Filermskaya icon of the mother of God miracles. Filermskaya icon of the mother of God. Lecture "Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God"

The Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God - the lost "Gatchina shrine"

This publication by Doctor of Historical Sciences M.V. Shkarovsky. This image has been on the Russian land for more than a hundred years and during this period belonged to the Russian Royal House, but later it was irretrievably lost by our compatriots.

One of the most significant church shrines of St. Petersburg in the XIX - early XX centuries. was now located in Montenegro, the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God. The Orthodox Church calendar published in Russia on October 12/25 still notes "the transfer from Malta to Gatchina of a part of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of St. John the Baptist" (in 1799). And in one of the recent foreign Russian-language editions, it was reported about the Filermsky image that "the original of the icon is in St. Petersburg." However, during the years of the civil war, which became a real tragedy in the history of Russia, many of the greatest cultural values and shrines were forever lost for our country. A number of them were destroyed in the course of fierce battles, burned down in fires, etc., but many during the bloody turmoil and split of the state irrevocably left its borders. This happened to one of the priceless sacred relics of the entire Christian world, which by the will of fate ended up in Russia - the Filermian Icon of the Mother of God.

This image had a long history. According to legend, the icon was painted by the Evangelist Luke at the beginning of the first millennium and consecrated with the blessing of the Mother of God. Soon the evangelist Luke himself took this image to Egypt, from there it was transported to Jerusalem, and around 430 the Empress Eudokia, the wife of Theodosius II (408-450), ordered to deliver the icon to Constantinople, where the image of the Mother of God was placed in the Blachernae Church. In 626, through the prayers of the inhabitants, who offered their petitions to the Filermian image, the city was saved from the invasion of the Persians. On this occasion, a song of thanks was compiled to the Mother of God, which the worshipers had to listen to while standing; this chanting order was called an akathist.

In 1204, during the IV-ro crusade, the icon was captured by the crusaders and again transferred to Palestine. There she was administered by the monastic-knightly order of the Johannites, or Hospitallers. Displaced in 1291 by the Saracens from Palestine and Syria, the Johannites lived in Cyprus for 18 years, and in 1309 they moved to the island of Rhodes, reclaimed from the Muslims after two years of battles. For the Filermos icon, knights in the XIV century built a temple of the Mother of God on the territory of the ancient settlement of Yalisa on Mount Filermios (named after the monk Filerimos), near the city of Rhodes. This temple, built on the foundations of an ancient Byzantine basilica, is well preserved, as is the nearby monastery. In the Church of the Mother of God on Mount Filermios, there is currently a copy of the Filermos icon and divine services are held, and the temple is divided by a lattice into two halves: Orthodox and Catholic.

In 1522, the troops of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, after a six-month siege, seized Rhodes, and the members of the order a few years later (in 1530) found refuge on Fr. Malta, where the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God, as well as other ancient shrines, arrived with them. In 1573, the construction of a cathedral in the name of St. John the Baptist and, after his consecration, the venerated icon of the Mother of God was placed in the Filermsky side-altar, decorated with silver gates.

At the end of the 18th century, Malta was captured by French troops under the command of Napoleon, and the Knights of Malta decided to go under the protection of Russia. In 1798, they elected Emperor Paul I as the head of the order, and on November 29 of the same year, the emperor solemnly entrusted himself with the crown of the Grand Master. The hand of St. John the Baptist was brought to St. Petersburg in the same year, and the Filerma icon of the Mother of God and part of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord were delivered to the Russian capital in 1799.

In September 1799, the imperial court arrived in Gatchina, where Paul's favorite country residence was. By this time, the emperor's daughter, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, was betrothed to the Crown Prince of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Friedrich Louis. The wedding took place in Gatchina on October 12; on the same day, at the direction of Paul I, the solemn transfer of the shrines brought from Malta took place. They were placed in the Gatchina court church. The emperor brought his gift to the church, commanding to arrange gold, decorated with diamonds and precious stones for the right hand of St. John the Baptist and for a part of the Cross of the Lord, and for the Filermskaya icon - a new golden robe. In memory of this event, by the highest command, an annual holiday was established, included in the church month on October 12 (old style).

