Its origin is in antiquity. According to local tradition recorded by Bishop
James Sushey, it was written by the Holy Evangelist St. Luke, and brought to
Kievan Rus' during the reign of Prince Vladimir, who received a multitude of
icons from Constantinople after he underwent Holy Baptism.
Kholmsk Icon is written on three linked cypress panels. In ancient times, the Icon was enhanced by an expensive riza of Byzantine craftsmanship, cast in gold and covered with enamel. However, 1261, at the time of the Tatar invasion, Burunday's forces came to South-Western Rus' and sacked the town of Kholm (the town today known as Chelm, in the Republic of Poland), where the Holy Icon was. The Icon itself suffered at their hands: in removing the riza from the Icon, they damaged the image in several spots, and the Icon itself was lost. It was during excavations one hundred years after the destruction of Kholm that the Holy Icon was found and installed in the reconstructed Kholm Cathedral. In our days, two wounds inflicted upon the Icon by the Tatars are visible: one, which was caused by a saber stroke, is on the left shoulder; another, caused by an arrow, is on the right arm. According to pious tradition, immediate punishment was meted out to the impious Tatars who were looting the Church: they lost their eyesight.
When in 1596, Dionysiy Zbiruisky, Bishop of Kholm, joined the Unia, the Kholm
Cathedral and the Icon fell into the hands of the Uniates. In 1650, during the
Cossack uprising under Bohdan Khmelnitsky in Ukraine, the Uniates were forced,
under the terms of the Zborovsk Treaty, to return the Icon to the Orthodox
Bishop, Dionisiy Balaban. At the same time, the Uniates attempted to hide the
Icon. Thus, it was some time later that it was found in a dungeon. In 1651, war
broke out with renewed force, and the Icon once again fell into Polish hands. On
the advice of James Sushiy, King Jan II Casimir took the Kholm Icon with him
into battle, and subsequently displayed it in Warsaw in the chapel of the royal
palace, where it remained until 1652. Jan Casimir attributed his victory over
the Cossacks to the Mother of God, whose Kholm Icon was with him during the
military campaign. In thanks, the king restored the Uniate diocesan seat to
Kholm, and turned the Icon over to that diocese. On April 29, 1652, it was
installed in the cathedral in Kholm. Meanwhile, war between Poland and Ukraine
once again erupted with greater intensity. The king once again took the
Miraculous Kholm Icon onto the field of battle, but It did not render him any
assistance. The Polish army suffered a defeat, after which the Kholm Icon was
returned to the Kholm Cathedral, where it remained until the early 20th Century.
Under Uniate rule, attempts were made to Latinize the Miraculous Icon and the Kholm Cathedral itself. In accordance with Catholic custom, the Icon was placed above the main Altar Table in the Altar. In 1765 the Roman Pope crowned the Icon with two gold crowns. A silver tablet bearing a bas-relief and an inscription in Latin was affixed to the front of the Altar Table above which the Icon hung; today it is kept in the Moscow Armory in the Kremlin.
Kholmsk Icon and the Cathedral were returned to an Orthodox community in the first half of the 19th Century. The Holy Icon was officially installed above the Royal Doors of the Icon Screen.
Archimandrite Ioannikios Golyatovsky's book The New Heaven relates accounts of the many miracles that took place before the that Icon.
During the Tatar attacks in the time of Batu Khan some of his forces set out for Kholm. At that time, in the town there lived two pious princesses. Seeing that defense by force of arms was impossible, they, together with others, turned in prayer to the Theotokos before her Kholmsk Icon, and implored her to take the town under her protection. Then the women took the Miraculous Icon from the Church and placed it on the fortress wall facing the enemy forces. Some kind of obsessive delusion was visited upon the Tatar forces: the hill upon the town rested began to appear to be much higher and steeper than it really was. The closer they approached, the more powerful was that sensation. Seized with panic, they began to retreat. Thus, through miraculous help from the Theotokos, the town was saved.
Currently, Kholmsk Icon of the Theotokos is on display in the Volhyn Iconography Museum in the town of Lutsk.
(1) Original Icon
(2) A print of the Icon from the Volhyn Iconography Museum (Lutsk, Ukraine)