The miraculous icon of the Mother of God known as the Isaakovskaya Icon, was housed in the men’s monastery in the Yaroslavl province, Poshekhonye district. This monastery was named after the town of Isaakovo, on whose territory the holy icon appeared.
On November 25, 1659, some local residents were in the forest, and saw resting in the branches of a yew tree, an icon of the Nativity of the Most-holy Theotokos, from which there burst forth a radiant light. They immediately sought to take the icon and to bring it to their town, but during that attempt they were seized by a horror from which, according to the chronicler, "Their spirits quaked, their bones and sinews shook, and they were as if struck numb." Then the peasants ran to their priest and told him and the populace what had transpired. The priest put on his vestments, and accompanied by the clergy and by people carrying khorugvy (church banners), they went out to the place, about one kilometer from town, where the icon of the Mother of God had appeared. Then all saw the unusual light, shining from the branches of the yew tree like the sun, and within that light, the icon. After singing a moleben, the priest piously removed the icon from the tree, and with it, returned in solemn procession to the town of Isaakovo. Installing the icon in the parish church, he again served a prayer service, and in the evening, after the people had left, locked up the church. The next day, when everyone returned to the church for Matins, all were struck with amazement, for although all of the windows and doors were still securely locked and bolted, the newly discovered icon was not in the church. Some of the people ran to the place in the forest where the icon had appeared, and soon returned to relate that the icon was in that same tree. The priest again set off on a procession of the cross into the forest to the icon, and reverently transferred it to the church. The news of the miracles connected with the newly discovered icon quickly spread, and multitudes of people came from all directions to venerate the icon of the Most-holy Theotokos. Towards evening, the doors of the church were locked, and a guard was set, but the next morning, by an unseen power, the icon was again translated into the forest to the place of its discovery. Then all realized that it was the will of the Queen of Heaven that this holy icon remain there at the place she had chosen. The people’s determination was so strong that in a single day, they built a chapel on the site, and on the following day consecrated it, and with appropriate solemnity transferred the icon there.
From that time on, great miracles came forth from the Icon, and crowds of faithful ran to her. The Elder Ephraim was assigned to be the first warden of the chapel, and through his pious life, turned towards prayer the hearts of those who visited. Gradually, a small skete developed near the chapel. Through the petitions of elder Ephraim, Jonah, Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl’ permitted the replacement of the chapel with a wooden church, and next to it a monastery.
In 1750, the wooden church burned down to its foundation. In 1758, a stone church replaced the wooden one, and was dedicated to the Nativity of the Most-holy Theotokos, with a chapel to the Holy Hierarch and Miracle-worker St. Nicholas. To the left of the Royal Doors of the iconostasis was the holy treasure of the monastery, the miraculous icon of the Most-holy Theotokos, with an oil-lamp continuously burning before it.