During the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, the tradition of transferring the Filermskaya Icon to Gatchina was revived. In memory of Paul I, the founder of the city, Nicholas I ordered to erect a cathedral church in the name of St. the apostle Paul. The cathedral was founded on October 30, 1846, built according to the design of the professor of architecture R.I. Kuzmin and was consecrated on July 12, 1852.

In the autumn of the same year, Nicholas I visited the temple. A deputation from the parishioners thanked the emperor and asked that the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God and other Maltese relics be placed in the new temple for permanent residence. The Emperor listened to the request, but agreed only to a temporary annual offering of shrines to the cathedral for the worship of believers. Since that time, the celebration of the holiday on October 12 was restored, which began to be performed annually in the Gatchina court church and the Pavlovsk cathedral of the city. In 1852, Nicholas I also ordered to write a copy of the Filermskaya icon and place it in a gilded silver setting on the analogue of the Gatchina Cathedral. And soon at the royal gates of the middle iconostasis, a copy of the icon, made by the artist Bovin, was placed on the analogue.

On the eve of the holiday, October 11, the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God and other relics were delivered from St. Petersburg to Gatchina. An all-night vigil was solemnly performed in the palace church, and the worshipers were kissing the shrines taken out in the middle of the church. The next day, after an early liturgy in the palace church, with a procession of the cross, the shrines were transferred to the cathedral, where they stayed for ten days for general worship and prayers. On the day of the celebration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, October 22, after the procession of the cross through the city, the shrines were taken back to St. Petersburg. For more than 60 years, this holiday was the main one for the inhabitants of Gatchina, and during the rest of the year the Maltese relics stayed in the Cathedral of the Winter Palace, in a special icon case on the right side of the royal gates. In 1915, the senior judge and chairman of the Court of Justice of the Island of Malta, Pullicino, appealed to Emperor Nicholas II with a request to provide the Maltese Museum with photographs of the icon of Our Lady of Filerm. Soon this request was fulfilled.

Soon after the October Revolution, in late 1917 - early 1918, the Cathedral of the Winter Palace was closed and destroyed, but the Maltese shrines were saved. Among other items of decoration of the liquidated court churches, they ended up in the sacristy of the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, which belonged to the court department. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, Protopresbyter of the former court clergy Alexander Dernov on January 6, 1919, in two cases, transported the relics from Moscow to Gatchina, where they were placed in the Cathedral of St. ap. Paul.

The Soviet authorities showed interest in the Filermskaya icon only in the early 1920s. On December 29, 1923, the Main Directorate of Scientific and Artistic Institutions of the People's Commissariat of Education tried in a message to its Petrograd branch (containing a number of erroneous judgments on the history of the icon) to find out the fate of the relic: Rhodes of the Icon of Our Lady of Filermus in view of the Italian government's petition to return the icon to Rhodes [during that period of the Italian colony]. The icon was in the palace of Gaea [?], And now it is allegedly transferred to the Gatchina palace. The Department for Museum Affairs asks to answer as soon as possible where this icon is located at this time, and to provide a conclusion whether the museum value of the icon is so great to defend its abandonment in Russia before the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. "

This request was made in connection with the fact that in 1923 the Italian government, through its ambassador in Moscow, asked the Soviet authorities to return the shrines of the Order of Malta. The People's Commissariat of Education, in turn, sent a request to V.K. Makarov, in which he asked to find out the fate of these relics. Soon V.K. Makarov turned to the rector of the Pavlovsk Cathedral, Archpriest Andrei Shotovsky, for clarification.

Even earlier, these events were described in a letter from Archpriest Alexy of the Annunciation of Gatchina to His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and Protopresbyter Alexander Dernov dated October 6/19, 1920. As for the copy made under Nicholas I from the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God, according to the testimony of Archpriest Andrei Shotovsky, “at the present time [in January 1924] it is preserved in the Pavlovsk Cathedral, although the silver riza was removed from it and handed over at the request of the local executive committee in the Trotsky financial department ".

