Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God " Hodegetria"

This icon, together with a particle of the Wood of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord and the right hand of St. John the Baptist, was brought to Russia in 1799. It was said to be painted by the Apostle St Luke, who gave it to the city of Antioch, from where it was subsequently brought to Jerusalem, In the 5th century A.D,, Byzantine Empress Eudoxia trans­lated the icon to Constantinople where it was installed in the Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God. Afier Constantinople was captured by the Crusaders, the icon got into the hands of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who later on took it to Rhodes and then to Malta. In the late 18th century, when Emperor Paul I was elected Grand Master of the Order, the icon was brought to his Gatchina Palace and then to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg where it was installed in the Church of the Image of the Savior "Not Made with Hands." Its feast day. instituted in 1800, is celebrated on October 12/25.