Inside the high stone fence, next to the Kremlin, is the Kazan Dvi-ai Monastery, founded in 1579 in the name of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God located here. Since this icon was revered by the Orthodox (celebrated on October 22), the reverence of the Kazan residents towards it is such that we consider it necessary to tell the story of the acquisition of this shrine.
In 1579, a significant part of Kazan was destroyed by fire. Among the victims was the small archer Onuchin, whose house burned to the ground. His daughter, a ten-year-old girl, saw the Mother of God in battle, who commanded her to declare to everyone that in the ashes of a burnt house Her most pure image had been hidden. The authorities were informed about this dream, but they did not attach any special significance to it, as a result of which the girl devoted herself to searching for icons. 8 fields she found her in the ashes at a depth of 2 arshins. The icon looked like a new one, as if it had been recently painted.
The news of the girl’s discovery instantly spread throughout the city and masses of people converged on the ashes of Onuchin’s house. The authorities appeared, the clergy arrived with the archbishop at their head, and the icon was solemnly transferred to the nearest Church of St. Nicholas of Tula. Later it was found out that this icon is an exact copy of the miraculous image of the Mother of God, taken from Terusalem to Constantinople by Queen Eudova, the wife of the Greek king @9eoel.
He ate many miracles, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, who believed in the newly-appeared icon, Archbishop [Sheremya ordered to remove the cat from her, which he escorted to Moscow to Tsar Toann Vasilyevich with a detailed description of the event of finding the icon. The Tsar ordered to build a church in the name of the Mother of God on the spot where the icon was found and to establish a monastery here. The girl who found the icon—already a girl at that time—was the first novice sister of the new monastery under the name Maroya.
Tsar OEodore Toannovich ordered the construction of a new stone church instead of a wooden one in the monastery, which was consecrated in 1595, and the icon itself was decorated with precious stones, pearls and gold from the royal treasury. At the end of the last century, the temple fell into disrepair and a new one was built in its place - the current one, consecrated in 1804; it has five chapters, is high and spacious and has a main dome decorated with a colonnade of the Corino Order; the side gables are supported by colonnades of the 1onic order. In 1810, a warm cathedral was built in the monastery, where the icon of the Mother of God was placed, and more recently a seven-tier bell tower (the tallest building in the city) and many other buildings were built, so that at present
Dvich Monastery looks like a small town, consisting exclusively of stone buildings.
During the Time of Troubles of the interregnum in Russia, the army sent from Kazan to the rescue of Moscow had with them a copy of the miraculous icon of the Kazan Bottom Mother; From this time on, the icon acquired special respect among the Russian army, and then among the entire Russian people, and received the All-Russian significance. Tsar Mikhail Oeodorovich built the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow in the name of this icon and established two celebrations a year: the 8th Field - the day of the acquisition of the icon and the 29th October - the day of the liberation of Moscow. In the name of the same icon, the last Kazan Cathedral was built in St. Petersburg.
Kazan
Sedmgozernaya desert.
The very icon of the Kazan Mother of God in ancient Greek letters has two vestments: one festive, all gold, decorated with 480 precious stones, including 18 large diamonds, and the other completely covered with pearls, with a diamond crown donated by Catherine II, decorated with 1700 precious stones. The icon kivot is also richly decorated. In total, there are up to 3,000 precious stones on two vestments and kivots.