Georgian - Raithu icon of the Mother of God

This icon was painted in Georgia. In 1622, Shah Abbas T of Persia conquered the country and plundered its shrines. One day, an unknown Persian brought the stolen Georgian Icon of the Mother of God to merchant Stefan Lazarev. The merchant bought the icon and sent it to the Krasnogorsk Monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos. The arrival of the icon at the cloister was marked by the healing of blind and deaf monk Pitirim. When the plague was raging in Moscow, the icon was brought to the capital. Here a copy of the holy image was made which was subsequently kept at the Church of St.Nicetas the Great Martyr in Glinishchi. Those who prostrated themselves before the icon were saved from the plague, After that its copies, one of the oldest among which was kept at the St.Alksy Convent (from the second half of the 17th century), began to be spread all over the country. The icon's feast day, instituted by Metropolitan Nikon of Novgorod, the future Patriarch of Moscow, is celebrated on August 22/September 4.