Our Lady of Eleusa”, which translated from Greek means “Merciful”, or “Tenderness”.

“This iconographic type developed in late Byzantine art, but reached its peak precisely in Rus'. He turned out to be in tune with that special soulfulness that has always been characteristic of the Russian perception of Christianity. The very character of ancient Russian icon painting - light, soft, melodious - was perfectly suited to just such an image of the Mother of God and the Child.

The word “tenderness” is related to the Greek “Eleusa” - “Merciful”. This is how many icons of the Mother of God were called in Byzantium. The very type of “Tenderness” was called “Sweet Kiss” in the Byzantine icon painting of “Glycophilus”. The main meaning of such icons is mutual love and the tenderness of Mother and Son. In these images, their attention is drawn primarily to each other: Mary tenderly hugs the Child to her, and He hugs Her by the neck or gently touches Her cheek with His hand.

This touching tenderness also has a special, tragic shade. After all, Mary caresses not an ordinary child, but the Savior, Who is about to accept the agony of the Cross for the sins of the human race. It is not for nothing that on the icons dedicated to the mourning of Christ one can also see the Mother of God clinging to the cheek of the Son.

When this work was supplemented with new data about the Kiev-Brotherly Icon and was being prepared for the second edition, it became known that in July 2009, in the storerooms of the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the miraculous Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God was FOUND, traces of which, as mentioned above, are lost in 20s, 30s of the twentieth century.

This good news came from an article by Nina Parkhomenko, research fellow National Art Museum of Ukraine “The Finding of the Kiev-Bratsk Icon of the Mother of God”, placed on the last page of the Church Orthodox newspaper No. 21, November 2009.

From the article it became known that after the destruction of the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery, the icon entered the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra to the museum and from the Lavra Museum in the 30s it ended up in the reserves of the National Art Museum: “The traces of icons are known from the post-revolutionary fate. U 1935 r. The Bratsky Monastery was desecrated and raised. Until recently, the Kiev-Brotherly Icon was considered lost. І from, at lipnі 2009 r. At the end of the day, this icon was found in the collections of the National Art Museum of Ukraine, as well as in a carving with a gilded carburized frame. On the back of the plaque there is an old inventory number (which is confirmed to have been acquired from the funds of the Lavra Museum Town in 1934), which indicates that the icon was taken from the Brotherhood Monastery. The icon is large in size – 133×96...”, (Church Orthodox newspaper No. 21, 2009).

Archimandrite Akhila (Shakhtarin),

May-December 2009,

With. Gorenka.

1st History of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon

This icon was previously local to the Boris and Gleb Church in the city of Vyshgorod (Kiev), where it miraculously appeared in 1654.

In 1662, during the war between Russia and Poland (1659 - 1667), the city suffered great damage from the Crimean Tatars who fought on the side of the Poles. The Church of the Holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb was devastated and desecrated.

However, the Providence of God preserved the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, which was timely; They took them out of the temple and floated them along the Dnieper, and the relics; the saints were hidden under a bushel. The river carried the icon to the banks of Podol in Kyiv, where it was joyfully received by the Orthodox and transferred with due honors to the Bratsky Monastery. There she remained for a long time. Tradition adds the following detail to this story. One Tatar noticed an icon in the river and decided to use it to cross, but as soon as he touched it, the icon itself floated, and very quickly, and stopped opposite the Brotherhood Monastery. The Tatar, afraid of drowning, screamed desperately; in response to his cries, the brethren came out of the monastery and sent a boat towards him. Subsequently, the rescued Tatar was baptized and took monastic vows at the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery. Celebrations of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God take place three times a year: September 6, May 10 and June 2. All of them are dedicated to the miraculous appearance of the holy icon in 1654. In the inventory of the church property of the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery, made in 1807, its description is given. There was a “Song about the miraculous Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God,” compiled shortly after 1692. The original icon has not survived to this day. exact list with her is now in Kiev Monastery Protection of the Mother of God.

2nd History of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon

Her appearance followed in 1654 in Vyshgorod of Kiev, where she was placed in the temple on the left side of the royal gates. In 1662, during the war with Poland (1659-1667), misfortune broke out over Vyshgorod: the Tatars, who were in conflict with the Poles, crossed the Dnieper, broke into the city and plundered the temple. Christians risked their lives trying to save the holy icon from unclean hands. , but they failed to do this unnoticed. Then they launched the icon along the Dnieper and it arrived in Kyiv and stopped at the foot of Podol. Here the icon was noticed and brought to the Kiev Brotherhood Monastery.

Tradition adds the following detail to this story. One Tatar noticed an icon in the river and decided to use it to cross, but as soon as he touched it, the icon itself floated, and very quickly, and stopped opposite the Brotherhood Monastery. The Tatar, afraid of drowning, screamed desperately; in response to his cries, the brethren came out of the monastery and sent a boat towards him. Subsequently, the rescued Tatar was baptized and took monastic vows at the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery.

3rd History of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon

The Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God was previously local to the Boris and Gleb Church in the city of Vyshgorod (Kiev), where it miraculously appeared in 1654. In 1662, during the war between Russia and Poland (1659 - 1667), the city suffered great damage from the Crimean Tatars who fought on the side of the Poles. The Church of the Holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb was devastated and desecrated. However, the Providence of God preserved the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, which was promptly taken out of the temple and floated along the Dnieper, and the relics of the saints were hidden under a bushel. The river carried the icon to the banks of Podol in Kyiv, where it was joyfully received by the Orthodox and transferred with due honors to the Bratsky Monastery. There she remained for a long time. In the inventory of the church property of the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery, made in 1807, its description is given. There was a “Song about the miraculous Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God,” compiled shortly after 1692. Celebrations of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God take place three times a year: September 6, May 10 and June 2. All of them are dedicated to the miraculous appearance of the holy icon in 1654. The original icon has not survived. The “measure in measure” icon painted from it is now in the Kiev Monastery of the Intercession of the Mother of God.

Days of celebration

Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God

Days of Her memory:

  1. Continuous celebration on Saturday of the Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lent.
  2. May 10 according to the old style and May 23 according to the new style.
  3. June 2 according to the old style and June 15 according to the new style.
  4. September 6 according to the old style and September 19 according to the new style.

