Shuya-Smolensk icon of the  Mother of God  "Hodegetria"

 

In 1654-1655, an epidemic of the plague raged in Russia. Daily divine services with ceremonial processions during which icons were carried out were conducted at all churches. At the time, the parishioners of the Church of the Resurrection in the town of Shuya decided to paint a Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God "Hodegetria" for their parish in order to deliver themselves from the disaster. One pious monk was commissioned to do the job. It took him a week during Lent to paint the icon, which was then installed in the church in a place specially prepared for it. The epidemic subsided and soon stopped altogether. Since then the icon has wrought numerous miracles, a number of which were confirmed in the. course of an inquiry carried out in 1667 on the orders of Tsar Alexci Mikhailovich. There are several annual feast days in honor of this icon: on July 28/August 10 with a festal procession around the town in commemoration of its deliverance from cholera in 1831; on Bright Tuesday in commemoration of the first miracle wrought by the icon; on the first Sunday of the Fast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul; and on November 2/15.