It is possible to explain and to a certain extent justify the behavior of the rector of the Pavlovsk Cathedral. Indeed, by the fall of 1919, many priests had already been repressed, there were frequent cases of opening the relics of saints, destroying icons, etc. And during the period of a real threat to Petrograd from the troops of General Yudenich, when the city began to be cleansed of dubious elements, anti-church actions were also planned. Thus, in the statement of a delegation of authoritative priests and laity, sent on September 15 by Hieromartyr Metropolitan Benjamin (Kazan) to the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet G.E. Zinoviev was told that the church was agitated by "persistent rumors about the general arrest (or deportation) of the Petrograd clergy in view of their counterrevolutionary nature or as hostages ..." Perhaps this was the reason that Archpriest John of the Epiphany (in monasticism Isidore, the future Bishop of Tallinn) not only left Gatchina himself (you can recall that the writer Kuprin left the city with the retreating troops of Yudenich), but also took away with him the most valuable relics. So Russia lost these most important Christian shrines.

In the mid-1920s. the Soviet government transferred to Italy a certain icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, called Filermskaya, but this was just a list. In April 1925 the People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky sent a telegram to Leningrad: “The delay in the transfer of the Filermskaya Icon from Gatchina causes trouble with the Italians; I strongly suggest that the icon be sent to Moscow. Immediately report the execution ”. Following this instruction, the administrative council of the Trotsky district executive committee withdrew a copy of the Filerm icon and handed it over to V.K. Makarov to be sent to Moscow. A photograph was taken from the icon and left in the cathedral. Thus, the Italian ambassador in 1925 in Moscow was given only a copy of the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God, made in the middle of the 19th century, and it was she who was placed in the Roman residence of the Order of Malta (later this icon was transported to Assisi and placed in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli ).

As already mentioned, in October 1919, the former Maltese relics were taken from Gatchina to Estonia, then they were taken to Copenhagen, where they were handed over to the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Emperor Alexander III. On October 13, 1928, Maria Feodorovna died. In the same year, her daughters, the Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga, donated the Filermskaya Icon (and two other shrines) to the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, located in the Yugoslav city of Sremski Karlovtsy, and soon this venerated icon was delivered to Germany and placed in an Orthodox cathedral. Berlin.

In the summer of 1932, the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), handed over the Gatchina relics for safekeeping to the King of Yugoslavia, Alexander I Karageorgievich. On July 20, Vladyka Anthony in a letter to the former personal secretary of General P.N. Wrangel N.M. Kotlyarevsky noted: “... our Petrograd relics are still in the safe of the Ministry of the Court, and not in the church. They say that at the request of the Highest Persons, they will be taken to the newly built church of the country palace in Dedin. " Soon, the king placed the shrines in the palace church in Belgrade, and in 1934 moved it to the completed church of the country palace on the island of Dedinja.

In the report of Vladyka Anthony to the Synod of Bishops on December 10, 1932, it was emphasized: “Accepting the named Shrines, and handing them over to His Majesty King Alexander for safekeeping, I invariably recognized them as the property of the Russian Emperors. Therefore, my successors, as the Chairman of the Synod of Bishops, must recognize the Head of the Russian Royal House as the owner of the Shrines, and if the Shrines are transferred to any of my successors by the King of Yugoslavia, then the Right Reverend will have the duty to turn to the Head of the Russian Dynasty for instructions on how to deal with them. ". Unfortunately, this provisional transfer condition was later forgotten.

On April 6, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked Yugoslavia without declaring war, German bombers raided Belgrade. Two days later, on April 8, King Peter III Karageorgievich, leaving Belgrade due to the military danger together with the Serbian Patriarch Gabriel (Dozic), took the relics with him. Soon they arrived on the territory of Montenegro - to the monastery of St. Vasily Ostrozhsky (Ostrog), carved into the rock at an altitude of 840 meters above sea level.