Brotherly Epiphany Monastery

The “school” monastery, founded by the Kyiv Brotherhood in 1615 to provide everything necessary for the Brotherhood School (later the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, since 1819 the Kiev Theological Academy). The monastery was liquidated in the early 1930s, after which the ensemble of historical buildings suffered great damage. Since 1992, the university "Kiev-Mohyla Academy" has been operating here.

Based on individual documentary evidence, most researchers of the 19th century. argued that the Brotherly Monastery with the Epiphany Church and school existed already in the 1590s. They usually refer to the blessing of Patriarch Jeremiah in 1589 and the deed of sale of Andrei Obukhov in 1594, who sold the Sverschovskoye courtyard site on Podol to the Bratsky Monastery. It is as if the original monastery burned down in 1614 and was only rebuilt the following year. However, later historians are distrustful of the mentioned documents and believe that the Brotherhood Epiphany Monastery was founded only after 1615.

According to Galshka Gulevichevna’s deed of gift dated October 15, 1615, the Kiev brotherhood received a large plot of land in Podol, where a school, a “shpital” (almshouse) and a monastery with them were founded - in the future this institution was transformed into the famous Kyiv Academy. Around 1618, the parish school founded by Job Boretsky at the Resurrection Church became part of the Brotherhood School. Isaiah Kopynsky became the first abbot of the monastery and at the same time the rector of the school.

An outstanding ktitor of the Bratsky Monastery was Hetman Peter Sagaidachny, who in 1622 was buried next to the wooden Epiphany Church, built at his expense. It was Sagaidachny who invited the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophan to Kyiv, who blessed the Brotherhood in 1620. At that time, the monastery also had the Church of St. Righteous Anne on the pilgrimage courtyard. Later, under Saint Peter Mogila, the stone Boris and Gleb Church was added to them at the refectory chamber. At the request of the brothers, Saint Peter Mogila in 1632 annexed the school, originally founded by him in the Pechersk Lavra, to the brotherly school and transformed it into a college. The institution received academy status from Peter I in 1701.

IN late XVII V. Through the efforts of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, large stone construction began in the monastery: on the site of a wooden church, a stone Epiphany Cathedral was erected; the refectory Boris and Gleb Church was built on a second tier, in which the Church of the Holy Spirit was built; at the beginning of the 18th century. The construction of a stone academic building with the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary began. The second floor of this building was built in 1732-40, by order of Rafail Zaborovsky, by architect Johann Schedel. He is also credited with extremely beautiful porch Epiphany Cathedral.

Since 1731, the monastery received the status of archimandrite. The archimandrite of the monastery was also the rector of the academy. The highest administrative positions were occupied by monks of the monastery (teachers could also be secular persons). In the second half of the 18th century. a bell tower, a stone tavern next to it and the archimandrite's house were built (after the fire of 1781). In the 1790s there appeared sundial, preserved to this day. During the secularization of 1786, the monastery was closed. But already in 1799 it was restored and staffed by the Chernigov Gamaleevsky Monastery, which had previously burned down.

The ensemble of the monastery was finally formed after the fire of 1811, under the leadership of Andrei Melensky. In the 1820-30s, on the monastery courtyard, he erected several buildings of cells, a prosphora, a new academic building and a building of shops, and reconstructed the bell tower. These buildings are made in the Empire style. At the same time, while restoring the Epiphany Cathedral and the Old Academic Building, Melensky preserved the Baroque forms of architecture.

The Theological Academy finally ceased its activities at the beginning of 1920. The monastic community was liquidated in the early 1930s, and the monastery buildings were transferred to the industrial state artel. In 1935, the Epiphany Cathedral was destroyed, and in 1953, the bell tower. For a long time, the Kiev Higher Military-Political Naval School, a branch of the Central scientific library Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, hospital. New buildings were erected on the territory.

In 1991, by decision Verkhovna Rada The activity of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy was resumed on its historical territory as a secular independent university.

On the territory of the ancient monastery there are now two active churches: the Church of the Holy Spirit and the Church of the Annunciation, belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

Address: st. Grigory Skovoroda, 2.



Brotherly Epiphany Monastery in Kyiv (pre-revolutionary photography)

http://kiev-brat.kiev.ua/ Page of the Church in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God "Kievo-Bratskaya" in the village. Gorenka, Kievosvyatoshinsky district, Kyiv region.

Where did the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery disappear from Podol?

At the end of the 16th century, the Bratsky Monastery arose in Kyiv on Podol. In 1662, a miraculous icon of the Mother of God was miraculously found there - it sailed along the Dnieper and stopped just opposite the monastery. This is how the “Kievo-Bratskaya” Mother of God appeared.

This icon was very popular among the people of Kiev. Since the monastery was located on one of the busiest shopping areas in Kyiv - “Kontraktova”, all important and controversial issues were resolved before the Fraternal Icon of the Mother of God.

Several days of veneration of the icon were established, and all of them were dedicated to the miraculous appearance of the icon in 1654. One of them is September 19.

In 1919, the Bratsky Monastery on Podol was closed, and the image of the Kiev-Brotherly Mother of God was considered lost.

However, in 2009, the miraculous original was found in the depositories of the National Art Museum of Ukraine.

Now there is no monastery in Kyiv on Podil, but it is being revived in another place. And recently, in the summer of 2015, an exact copy of the miraculous Kievo-Brotherly Mother of God was painted from the original for the monastery.

Where and how the revival of the monastery is taking place, how this idea arose, how an exact copy of the Brotherly Mother of God was painted - the portal “Orthodoxy in Ukraine” was told by the builder of the monastery in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Kievo-Bratskaya”, Archimandrite AKHILA (SHAKHTARIN).

By the way, his book dedicated to the history of the Kiev-Brotherly miraculous image of the Mother of God will be published very soon.

Monastery on credit

― Father Akhil, in 2007, near Kiev, in the village of Gorenka, Kiev-Svyatoshinsky district, with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir, a community and parish was created in honor of the “Kievo-Bratskaya” Icon of the Mother of God. You have been appointed rector. Tell us how it all started?

- In 2008, after I was appointed rector of the parish, I took a loan from the bank secured by my parents’ house and bought three adjacent plots in Gorenka with a total area of ​​15 acres. That was the beginning.

Then - long-term loan repayment. And then he donated it all to the monastery. This is how the monastery was born.

- Why in Gorenka, because before the monastery was in Kyiv, on Podol?

- In Gorenka - because it was here that the church in the name of the Fraternal Icon of the Mother of God was built and consecrated. And the idea of ​​​​reviving the monastery came due to the fact that those who wanted it appeared from among the parishioners, and they became the first nuns.

