"Rescuer of the Drowning" ("The Lenkovskaya Icon")
20 December / 2 January

About 8.5 km. from the city of Novgorod of the North, in Chernigov District, lies the Village of Lenkovo, on the banks of the Desno. Long ago, the settlement was closer to the city.  In it there was a church dedicated to the Synaxis of the Most-holy Theotokos, which is why the place is still known as “Bogoroditchniy,” i.e., belonging to the Theotokos. During the Polish incursion in the time of the pretender to the throne, the town of Lenkovo and its church were completely decimated.  In the second half of the 17th Century the entire settlement was transferred to a new site.  A new church, dedicated to the Holy Archangel Michael, was erected; it housed the miraculous Icon of the Mother of God.

According to tradition, the Icon of the Mother of God was brought to this church from the former Church of the Theotokos.  The historical account of its appearance and glorification relates the following.

In the river Desno, directly across from the hill on which the church was later built, there is an extremely dangerous whirlpool which even the most experienced sailors found difficult to traverse.  Quite often, enormous barges loaded down with grain would become victims of the abyss: the powerful swirling waters would carry them and their passengers away. It was at that dangerous site that the Icon of the Mother of God came to rest on the riverbank and was found. The pious believers, who discovered the Most-immaculate Icon, installed it on a site facing the disastrous place. Some time later, the above-mentioned Church of the Theotokos came into being on that site. Ever since then, those plying the Desno River have made it their usual practice to stop at the Village of Lenkovo, go ashore and enter the church.  After fervent prayer before the Icon of the Mother of God, they would cast lots to see who would remain on board the barge and steer it across the dangerous whirlpool.  Their companions would continue on foot along the shore to pass the awful place.  Evidently, the good will of the Mother of God rested on that dangerous site ever since the nearby church in her name was erected.  It was noted that from the time of the appearance of the Icon of the Mother of God, mishaps to sailors there became a rarity, and later completely ceased.

In the 18th Century, the Icon was transferred to the Monastery of the Savior’s Transfiguration, where it remained until the October Revolution of 1917. History does not record what happened to the Miraculous Icon thereafter.

The Icon of the Most-immaculate Lady was greatly revered by the populace in the area of Lenkovo, and drew a multitude of faithful, especially those who often had to endure the perils of the waters, to pray before it.

The “Rescuer of the Drowning” Icon of the Mother of God, which was famous for many other miracles, came to be revered not only in area of Chernigov-Severschino, but far beyond, especially in large port cities of the Russian land.

On May 22, 2003, the feast day of Holy Hierarch St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the Church of the “Unexpected Joy” Icon of the Mother of God, metochion of the Novgorod of the North Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior, was consecrated. After the consecration, Sergei Viatcheslavovitch Babushkin, a pious Christian, gave the rector of the monastery an antique exact copy of the Lenkovo Icon of the Mother of God.

The restored antique copy of the Miraculous “Rescuer of the Drowning” Icon once again returned to the land of Novgorod of the North, to the Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior.  It was with the return of the Icon that the revival of the monastery began.