A few days later, the fugitives split up, the Patriarch remained in the monastery, and the king, together with members of the Serbian government, flew to Jerusalem on April 14, transferring the Gatchina shrines to the High Priest for preservation. Immediately after the arrival of German troops at the monastery, on April 25, the Patriarch was arrested and then taken out of Montenegro. For some time, the abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Leonty (Mitrovich), was also under arrest. The shrines, along with other treasures of the royal dynasty, were hidden in the underground of the abbot's cell, where they were kept for about 10 years. During the war, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church Abroad tried to find and return the relics, in connection with which Metropolitan Anastassy even met in mid-June 1941 with the commander of German troops in Serbia, General von Schroeder. The general assured the Metropolitan that “all measures will be taken to find and return the shrines from the Winter Palace,” but he could not find them.

On December 31, 1944, Montenegro was liberated from occupation by the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army, but the relics were hiding in the monastery for about seven years. In 1951, the Gatchina shrines were seized from the Ostrog monastery during the confiscation of church valuables by the communist authorities of Yugoslavia and were soon transferred to the museum in Podgorica (at that time Titograd), and in the 1960s. transported to the Historical Museum of Cetinje - the ancient capital of Montenegro.

Only on July 7, 1993, on the feast day of the Nativity of John the Baptist, the right hand of John the Baptist and part of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord were transferred to the Cetinje Monastery of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, where they are kept now. In May 1994, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II, who visited Yugoslavia, blessed the people of Montenegro with the right hand of St. John the Baptist. On June 8, 2006, the Montenegrin Metropolitan for the first time took the right hand of John the Baptist outside the country - to Moscow. For 40 days, the shrine visited 16 cities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, where more than two million believers bowed to it, and then was returned to the Cetinsky Monastery.

The Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God, as of great artistic value, is still in the People's Museum in Cetinje. The leadership of the Montenegrin Metropolitanate has repeatedly petitioned for the transfer of the icon to the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church; representatives of the Order of Malta are also trying to get the miraculous image, while promising significant material compensation.

Thus, the Gatchina shrines were lost for the Russian Orthodox Church. However, in some churches in Russia, copies of the Filermskaya icon have been preserved. In the Pavlovsk Cathedral of Gatchina, a copy of the icon and a pictorial depiction of the right hand of St. John the Baptist was made by Archpriest Alexy Blagoveshchensky, who served as the rector of the church until his arrest and execution in February 1938. In the first half of the 1950s. in the Pavlovsk Cathedral appeared a donated silver cross-reliquary with a particle of the relics of St. John the Baptist, and in the 1990s. a particle of the Tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord was also donated to the temple. The holiday established in 1799 with a special service commemorating the transfer of the Maltese relics to Gatchina, and now on October 12/25, is annually celebrated with special solemnity in the Pavlovsk Cathedral. In 1999, exactly 200 years after the transfer of the great Christian shrines from the island of Malta to Russia, the old tradition of the solemn procession of the cross was renewed in Gatchina.

The Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God is one of the patrons of St. Petersburg, along with the Kazan, Tsarskoye Selo, Mourning with pennies, the Nevskaya Quick-to-hear icons of the Mother of God. For more than a century, this icon stayed within the capital of the Russian Empire in the church of the Winter Palace, being a prayer image of the last six Russian emperors, including the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II. We are publishing an excerpt from the book about how the icon ended up in Russia.

