The Devpeturovskaya Icon in Tambov

28 February/13 March

In the Tambov Cathedral, there was an icon of the Mother of God known as the Devpeturovskaya Icon; it was especially venerated in Tambov, as, according to tradition, it had been the icon Holy Hierarch Pitirim, Miracle-worker of Tambov kept in his cell. Before that Icon, St. Pitirim would raise up fervent prayers to God.  A miraculous event that took place in1833 caused people to have even greater veneration for the Icon than they did before. In a dream, a certain woman whose husband had been imprisoned on the basis of a false accusation saw an elder, who directed her to look for Holy Hierarch Pitirim’s icon (the Icon of the Devpeturovskaya Mother of God) in the Cathedral, and to have a Moleben served before it.  Relying on the description of the Icon given by the elder, the woman immediately recognized the Icon that was shown to her as the Icon that she had been revealed to her in dream. She asked that a Moleben be served before it, and in fact, quite soon thereafter, her husband was released from the prison.

Today, a copy of that Icon rests in the Cathedral on an analogion to the left of the relics of Holy Hierarch St. Pitirim. The original, St. Pitirim’s cell icon, has miraculously survived to the present day, and is brought out into the church for veneration, during hierarchical services on major feast days.