“We don’t chase our sisters”

- Tell us about the monastery: what is there now, are there many inhabitants, what are the charter and what are the plans?

- Women's monastery. The abbess is Abbess Glafira. There are few sisters yet, but there is no pursuit of them. Today there are three nuns in the monastery: an abbess, a treasurer and one schema-nun.

I was the rector of the parish, and at the opening of the monastery I was appointed to the position of confessor of the monastery.

The monastery's regulations are strict: morning services begin at 2 o'clock at midnight: midnight office, at 3 o'clock matins, at 9 o'clock and, if there is a Liturgy (and it is not served every day). At 15:00 Vespers and at 18:00 Compline.

The monastery is small, only 15 acres. In addition to the church, there is a small sister's building with cells and a refectory. Everything else is in the plans.

There was a Sunday school at the parish. There were no thoughts of creating something like the Brotherhood College Monastery. Moreover, the Bratsky Monastery was for men, in honor of the Epiphany of the Lord, and ours was for women, in honor of the “Brotherly” Icon of the Mother of God.

Since when have icons been painted in museums?

- By the way, about the icon. The Kiev-Brotherly temple icon was painted for the parish based on surviving copies and historical descriptions of the original. This was before miraculous acquisition original in 2009. How different are the temple images and the original?

- From the moment the temple was built, and then the monastery was founded, a temple icon was painted, but then the icon painter did not see the original. Therefore, this first icon is different. We plan to use it, for example, to participate in religious processions.

- How did the idea come about to create a list of miraculous icons for the parish?

― The idea of ​​creating a list came after I met professor of art history Lyudmila Milyaeva. She is already 90 years old, but she still teaches. When writing a book about the icon, I quoted Lyudmila Milyaeva and then decided to find her and meet her in person.

I saw an amazing person - a scientist who has done a lot to save and preserve the most famous Ukrainian icons, which are today in the National Art Museum of Ukraine. Gradually I came to the conclusion that, taking advantage of the opportunity of such an acquaintance, it was necessary to make a copy of the icon.

The museum complied and gave the go-ahead for copying without taking a penny from us.

- Thanks to the participation of the same Lyudmila Semyonovna Milyaeva, the museum recommended a restoration artist to me. This is how I met Ekaterina Kasyanenko, quite famous in the circles of contemporary artists. In addition, she had already made one copy of the Brotherly Icon for the Spiritual Church of the former Brotherhood Monastery.

- Where did you write the copy?

- The icon was painted in the museum, right before the miraculous one.

It is not yet possible to venerate the miraculous icon anywhere

- How long did it take to write the copy, and how did the consecration take place? Was it necessary to rededicate the original?

― The work on producing the list lasted from December 2014 to July 2015. And on July 28 of this year, the museum proposed to consecrate the copy of the miraculous icon, which took place on time. July 28 was a day off at the museum, and the miraculous icon was taken out into the hall.

The original was not consecrated because it is miraculous. But with the original, the list was consecrated, which, in fact, is traditional for our Church.

- As for the original, the frame was removed from the icon and stored in another department of the museum. The icon itself, restored, should be put on display in the museum, and people can always come to it.

- Will you eventually decorate your icon with a chasuble?

- We haven’t thought about it yet. Now we are collecting funds for the icon case. The list is in the altar of our monastery church, and without the icon case we will not take out the icon for veneration for now.

The main miracle from the icon has already happened in our days

- You mentioned working on a book about the icon. When is it coming out, and what materials did you use when writing it?

- The book is already ready. The edition is currently being stitched together, and it will be published very soon. It is called “Kievo-Bratskaya Icon of the Mother of God”. It contains almost all pre-revolutionary, as well as modern information about the icon.

The museum is really looking forward to the release of my book, since it includes the research of museum researcher Galina Belikova and professor Lyudmila Milyaeva.

- In books about miraculous icons there is always a section not only about previous, but also about current miraculous manifestations of God’s mercy. Will yours have a section like this too?

- Almost everything about miracles from the past has been collected, but about modern ones there will be a publication later. And the main miracle is that the icon was found after all!

The conversation was moderated by Victoria Kochubey

Photo from the FB page of Archimandrite Achilles
















Archimandrite Achilles (Shakhtarin)

One of the revered icons of Orthodoxy is the Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God. The appearance of this wonderful icon is attributed to the events that took place in 1654. During the war between Russia and the Crimean Tatars, the city of Vyshgorod was devastated. Temples and churches were desecrated by the enemy. But miraculously, with God's help, the Kiev Fraternal Icon of the Mother of God, which was in the ruined church of the passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, was taken out in time and sent down the Dnieper River. The Holy Fraternal Icon landed on the shore of Podol in Kyiv. Orthodox Christians found her and transferred her with honor to the Bratsky Monastery. Since that time, this amazing icon received the name of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon. This highly revered Orthodox icon is celebrated three times a year - May 10, June 2 and September 6. These days the miraculous appearance of the beautiful Kiev-Brotherly Icon back in 1654 is glorified. In connection with the miracles that have occurred, which are associated with this powerful icon, many Orthodox Christians are trying to buy the Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God in the online store. The prototype of this amazing icon has not survived to this day. But in the Kiev Monastery of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary there is a copy of this miraculous icon.

The special role of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God

Since ancient times, the Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God was very revered among the common people. Craftsmen and townspeople never began important work without prayer before the holy Fraternal Icon. If matchmaking was discussed or very important business issues were resolved, then all this took place in front of the revered image of the Kiev Fraternal Icon of the Mother of God. Many Russian and Ukrainian literary classics emphasized the influence of this on the life and life of Orthodox Christians in the 19th century. Nowadays, you can buy the Fraternal Icon of the Mother of God in icon shops or have it made to order.

Buy the Kiev-Bratsk Icon of the Mother of God, embroidered with beads

The Orthodox Kiev-Brotherly icon can very rarely be found in retail outlets, so many believers try to make it to order in icon-painting workshops. The wondrous image of the Mother of God, written on the Kiev-Bratskaya icon of the Mother of God, embroidered with beads, has a very unusual look. Decorated with an expensive and original frame, decorated in the best Old Slavonic traditions of Orthodox icon painting, the Kiev-Brotherly Icon, beaded, is in no way inferior to other representatives of Christian iconography. By giving this beautiful icon to a loved one, you will conquer his soul and heart forever.