At the end of the eighteenth century. Malta was captured by Napoleonic troops, and then the Maltese knights decided to go under the protection of Russia. In 1796, the Ambassador of the Order of Malta, Count Giulio (Julius) Litta, arrived in St. Petersburg, where, at a solemn audience, he asked Emperor Paul I to accept the Order of Malta under his high patronage. In 1798, the Knights of Malta elected Emperor Paul I as the head of the order, and on November 29 of the same year, the emperor solemnly entrusted himself with the crown of the Grand Master. The hand of St. John the Baptist was brought to St. Petersburg in the same 1798, and the miraculous Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God and parts of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord - in 1799. Initially, they were located in the Vorontsov Palace, where the Maltese chapter was located.
Driven by a feeling of gratitude, the Maltese sent a deputation to Peterhof to present the relics as a gift to Emperor Paul I. The emperor expressed a desire to mark this event with a special celebration, seeing in it a manifestation of God's special mercy to Russia.
On October 12, 1799, at 10 o'clock, a cavalcade with the emperor at the head left the Gatchina Palace to meet another procession, in which representatives of the Order of Malta were taking their shrines to Gatchina. After the meeting at the Spassky Gate, a solemn procession began.
The clergy marched in front with the procession, then rode the governor of the Order of Malta, Count Julius Litta, in whose arms, in a golden ark, on a scarlet velvet pillow, rested the honest right hand of St. John the Baptist. Following the Litta, the Maltese knights carried the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God and parts of the Life-Giving Tree. Emperor Paul I walked next to the carriage, in full attire of the Grand Master; he wore a red Supervest and a black robe, a Maltese cross on his chest, and a golden crown of the Grand Master on his head. The emperor was followed by Russian members of the sacred council of the Order of Malta: Count Ivan Petrovich Saltykov, Prince Peter Vasilyevich Lopukhin, Yakov Efimovich Sivers and others. They were followed by a large royal retinue; the procession was completed by many ordinary residents of Gatchina.
When the procession approached the palace, Paul I took the right hand of St. John the Baptist, and, with the singing of the troparion, brought it into the court church, where he put it on the prepared place; here the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God and a part of the Life-giving Tree were also laid.

THE LAST IMAGE OF THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD
IN HER TERRESTRIAL LIFE

The Filermskaya icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is one of the few images that during the earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos was painted by the holy apostle and evangelist Luke. The icon was painted in 46 AD, and this was the last image of the Mother of God in Her earthly life. In subsequent years, the holy Apostle Luke painted other icons of the Mother of God, for example, the Kykkos Icon, but all of them were written from the memory of Saint Luke. But, according to legend, Luke wrote the Filermskaya icon, looking at the Most Holy Theotokos, who was sitting opposite, looking thoughtfully into the distance.
The Filerme Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was brought by Saint Luke to Antioch, where it remained for three centuries. Later, the icon was transferred to the holy city of Jerusalem, where, by the will of God, it was not to stay long. In 430, the wife of the Byzantine emperor Theodosius the Younger Evdokia made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and from there, with special blessing, sent the icon to her husband's sister Pulcheria. Pulcheria staged a priceless image in the newly built Blachernae Church in Constantinople. In the temple, many believers received healings by praying before the miraculous image of the Queen of Heaven. For more than seven centuries the miraculous shrine was kept in Constantinople. But after the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1203, the icon was again transferred to the Holy Land.
Then the miraculous image ended up in the hands of the Catholic knights of the order of the Johannites, who were at that time in the city of Acre. After 88 years, Acre was captured by the Turks. Retreating, the Johannites took the holy icon with them and moved with it to the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea. Together with the Johannites, the miraculous image did not find rest and traveled around the world. In 1530, the Roman Emperor Charles V handed over the islands of Malta, Comino and Gozo to the Order of the Johannites. So the miraculous Filermskaya icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, by the will of God, finds a new home in the castle of St. Michael - the main residence of the Order of Malta on the island of Malta. And then the chapel of the Madonna of Filermo was built, and in 1571 the miraculous icon took its place in this chapel and became known as Filermo.
The name "Filermskaya" comes from the name of the Filermo hill, on which the chapel was built. From the Hill of Filermo, 267 meters high, a beautiful view of the island and the sea opens; the chapel of the Filermo Icon of the Virgin is also clearly visible from the flat terrain. The name of the hill, in turn, comes from the name of a monk who came here from Jerusalem in the XIII century, he built a small church on the hill, next to which a few centuries later the chapel of Madonna Filermo was built. The village Filermios was formed around the hill. The church, built by a monk, today is located in the center of the large Filermsky monastery, where pilgrims from many countries come.
In Russia, the celebration of the Filermskaya icon was established in 1800, and this day fell on October 12 st. Art., in memory of the transfer of the miraculous image to Russia. In 1852, Sovereign Emperor Nicholas I ordered to make a copy of the Filermskii icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. The copy of the miraculous icon was completed and found its place in the Gatchina Cathedral. It so happened that this was the only copy in Russia of the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God, which stayed in our country from 1799 to 1919. In 1925, at the request of the Italian government, this copy of the Filermskaya icon was handed over to the Italian ambassador to the USSR in secret from the Russian Orthodox Church.
It is generally accepted that the miraculous list was written one to one from the original icon, but this is not the case. The size of the list is 41.2 x 30.3 cm, the size of the original icon is 50 x 37 cm. There are other differences as well.
It so happened that in Russia after the revolution there were no lists or photographs of the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God. However, in our days in some churches of the Russian Orthodox Church there are lists of the Filermskaya icon, which is also important: after all, believers who offer their prayers to the Mother of God in front of any of Her icons, mentally ascend from the image to the Prototype.
The Filerma icon of the Virgin in Cetinje is in good condition; throughout its long-suffering history, the icon itself has been renewed several times, so the colors and the Face of the Virgin have been well preserved. The precious robe is intact. Riza has a rich gold plating; on the gold, covering the Face of the Mother of God, there is an eight-pointed enamel cross. On the miraculous list, the star is made of metal, and the robe gives the impression of a helmet. At the original icon, the riza is adorned with nine large rubies alternating with large diamonds made in the form of flowers. On the robe of the Most Holy Theotokos there is a double necklace of sapphires and diamonds, sapphires (there are 6 of them) - in the form of large drops. There is no central stone in the sapphire chain; earlier in its place there was an earring granted by Empress Catherine II. On the golden frame surrounding the image of the Mother of God, golden Angels are located in the corners. The existing precious riza was made in Russia in 1801, after the assassination of Emperor Paul I, who prayed for long hours in front of the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God. Before arriving in Russia, the vestment of the Filermskaya Icon was made of silver and pearls.
Unlike other shrines donated from the museum in the city of Cetinje to the monastery of St. Peter of Cetinje, the Filermsky miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is still in the historical museum. Pleases only one thing - the shrine is intact (for a long time the icon was considered lost) and is located on the territory of the Orthodox state. This is the story of only one icon associated with the social changes that shook our Fatherland after 1917.

