Orthodox icon | Mother of God of the Passion | 24733

Mother of God of Perpetual Help)

Mother of God of Perpetual Succour

Strastnaya

The miraculous Russian icon, whose feast is celebrated on August 13, was in Nizhny Novgorod and after a first miracle was transferred to the village of Palitsa, which is in the same episcopate. At the behest of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, she was brought to Moscow in 1641 and placed in the Passion Virgin Mary monastery built in her honor. The monastery was demolished after 1928.

As “Mater de Perpetuo Succursu” – the original is in the “Church of the Redeemer and Saint Alfonso Liguori” in Rome, this type found in post-Byzantine times in the Roman Catholic Church through icons of the so-called “Italo-Crethic” School was wide-spread. The icon of this modern type by Andreas Rico (Ritzos) from Herakleion on Crete, who was active in Italy around the middle and second half of the 16th century is one of the most famous.

The figure shows the Mother of God of the Hodegetria type with the Christ child on her left arm, who looks up at Gabriel (not depicted on this icon).

The child seeking refuge can be found for the first time in the Athos monastery of Hilandar as a fresco copy from the 14th century, then in the Macedonian monastery of Konce, labeled as “Fearful Mother of God of Hilandar” – proof that the iconography was known long before Andreas Rico.