Religious reading: Mother of God of Kiev brotherly prayer to help our readers.

Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God

Glorification of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God of Kiev-Bratsk.

Also read on our website:

Icons of the Mother of God– Information about the types of icon painting, descriptions of most icons of the Mother of God.

Lives of the Saints– Section dedicated to the Lives of Orthodox Saints.

For the beginning Christian– Information for those who have recently come to the Orthodox Church. Instructions in spiritual life, basic information about the temple, etc.

Literature– Collection of some Orthodox literature.

Orthodoxy and occultism– Orthodoxy’s view of fortune-telling, extrasensory perception, the evil eye, corruption, yoga and similar “spiritual” practices.

Miracle-working icons of the Virgin Mary

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God

May the ineffable light of Your Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, shine in our hearts. May His will be done through all our lives. May He grant us forgiveness and cleansing of all our sins and transgressions.

Imams have no other help, no other hope, except for You, Most Pure One.

Just as in ancient times you glorified the city of Vyshgorod and the land of Kyiv with signs and wonders from your wonderful icon, when you miraculously saved the infidel Hagarene from water drowning in the Dnieper River, and brought him to the Kiev-Bratsk monastery unharmed, and there you accepted his true repentance , and enlightening with the light of holy baptism, in Angelic rank in this monastery you have clothed yourself, and thus you have been a guide to salvation and the establishment of the true Orthodox faith.

For this reason, we, sinners and unworthy, boldly ask and pray: do not reject us, who pray to You, before this wondrous and miraculous icon of Yours. Strengthen the right faith in us, grant unfeigned love for each other. Be the Chosen Governor against all our visible and invisible enemies: convert the unfaithful to orthodoxy, and guide the faithful on the path of repentance and salvation.

Help, Lady the Lady, to erect a temple and monastery for Your wondrous and glorious, venerable name of Angels and men, in honor and memory of Your miraculous image of Kiev-Bratsk.

And in this temple and this monastery, and even more so in our souls and hearts, let us glorify Thee, the Intercessor and Prayer Lady for our race, and through Thee we will send glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Prayer of the Mother of God in front of Her icon, (icon of the Mother of God “KIEV-BRATHSKY”)

Icon of the Mother of God "KIEV-BRATHSKAYA"

The KIEV-BRATAL Icon of the Mother of God appeared in 1654 in the city of Vyshgorod of Kiev and was located in the Boris and Gleb Church. In 1662, during the war with Poland (1659–1667), the Tatars, who were allied with the Poles, broke into the city and destroyed the church, but the believers managed to take the miraculous icon of the Mother of God out of the temple and let it go along the Dnieper to the will of God.

The river carried the shrine to the shore of Podol in Kyiv, where it was taken from the water and placed in the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery. The original KIEV-BRATSIAN icon of the Mother of God has not survived to this day; an exact copy of it is in the Kiev Intercession Monastery.

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Mother of God of Kiev brotherly prayer

KIEV-BRATAL ICON OF THE MOTHER OF GOD. Brotherly Epiphany Monastery in Kyiv

Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God (prototype)

Church history and Tradition have preserved a description of miracles associated with the appearance and glorification of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon in the ancient city of Vyshgorod.

Vyshgorod is the ancient patrimony of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga (in the baptism of Helen, commemorated on July 11, Art.), and subsequently of all the Kyiv princes, has always been in a special position with its patrons. It was first mentioned in the chronicle in 946: “Be bo Vyshegorod the city of Volzin (Olzhin),” i.e., the inheritance of Saint Olga, her favorite place and city, to the organization of which she devoted a lot of care (“Description of Kyiv” by Berlinsky).

In 1131, an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was sent from Constantinople as a gift to the holy noble prince of Kyiv Mstislav (baptized Theodore), written by the Evangelist Luke on a board from the table at which the Lord Jesus Christ ate, known as Vyshgorod (celebration takes place on May 21, June 23 , August 26th Art.).

The icon was installed in the Maiden Monastery of Vyshgorod. Many healings and miracles came from the miraculous Vyshgorod Icon of the Mother of God. Both the ancient city of Vyshgorod and all the borders of Kyiv were henceforth under the protection of the Queen of Heaven.

The son of Yuri Dolgoruky, Saint Andrei Bogolyubsky, brought the icon to Vladimir in 1155 and placed it in the famous Assumption Cathedral, which he erected. From that time on, the icon received the name Vladimir.

Information about the Kiev-Brotherly Icon, which was also a shrine of Vyshgorod, dates back to the 17th century, when Kyiv and its borders were constantly attacked by Polish-Lithuanian and Crimean Tatar invaders.

“The Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God was formerly local to the Boris and Gleb Church in the city of Vyshgorod (Kiev), where it miraculously appeared in 1654,” this is how the story about the icon begins in the book “The Benefits of the Mother of God to the Christian Family through Her Holy Icons.”

The description of the miraculous appearance of the icon was preserved in Grushevsky’s work History of Ukraine-Rus. The Lithuanian army, led by its prince Radziwill, preparing to attack Kyiv in order to plunder it, stopped at a billet in Vyshgorod. Naturally, in Vyshgorod, Lithuanians - half-pagans, half-Catholics (as well as Calvinists) began to plunder the city, not stopping at the shrine. The line reached the cathedral church, where the icon of the Mother of God was located.

One of the warriors, wanting to insult all Orthodox Christians, hit the face of the Mother of God with a gun, this made a sign: blood flowed down her face as if from a wound. That same night, the Mother of God appeared to Radziwill and threatened that if he did not punish Her offender, he would not leave Vyshgorod alive. The next morning Radziwill ordered the atheist to be found and hanged, and he quickly left Vyshgorod without causing any destruction. “

And the icon, glorified by the grateful residents of Vyshgorod, became one of the revered shrines of the city.

The event took place during the war between Russia and Poland (1654 - 1667), the city suffered great damage from the Crimean Tatars who fought on the side of the Poles. The Church of the Holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb was devastated and desecrated. However, the Providence of God preserved the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, which was promptly taken out of the temple and floated along the Dnieper, and the relics of the saints were hidden under a bushel.

“One Tatar, as legend says, wanted to cross the Dnieper on an icon. The icon itself floated and stood in the middle of the Dnieper opposite the Bratsky Monastery. The Tatar sat on it and shouted; They sailed from the monastery and took the icon and the Tatar into the boat, who was then baptized and tonsured a monk... At this time, the icon of the Mother of God, brought by water to Kiev-Podil, was accepted and with due honor placed in the Bratsky Monastery, where it stands to this day.”