The miraculous icon, known under the name of Hodegetria of Filermskaya, according to the legend of ancient tradition, was painted by the holy Evangelist Luke. In church hymns, it is mentioned that this icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was painted during her earthly life. Saint Luke brought the icon to the Nazirites who dedicated their lives to monastic asceticism. She stayed with them for three centuries.

Later, the icon was transferred to the Holy City of Jerusalem, where she also had to stay for a short time. In the 430s, the blessed queen Evdokia withdrew to the Holy Land and from there, with a special blessing, sent the icon to the sister of her crowned husband, the blessed Pulcheria. The latter, with a large crowd of people, honorably put a priceless image in the newly built Blachernae Church of Constantinople. In the temple, many believers received healings by praying before the miraculous image of the Queen of Heaven.

In 626, through the prayers of the inhabitants, who offered their petitions to the Filermian image, the city was saved from the invasion of the Persians. On this occasion, a song of thanks was compiled to the Mother of God, which the worshipers had to listen to while standing; this chanting order was called an akathist.

For more than seven centuries the miraculous shrine was kept in Constantinople, but after the capture and plundering of it in 1203 by the crusaders, the icon was again transferred to the Holy Land. It was then that the miraculous image ended up in the hands of the Roman Catholics - the knights of the Johannes, who were at that time in the city of Acre. After 88 years, Acre fell to the Turks and during the retreat, the knights transported the icon to the island of Crete. After a short stay there, the image was transferred to Rhodes in 1309, where it remained for more than two centuries in the hands of the knights. For the Filermos icon, knights in the XIV century built a temple of the Mother of God on the territory of the ancient settlement of Yalisa on Mount Filermios (named after the monk Filerimos), near the city of Rhodes. This temple, built on the foundations of an ancient Byzantine basilica, is well preserved, as is the nearby monastery. In the Church of the Mother of God on Mount Filermios, there is currently a copy of the Filermos icon and divine services are held, and the temple is divided by a lattice into two halves: Orthodox and Catholic.

