"Kozelshchanskaya" Icon
21 February / 6 March

The "Kozelschanskaya" icon of the Mother of God was glorified following an unusual miracle which happened to the family of Count V.I. Kapnist, who lived in the village of Kozelschina, in the province of Poltava. In 1880, his daughter suffered a leg sprain and was unable to walk. Renowned physicians of Poltava and Moscow suggested that she be referred to the luminaries of Europe. Hoping to receive help from the famous Frenchman Charcot, who was expected shortly in Moscow, the Count decided to take his daughter there. On the eve of their departure, the Countess told her daughter that she should pray fervently before their family holy icon of the Mother of God. The daughter cleaned the icon’s riza, and in a fervent stream of tears poured forth her complete faith. Suddenly she perceived that something miraculous was happening. A feeling of vitality appeared in her arms and legs, a strength which until that moment she did not have. Involuntarily, she cried out “Mama, mama, I feel my legs, I feel my arms!” At first the mother thought that her daughter had taken leave of her senses; the abruptness of her movements, the joy in her face, and her cries appeared to the suffering mother to be symptoms of an attack of madness. However, the Countess came to see that her daughter had been miraculously healed. Despite this, the Countess took her daughter, along with the icon, to Moscow. The physicians, including the renowned Charcot, declined to express a scientific explanation for what had occurred. Charcot stated that were it not for the presence of trustworthy witnesses like the Muscovite professors, he would have considered it all a fabrication.

With the icon, the Count’s family departed for their estate. Soon thereafter, a blind maiden appeared and told them that in a dream, the Mother of God had told her to come to her icon. The Countess brought out the icon, and the maiden prayed before it for a long time. Several days later, she regained sight in both eyes. First a chapel, and then a church, were built in the Count’s garden. In 1885, a women’s monastery, with a hospital, school, and home for the crippled, was opened in Kozelshchina.

icon from www.pravoslavie.ru