“Kievo-Brotherly Epiphany, second-class school monastery. This monastery is located in Kyiv on Podol and was founded in 1588 by the school Brotherhood at the school of the Epiphany parish church, located nearby; and when the Epiphany Church and school burned down, and in 1613 Anna Gugulevicheva, the wife of Marshal of Mozyrsk, gave her yard, located on the site of the current monastery, to schools, then, with the assignment of monastic teachers to them, a monastery was founded in some way. But already under Metropolitan Peter Mogila (1596-1646) in 1631, it was approved to be a perfect monastery and with it an Academy, or College. “The shrine of this temple (Church of the Epiphany) consists of: a) the miraculous icon of the Fraternal Mother of God, brought by the waves of the Dnieper from Vyshgorod, devastated by the Tatars in 1662; it is located on the right side of the temple near a pillar in a special icon case, on a raised platform; Every week on Saturdays an akathist to the Mother of God is read before the icon...”

In the book “Orthodox Russian Monastery” it is said about the Brotherly Monastery: “The Epiphany first-class non-dormitory school monastery occupies a vast space along Alexander Square, between Naberezhno-Nikolaevskaya, Volynskaya and Ilyinskaya streets, surrounded by a stone fence, crowned on the side of the square with a three-tiered bell tower... Cathedral Church Epiphany was built on the site of a wooden one by Hetman Ivan Mazepa in 1693.

This temple houses the shrines of the monastery - the miraculous icon of the Brotherly Mother of God, which sailed along the river. Dnieper in 1662 from the cathedral church destroyed by the Tatars in the city of Vyshgorod...”

Interesting information about the Fraternal Icon is in the book of the famous Kiev specialist and historian Konstantin Sherotsky “Kyiv. Guide." 1917 edition. It says: “In the middle of the temple, near the middle right pillar, there is a miraculous one, very popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. image of the Fraternal Mother of God. It is of Ukrainian writing from the 17th century. in the usual type of local icons and comes from the iconostasis of the Vyshgorod church, destroyed by Polish-Lithuanian troops in 1651. The story of the arrival of this icon from Vyshgorod is told in an interesting engraved image of it, made by a famous Kyiv engraver of the 17-18th century. Hilarion Migura, who considers the year of the appearance of the icon in the Brotherly Monastery to be 1654. The icon sailed along the Dnieper and was removed from there by monks who hastened to the call of the Tatar, who grabbed the icon to swim across the Dnieper. The icon has now been heavily rewritten, but old engravings make it clear that the features of the drawing are unchanged,” (Sherotsky K. Kyiv. Guide, 1917).

Every Saturday, after hours, before the liturgy, an akathist to the Mother of God was performed in front of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon.

Many monasteries of the Russian Empire ordered a copy of the miraculous Kiev-Bratsk Icon of the Mother of God, wanting to have this shrine within their walls.

So in the inventory of the shrines of the Lebedinsky Monastery of the Kyiv Diocese (now the Cherkassy Diocese) there is an indication: “There were also revered shrines in the monastery:

Icon of the Mother of God “Kievo-Bratskaya” in a silver-gold robe, with which Abbess Philareta was blessed in 1861 by the dean of the monasteries of the Kyiv Diocese, Archimandrite Ioannikios” (St. Nicholas Swan Monastery. P.8).

The celebration of the Brotherly Icon takes place four times a year: May 10 (23 New Art), June 2 (15 New Art), September 6 (19 New Art) and the moving day of celebration in the fifth week of Great Lent on Saturday Akathist , Praise to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Since the 12th century, the veneration of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God was great among the common people, townspeople, artisans, residents of Podol, Kozhemyak and other craft districts of Kyiv.

The Podolyans did not begin any important work without prayer before the Brotherly Icon. Trade transactions (the Bratsky Monastery was located right on one of the busiest trading areas in Kyiv, Alexandrovskaya, or known as “Kontraktovaya”), matchmaking and the conclusion of marriage contracts, controversial issues, litigation, all this was decided before the Fraternal Icon of the Mother of God.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, or more precisely after 1917, the Kiev-Brotherly Icon and the Monastery, as well as the entire Orthodox people, suffered severe trials.

In 1919, the Kiev Brotherhood Monastery and the Kiev Theological Academy were officially closed by the Soviet authorities. However, the academy functioned unofficially until the mid-1920s - some teachers gave lectures and took exams in private apartments.

In the monastery churches, services were held until the early 1930s, as parish ones.

After the liquidation of the Bratsky Monastery and the closure of the Kyiv Theological Academy, the icon disappeared without a trace. When an inventory of the monastery valuables and the sacristy was carried out, due to the nationalization of church property in the 1920s, the icon was no longer there. It is known that at the time of its disappearance, the icon was decorated with an expensive gilded chasuble with many precious cameos (an inventory of the icon is kept in the archives of the Vernadsky Library in Kiev). There are no documents confirming the removal of the shrine or its transfer to another place.

After the disappearance of the icon, the destruction of the Brotherly Monastery and other historical events familiar to us, a period of some kind of spiritual oblivion began. The memory of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon was preserved only in the church calendar and in those few icon lists that were in the surviving Orthodox churches.

Until recently, it was possible to honor the memory of the Brotherhood and venerate the image in three churches in Kyiv: the Ilna Church on Podol (in the chapel of St. John the Baptist), in the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross (in the Kazan chapel) on the same Podol, and in the Kiev-Pokrovsky Convent.

In 2007, on the outskirts of Kyiv, in the village of Gorenka, Kiev-Svyatoshinsky district, with the blessing of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Vladimir His Beatitude, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, a community and parish was created in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Kievo-Bratskaya”, which begins construction work Church in honor of the great Kyiv shrine - the Fraternal Icon of the Mother of God.

In the fall of 2007, abbot Akhila (Shakhtarin) was appointed rector of the parish by decree of the Metropolitan.

The temple Kiev-Bratskaya icon of the Mother of God was painted, according to the historical description and surviving copies.

The iconography of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon, which in its composition goes back to the ancient Byzantine icon “Our Lady of Eleusa”, which translated from Greek means “Merciful”, or “Tenderness”.

