Lost wonderworking icon of Savior possibly found in Yaroslavl

An icon of Christ the Savior found in the storerooms of the Yaroslavl Art Museum will be sent to the State Research Institute of Restoration for examination. It is possible that it is the wonderworking icon from the Church of Christ the Savior of Sts. Cyril and Athanasius Monastery in Yaroslavl that saved the city from plague in 1612, when Minin and Pozharsky formed a militia in the city, reports regnum.ru.

The head of the Department of Ancient Russian Art of the Yaroslavl Art Museum Viktoria Gorshkova said that the protocol describing the preservation of the wonderworking icon in 1930, taken from the monastery, was found in the archives of the restoration workshops.

“This description was made by the restorer Nikolai Bryagin. He writes that it is the wonderworking icon itself, which, according to tradition, saved Yaroslavl from a plague in 1612, during the time that Minin and Pozharsky’s militia stayed here. This description partially fits one of the icons of the Savior Not-Made-By-Hands that we have in our collection. The icon was not restored, nor was its age determined. Therefore, it was decided to send it for examination,” Gorshkova shared.

The museum staff is in no hurry to draw any conclusions before they receive the results of the examination. It is known that the church burned a few times and that various copies of the wonderworking icon were made. “Experts will determine the age of the icon, which will help establish the validity of the hypothesis. If the icon was painted before the beginning of the 17th century, then, perhaps, it is truly the lost, miraculous icon,” the museum representative noted.

Abbot Nikodim of Sts. Cyril and Athanasius Monastery believe the appearance of the icon may be related to the current geopolitical situation.

“Historically, the present time is reminiscent of the beginning of the 17th century. Russian suffered an attack from Poland then, and now we are subjected to unprecedented pressure from Western countries, the European Union,” Fr. Nikodim told yarnews.net.

According to tradition, the icon of the Savior was manifested during a procession designed to save the city from a plague in 1612. The city’s miraculous saving by the icon was the reason for the building of the new church of the Savior and the foundation of Sts. Cyril and Athanasius Monastery.

Source: Orthochristian.com