Appearance of the Pukhtista of the Mother of God

 

According to the 16th-century Syrenetskaya Chronicle, there was a sign at Kuremae in Estonia four centuries ago. A herdsman grazing a herd of cattle saw the Most Holy Virgin arrayed in a radiant azure robe and bathed in light in an oak-tree grove on a high hill. He gathered the people from his village who, having searched through the grove, found an old icon depicting the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. The icon was lying under an oak-tree where later on the Orthodox villagers built a chapel. Thus the veneration of the Holy Mount Pukhtitsa began. In 1721. a parish church was built 25 kilometers from Pukhtitsa. into which the miracle-working icon was installed.In 1885, an Orthodox parish was established at Pukhtitsa and in 1891 the Pukhtitsa Convent of the Dormition was opened there. In 1910, a cathedral dedicated to the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos was built at the cloister and the old miracle-working icon was installed in the cathedral. Feast day; August 15/28-