“This iconographic type developed in late Byzantine art, but reached its peak precisely in Rus'. He turned out to be in tune with that special soulfulness that has always been characteristic of the Russian perception of Christianity. The very character of ancient Russian icon painting - light, soft, melodious - was perfectly suited to just such an image of the Mother of God and the Child.

The word “tenderness” is related to the Greek “Eleusa” - “Merciful”. This is how many icons of the Mother of God were called in Byzantium. The very type of “Tenderness” was called “Sweet Kiss” in the Byzantine icon painting of “Glycophilus”. The main meaning of such icons is the mutual love and tenderness of the Mother and Son. In these images, their attention is drawn primarily to each other: Mary tenderly hugs the Child to her, and He hugs Her by the neck or gently touches Her cheek with His hand.

This touching tenderness also has a special, tragic shade. After all, Mary caresses not an ordinary child, but the Savior, Who is about to accept the agony of the Cross for the sins of the human race. It is not for nothing that on the icons dedicated to the mourning of Christ one can also see the Mother of God clinging to the cheek of the Son.

When this work was supplemented with new data about the Kiev-Brotherly Icon and was being prepared for the second edition, it became known that in July 2009, in the storerooms of the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the miraculous Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God was FOUND, traces of which, as mentioned above, are lost in 20s, 30s of the twentieth century.

This good news came from an article by Nina Parkhomenko, a researcher at the National Art Museum of Ukraine, “The Finding of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God,” published on the last page of the Church Orthodox Newspaper No. 21, November 2009.

From the article it became known that after the destruction of the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery, the icon entered the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Museum and from the Lavra Museum in the 30s it ended up in the storerooms of the National Art Museum: “In the post-revolutionary rocks, the traces of the icon disappear. U 1935 r. The Bratsky Monastery was desecrated and raised. Until recently, the Kiev-Brotherly Icon was considered lost. І from, at lipnі 2009 r. At the end of the day, this icon was found in the collections of the National Art Museum of Ukraine, as well as in a carving with a gilded carburized frame. On the back of the plaque there is an old inventory number (which is confirmed to have been acquired from the funds of the Lavra Museum Town in 1934), which indicates that the icon was taken from the Brotherhood Monastery. The icon is large in size - 133×96...”, (Church Orthodox Newspaper No. 21, 2009).

Archimandrite Akhila (Shakhtarin),

May-December 2009,

1st History of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon

This icon was previously local to the Boris and Gleb Church in the city of Vyshgorod (Kiev), where it miraculously appeared in 1654.

In 1662, during the war between Russia and Poland (1659 - 1667), the city suffered great damage from the Crimean Tatars who fought on the side of the Poles. The Church of the Holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb was devastated and desecrated.

However, the Providence of God preserved the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, which was timely; They took them out of the temple and floated them along the Dnieper, and the relics; the saints were hidden under a bushel. The river carried the icon to the banks of Podol in Kyiv, where it was joyfully received by the Orthodox and transferred with due honors to the Bratsky Monastery. There she remained for a long time. Tradition adds the following detail to this story. One Tatar noticed an icon in the river and decided to use it to cross, but as soon as he touched it, the icon itself floated, and very quickly, and stopped opposite the Brotherhood Monastery. The Tatar, afraid of drowning, screamed desperately; in response to his cries, the brethren came out of the monastery and sent a boat towards him. Subsequently, the rescued Tatar was baptized and took monastic vows at the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery. Celebrations of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God take place three times a year: September 6, May 10 and June 2. All of them are dedicated to the miraculous appearance of the holy icon in 1654. In the inventory of the church property of the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery, made in 1807, its description is given. There was a “Song about the miraculous Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God,” compiled shortly after 1692. The original of the icon has not survived to this day; an exact copy of it is now in the Kiev Monastery of the Intercession of the Mother of God.

2nd History of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon

Her appearance followed in 1654 in Vyshgorod of Kiev, where she was placed in the temple on the left side of the royal gates. In 1662, during the war with Poland (1659-1667), misfortune broke out over Vyshgorod: the Tatars, who were in conflict with the Poles, crossed the Dnieper, broke into the city and plundered the temple. Christians risked their lives trying to save the holy icon from unclean hands. , but they failed to do this unnoticed. Then they launched the icon along the Dnieper and it arrived in Kyiv and stopped at the foot of Podol. Here the icon was noticed and brought to the Kiev Brotherhood Monastery.

Tradition adds the following detail to this story. One Tatar noticed an icon in the river and decided to use it to cross, but as soon as he touched it, the icon itself floated, and very quickly, and stopped opposite the Brotherhood Monastery. The Tatar, afraid of drowning, screamed desperately; in response to his cries, the brethren came out of the monastery and sent a boat towards him. Subsequently, the rescued Tatar was baptized and took monastic vows at the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery.

3rd History of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon

The Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God was previously local to the Boris and Gleb Church in the city of Vyshgorod (Kiev), where it miraculously appeared in 1654. In 1662, during the war between Russia and Poland (1659 - 1667), the city suffered great damage from the Crimean Tatars who fought on the side of the Poles. The Church of the Holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb was devastated and desecrated. However, the Providence of God preserved the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, which was promptly taken out of the temple and floated along the Dnieper, and the relics of the saints were hidden under a bushel. The river carried the icon to the banks of Podol in Kyiv, where it was joyfully received by the Orthodox and transferred with due honors to the Bratsky Monastery. There she remained for a long time. In the inventory of the church property of the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery, made in 1807, its description is given. There was a “Song about the miraculous Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God,” compiled shortly after 1692. Celebrations of the Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God take place three times a year: September 6, May 10 and June 2. All of them are dedicated to the miraculous appearance of the holy icon in 1654. The original icon has not survived. The “measure in measure” icon painted from it is now in the Kiev Monastery of the Intercession of the Mother of God.

Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God

  1. Continuous celebration on Saturday of the Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lent.
  2. May 10 according to the old style and May 23 according to the new style.
  3. June 2 according to the old style and June 15 according to the new style.
  4. September 6 according to the old style and September 19 according to the new style.

Brotherly Epiphany Monastery

Kiev-Mogilyaksoy Academy, Kyiv

The “school” monastery, founded by the Kyiv Brotherhood in 1615 to provide everything necessary for the Brotherhood School (later the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, since 1819 the Kiev Theological Academy). The monastery was liquidated in the early 1930s, after which the ensemble of historical buildings suffered great damage. Since 1992, the university “Kiev-Mohyla Academy” has been operating here.

