"Albazin" Icon "The Word Was Made Flesh"

9/22 March

In the winter of 1665-1666, a detachment of Cossacks from Nikifor in Chernigov established themselves in the heartland of the Orthodox civilization at the Amur River, on the legendary island of Albazino. Cossacks could not have imagined living in an unexplored land without spiritual nourishment provided by a priest; thus, Elder - Abbot Germogen set off with the Cossacks on their long journey. It was he who brought along to Albazino the holy miraculous Icon “The Word Made Flesh,” which later came to be known as the Albazino Icon.

In the mid 19th Century, the time came to establish Russian governance over Russia’s far-Eastern borders. People migrated to the newly explored lands from all over the enormous Russian Empire. Their great trek was fraught with great dangers and difficulties. Hoping on God’s mercy, the travelers intensified their prayers, and carried in their hearts the images of the miraculous icons with which they had been familiar from infancy back home. That enormous variety of icons found its grace-filled reflection in the holy Miraculous Albazino Icon of the Mother of God, the only one in that entire far-Eastern region, the Icon through which for many years the Queen of Heaven accompanied the first pioneers.

One hundred years ago, in 1902, with the blessing of the Most-reverend Nikodim (Bokov), visits by the Holy Albazino Icon to individual settlements at the request of the residents were expanded to greater journeys, encompassing wide regions of the Amur area, and became diocesan undertakings. Each year from that time on until the difficult years of the Revolution, the miraculous Icon was taken from the Annunciation Cathedral in late spring, and until mid-Autumn, would go in Processions of the Cross to visit a multitude of villages throughout the Amur land. The joy and inspiration it gave the people of Amur was enormous. Thus was the land of Amur blessed.

The reverence for the miraculous Icon among the Orthodox of Amur grew greater each year, until the Most-reverend Guriy (Burtasofsky), who administered the diocese beginning in 1885, decreed in the Autumn of that same year, that by order of the Holy Synod, a Feast of the Albazino Icon of the Mother of God was to be celebrated annually on March 9 (March 22 New Style). On that date, both in the Cathedral and in other churches of the diocese, Festal Liturgies and Molebens are served. From that point on, in the Annunciation Cathedral, the Akathist has been read before the Holy Miraculous Icon weekly.

The feast established in honor of the Holy Albazino Icon came into general usage, and for many residents of Blagoveschensk, weekly readings of the Akathist before the Icon became an essential part of their religious observance.

After its arrival in the God-preserved town of Blagoveschensk, the icon that had worked miracles over the centuries, gained ever-greater renown with each passing year for new miracles wrought through fervent prayers offered before it. Thus, already in the Fall of 1885, at the time its Feast day and the practice of weekly Akathists before it became established, the awful epidemics of diphtheria and scarlet fever that had been ravaging the town and its surrounding area, taking the lives of many people, first abated, and then disappeared altogether. Before, the appearance of black flags marking the homes of victims had terrified the populace. Through the intercession of the Most-pure Theotokos, and through fervent prayers to her, the deadly danger passed. In 1895, the miraculous icon worked miracles during an epidemic of plague that struck the town.

As the Holy Albazino Icon of the Mother of God, known as the “Word Made Flesh,” depicted the Mother of God bearing the Divine Infant in her womb, it was soon noted that the grace of Divine help was extended especially in response to fervent prayers for women who were pregnant and those in labor.

During the episcopacy of the Most-reverend Guriy, there developed traditions of having Processions of the Cross with the Miraculous Icon throughout the city. They would go in procession with the Holy Icon along the streets of Blagoveschensk, would enter the homes of those who were in need of support and healing, and would carry the Icon over those who were ill. Quite often, on these occasions, healing or easing of suffering would occur. Miracles wrought through the prayers of the faithful before the Miraculous Icon and during its visits to homes quickly became known to the Orthodox Christians not only in the city and its environs, but also far beyond throughout the Amur area.

Many copies of the Miraculous Icon were made before the Revolution. Some of them remained in the Amur area, while others were distributed throughout the Russian Empire.

icon from www.days.ru