"Wlacher icon"

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The Vlacherna Icon of the Mother of God (), or Vlachernetissa () is an icon of the Virgin revered in the Orthodox Church. It was brought to Russia from Constantinople in 1653 as a gift to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Made in a rare technique of wax and belongs to the icon-painting type of Odigitry.

The icon is venerated by the faithful miraculously, the celebration in her honor is performed: (on the feast of the Drawing), and on the Saturday of the Akathist (on the Saturday of the fifth week of Great Lent).

The history of the icon

Byzantine period
The Vlacher icon is one of those ancient icons, the creation of which is attributed to the evangelist Luke. The icon was originally kept in the evangelist’s homeland in Antioch, and was later transferred to Jerusalem. Empress Eudoxia brought it from Jerusalem to Constantinople in 439, along with other Christian relics. Donated to Pulcheria, the sister of Emperor Theodosius II, the icon was placed in the Church of the Virgin in Vlahern. On behalf of the temple, the icon received its real name.

The Vlacher icon was considered the patroness of the city of Constantinople and the Byzantine emperors. In 626, during the siege of the city by the Persians, Avars and Slavs, Patriarch Sergius walked around the walls of Constantinople with her, and, according to the Easter Chronicle, the enemies retreated, saying that they saw the Virgin on the wall. From that moment there was a tradition every year in Lent to transfer this icon from Vlahern to the Imperial Palace, where it was until Monday Bright Week.

During the period of iconoclasm, the icon was hidden in the monastery of Pantocrator. There she was sheltered during the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders. The icon was known to Russian pilgrims, about the solemn processions with it writes Stefan Novgorodets, who visited Constantinople in the XIV century:

One person will put an icon on the shoulders of a stand, and he will spread his hands as if he had been crucified, and his eyes will roll, so it is frightening to look, and he throws him around the square and turns him in different directions, and he does not even understand where his icon is carrying. Then another will catch her, and so it happens, and then the third and the fourth pick up, and they sing a great song with the deacons, and the people cry with weeping: “Lord, have mercy!” Two deacons hold the ripids, and the rest of the kiots hold the icon. Seven or eight people will put an icon on the shoulders of one person, and he, by the will of God, walks as if not loaded with anything.

There is no reliable information about the fate of this icon until the Turkish conquest in 1453. Paul of Aleppo writes about the icon that was sent to Moscow:

When we were there [at Constantinople], a widow appeared at the compound of the Resurrection and gave the rector an icon of the Lady, known as the Vlachernsky. This is the same icon that the patriarch once surrounded the walls of the city, and at the same time she turned the enemies who attacked him into a shameful flight. The woman said that she found her in the wall of her house with a lamp burning in front of her. Our Vladyka Patriarch used all his efforts, offering a lot of chervonets