Based on individual documentary evidence, most researchers of the 19th century. argued that the Brotherly Monastery with the Epiphany Church and school existed already in the 1590s. They usually refer to the blessing of Patriarch Jeremiah in 1589 and the deed of sale of Andrei Obukhov in 1594, who sold the Sverschovskoye courtyard site on Podol to the Bratsky Monastery. It is as if the original monastery burned down in 1614 and was only rebuilt the following year. However, later historians are distrustful of the mentioned documents and believe that the Brotherhood Epiphany Monastery was founded only after 1615.

According to Galshka Gulevichevna’s deed of gift dated October 15, 1615, the Kiev brotherhood received a large plot of land in Podol, where a school, a “shpital” (almshouse) and a monastery with them were founded - in the future this institution was transformed into the famous Kyiv Academy. Around 1618, the parish school founded by Job Boretsky at the Resurrection Church became part of the Brotherhood School. Isaiah Kopynsky became the first abbot of the monastery and at the same time the rector of the school.

Since 1731, the monastery received the status of archimandrite. The archimandrite of the monastery was also the rector of the academy. The highest administrative positions were occupied by monks of the monastery (teachers could also be secular persons). In the second half of the 18th century. a bell tower, a stone tavern next to it and the archimandrite's house were built (after the fire of 1781). In the 1790s, a sundial appeared, which has survived to this day. During the secularization of 1786, the monastery was closed. But already in 1799 it was restored and staffed by the Chernigov Gamaleevsky Monastery, which had previously burned down.

In 1991, by decision of the Verkhovna Rada, the activities of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy on its historical territory were resumed as a secular independent university.

On the territory of the ancient monastery there are now two active churches: the Church of the Holy Spirit and the Church of the Annunciation, belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

Address: st. Grigory Skovoroda, 2.

Brotherly Epiphany Monastery in Kyiv (pre-revolutionary photography)

http://kiev-brat.kiev.ua/ Page of the Church in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Kievo-Bratskaya” in the village. Gorenka, Kievosvyatoshinsky district, Kyiv region.

Where did the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery disappear from Podol?

At the end of the 16th century, the Bratsky Monastery arose in Kyiv on Podol. In 1662, a miraculous icon of the Mother of God was miraculously found there - it sailed along the Dnieper and stopped just opposite the monastery. This is how the “Kievo-Bratskaya” Mother of God appeared.

This icon was very popular among the people of Kiev. Since the monastery was located on one of the busiest shopping areas in Kyiv - “Kontraktova”, all important and controversial issues were resolved before the Fraternal Icon of the Mother of God.

Several days of veneration of the icon were established, and all of them were dedicated to the miraculous appearance of the icon in 1654. One of them is September 19.

In 1919, the Bratsky Monastery on Podol was closed, and the image of the Kiev-Brotherly Mother of God was considered lost.

However, in 2009, the miraculous original was found in the depositories of the National Art Museum of Ukraine.

Now there is no monastery in Kyiv on Podil, but it is being revived in another place. And recently, in the summer of 2015, an exact copy of the miraculous Kievo-Brotherly Mother of God was painted from the original for the monastery.

Where and how the revival of the monastery is taking place, how this idea arose, how an exact copy of the Brotherly Mother of God was painted - the portal “Orthodoxy in Ukraine” was told by the builder of the monastery in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Kievo-Bratskaya”, Archimandrite AKHILA (SHAKHTARIN).

By the way, his book dedicated to the history of the Kiev-Brotherly miraculous image of the Mother of God will be published very soon.

Monastery on credit

― Father Akhil, in 2007, near Kiev, in the village of Gorenka, Kiev-Svyatoshinsky district, with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir, a community and parish was created in honor of the “Kievo-Bratskaya” Icon of the Mother of God. You have been appointed rector. Tell us how it all started?

- In 2008, after I was appointed rector of the parish, I took a loan from the bank secured by my parents’ house and bought three adjacent plots in Gorenka with a total area of ​​15 acres. That was the beginning.

Then - long-term loan repayment. And then he donated it all to the monastery. This is how the monastery was born.

- Why in Gorenka, because before the monastery was in Kyiv, on Podol?

- In Gorenka - because it was here that the church in the name of the Fraternal Icon of the Mother of God was built and consecrated. And the idea of ​​​​reviving the monastery came due to the fact that those who wanted it appeared from among the parishioners, and they became the first nuns.

“We don’t chase our sisters”

- Tell us about the monastery: what is there now, are there many inhabitants, what are the charter and what are the plans?

- Women's monastery. The abbess is Abbess Glafira. There are few sisters yet, but there is no pursuit of them. Today there are three nuns in the monastery: an abbess, a treasurer and one schema-nun.

I was the rector of the parish, and at the opening of the monastery I was appointed to the position of confessor of the monastery.

The monastery's regulations are strict: morning services begin at 2 o'clock at midnight: midnight office, at 3 o'clock matins, at 9 o'clock and, if there is a Liturgy (and it is not served every day). At 15:00 Vespers and at 18:00 Compline.

The monastery is small, only 15 acres. In addition to the church, there is a small sister's building with cells and a refectory. Everything else is in the plans.

There was a Sunday school at the parish. There were no thoughts of creating something like the Brotherhood College Monastery. Moreover, the Bratsky Monastery was for men, in honor of the Epiphany of the Lord, and ours was for women, in honor of the “Brotherly” Icon of the Mother of God.

Since when have icons been painted in museums?

- By the way, about the icon. The Kiev-Brotherly temple icon was painted for the parish based on surviving copies and historical descriptions of the original. This was before the miraculous discovery of the original in 2009. How different are the temple images and the original?

- From the moment the temple was built, and then the monastery was founded, a temple icon was painted, but then the icon painter did not see the original. Therefore, this first icon is different. We plan to use it, for example, to participate in religious processions.

- How did the idea come about to create a list of miraculous icons for the parish?

― The idea of ​​creating a list came after I met professor of art history Lyudmila Milyaeva. She is already 90 years old, but she still teaches. When writing a book about the icon, I quoted Lyudmila Milyaeva and then decided to find her and meet her in person.

I saw an amazing person - a scientist who has done a lot to save and preserve the most famous Ukrainian icons, which are today in the National Art Museum of Ukraine. Gradually I came to the conclusion that, taking advantage of the opportunity of such an acquaintance, it was necessary to make a copy of the icon.

The museum complied and gave the go-ahead for copying without taking a penny from us.

- Thanks to the participation of the same Lyudmila Semyonovna Milyaeva, the museum recommended a restoration artist to me. This is how I met Ekaterina Kasyanenko, quite famous in the circles of contemporary artists. In addition, she had already made one copy of the Brotherly Icon for the Spiritual Church of the former Brotherhood Monastery.

- The icon was painted in the museum, right before the miraculous one.

It is not yet possible to venerate the miraculous icon anywhere

- How long did it take to write the copy, and how did the consecration take place? Was it necessary to rededicate the original?

― The work on producing the list lasted from December 2014 to July 2015. And on July 28 of this year, the museum proposed to consecrate the copy of the miraculous icon, which took place on time. July 28 was a day off at the museum, and the miraculous icon was taken out into the hall.

The original was not consecrated because it is miraculous. But with the original, the list was consecrated, which, in fact, is traditional for our Church.

- As for the original, the frame was removed from the icon and stored in another department of the museum. The icon itself, restored, should be put on display in the museum, and people can always come to it.

- Will you eventually decorate your icon with a chasuble?

- We haven’t thought about it yet. Now we are collecting funds for the icon case. The list is in the altar of our monastery church, and without the icon case we will not take out the icon for veneration for now.

The main miracle from the icon has already happened in our days

- You mentioned working on a book about the icon. When is it coming out, and what materials did you use when writing it?

- The book is already ready. The edition is currently being stitched together, and it will be published very soon. It is called “Kievo-Bratskaya Icon of the Mother of God”. It contains almost all pre-revolutionary, as well as modern information about the icon.

The museum is really looking forward to the release of my book, since it includes the research of museum researcher Galina Belikova and professor Lyudmila Milyaeva.

- In books about miraculous icons there is always a section not only about previous, but also about current miraculous manifestations of God’s mercy. Will yours have a section like this too?

- Almost everything about miracles from the past has been collected, but about modern ones there will be a publication later. And the main miracle is that the icon was found after all!

The conversation was moderated by Victoria Kochubey

Photo from the FB page of Archimandrite Achilles

Icons of the Mother of God decorate many Orthodox churches. They have extraordinary power that can protect you and your family from illness and difficulties, therefore they are a strong talisman and an assistant in difficult situations.

In almost every house or apartment of a believer you can see an icon of the Mother of God. This attention is based on the incredible power of the icon. Some people claim to have experienced firsthand the power of this divine image. The Orthodox Church is no exception, which always places icons of the Mother of God in the most prominent place, because parishioners first of all pay attention to the image of the Mother of God and do not pass by this icon without praying for themselves and their family.

Icons of the Mother of God are located in almost all churches and temples in Russia. However neighboring countries pay due attention to the divine image of the Mother of God.

History of the icon

In 1131 to the prince of Kyiv Mstislav was given as a gift an icon of the Mother of God, painted on a fragment of the table at which Jesus Christ dined. The icon was placed in the Maiden Monastery of Vyshgorod, located in the Kyiv region. Many years later, in the same city, the icon inexplicably appeared in the Church of Boris and Gleb. This wonderful event happened in 1654.

During the Russian-Polish War, the Boris and Gleb Church was destroyed. Fortunately, the icon of the Mother of God was saved by local residents, who carried it out in advance and sent it along the Dnieper. Over time, the image of God washed up on the shore of Podol, located in Kyiv. For the believing residents, the appearance of such an icon was a joy and a great honor, and they placed it in the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery. The image of the Mother of God adorned the walls of the monastery for many years. After its destruction in 1935, the icon disappeared.

There is a story that during the Russian-Polish War, in order to insult the local residents, one of the soldiers hit the icon with a sword. At that moment, blood gushed from the face of the Mother of God, and the entire icon turned red. That night, the Mother of God appeared to the military commander, demanding severe punishment for the atheist. The very next day, he demanded that the offender of the Mother of God be found and hanged, and he himself quietly disappeared from Vyshgorod.

In 1692, the “Song about the miraculous Kiev-Brotherly Icon of the Mother of God” appeared. Only excerpts from this historical source are now known.

Where is the icon of the Mother of God located?

After serious destruction caused by wars and revolutions, the image of the Mother of God had to undergo long haul. The last time the original icon was in the Kiev-Brotherly Monastery. In 1935, the monastery was blown up by the Bolsheviks, and the icon disappeared without a trace. At the moment, nothing is known about the fate of the original, but an exact copy of the icon is located in the Kiev-Pokrovsky Monastery in the city of Kyiv.

Description of the icon

The original icon has some differences from the surviving copy, mainly the color scheme and brightness of the image have changed.

On the surviving copy of the icon, as on many icons of the Mother of God, the Holy Virgin is depicted with the Child Christ in her arms. Left hand the baby holds it out to the Mother of God, which means Her blessing. Right hand the baby shows three fingers, a symbol of the Holy Trinity, where two folded fingers, middle and index, mean the two natures of Jesus Christ - divine and human, and the little finger symbolizes one of the three essences of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

What does an icon help with?

Orthodox believers know firsthand about the power of the icon of the Mother of God. It is believed that the Mother of God is closer to God than other saints. Therefore, they turn to her much more often with requests and for blessings. Before the icon of the Mother of God they pray for healing, for deliverance from troubles and torment, about family well-being. Young girls ask to be saved from infertility and protected from difficult childbirth. The newlyweds ask for a blessing for a long and happy marriage. Both before and now this icon is especially popular among believers. Those who turn to her for help miraculously get what they want.

Days of celebration

The celebration of the Kiev-Brast Icon takes place three times a year: May 10, June 2 and September 6. All dates are associated with the miraculous appearance of the holy image of the Mother of God.

Prayers before the icon of the Mother of God

“Oh, Most Holy Virgin Mary, Most Pure Mother of God. Look with Your All-Merciful Eye at us, standing before You, the Great Mother of God, believing and praying to You. Appear before us and bless us, the servants of God. Let Your light shine before us. Amen!"

From time immemorial, Orthodox believers have venerated the image of the Mother of God. Both on the days of celebration and on ordinary days, parishioners fall before the icon of the Mother of God and ask in prayer for the most secret things. Health to you and your family, and don't forget to press the buttons and

25.09.2017 05:56

In Orthodox Christianity, many days are dedicated to the memory of saints, as well as great icons. One of them...