At the end of July 1522, the one hundred thousandth army and fleet of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman I Qanuni landed on the island and began a siege of the fortress and the capital of the Order of the Johannites. When the city fell at the end of that year, in the conditions of the surrender of the island, received and accepted by the Turkish Sultan, it was said:

“So that the cavaliers were allowed to stay on the island for 12 days, until they transfer to the ships the relics of the Saints (among them was the right hand of St. John the Baptist and the Cross from part of the tree of the Cross of the Lord), sacred vessels from the Church of St. John, all sorts of order rarities and their own property : so that the churches on the island are not outraged: for which the cavaliers, for their part, concede to the Port both Rhodes and the islands belonging to it. "

After leaving Rhodes, the knights transported shrines across Italy for more than seven years, visiting the island of Candia, Messina, Naples, Nice, Rome, fearing to become dependent on any supreme power. On March 24, 1530, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V handed over to the order a number of possessions led by the island of Malta, where on October 26 of the same year, together with the Grand Master of the Order and the council, the order's shrines arrived. The place of her stay was the Fort of Saint Angel, and later the Castle of Saint Michael - the main residence of the Order of Malta. With the help of the Mother of God, they connect the victory over the Turks who attacked the island in 1565. From August 21, 1568, the relics of the knights were in the church of the Holy Mother of God, built by the master of the order Jean de La Valette, and on March 15, 1571, the miraculous icon and relics of the order were solemnly transferred to the new city of La Valetta. In 1573, the construction of a cathedral in the name of St. John the Baptist and, after his consecration, the venerated icon of the Mother of God was placed in the Filermsky side-altar, decorated with silver gates.

In 1798, Malta was captured by French troops under the command of Napoleon, and the Knights of Malta decided to go under the protection of Russia. In 1798, they elected Emperor Paul I as the head of the order, and on November 29 of the same year, the emperor solemnly entrusted himself with the crown of the Grand Master. The hand of St. John the Baptist was brought to St. Petersburg in the same year, and the Filerma icon of the Mother of God and part of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord were delivered to the Russian capital in 1799.
In September 1799, the imperial court arrived in Gatchina, where Paul's favorite country residence was. By this time, the emperor's daughter, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, was betrothed to the Crown Prince of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Friedrich Louis. The wedding took place in Gatchina on October 12; on the same day, at the direction of Paul I, the solemn transfer of the shrines brought from Malta took place. They were placed in the Gatchina court church. The emperor brought his gift to the church, commanding to arrange gold, decorated with diamonds and precious stones for the right hand of St. John the Baptist and for a part of the Cross of the Lord, and for the Filermskaya icon - a new golden robe. In memory of this event, by the highest command, an annual holiday was established, included in the church month on October 12 (old style).

Gatchina did not remain the place of residence of the relics transferred from Malta for a long time. In the fall of 1799, with the departure of the imperial court, the Filermskaya icon and the rest of the shrines were transported to St. Petersburg. In 1800, the celebration of October 12 was already held in the Winter Palace of the capital, in the richly decorated Cathedral of the Savior Image Not Made by Hands. A terrible fire in December 1837 did not damage them. After the restoration of the Winter Palace, on March 25, 1839, Saint Philaret of Moscow, in the presence of the royal family, consecrated the renovated cathedral, in which the relics took their proper place. Since the court cathedral was usually closed for wide public access, at the solemn consecration in 1852 of the Gatchina Pavlovsk cathedral, parishioners dared to petition Emperor Nicholas I to bring the relics to the new cathedral of Gatchina. The emperor did not dare to part with the relics, but ordered to transfer them to Gatchina every year for worship. In the same year, he ordered:

“To instruct one of the good icon painters to copy a copy of the image of the Most Holy Theotokos brought from Malta from Malta, painted by Luka, from the copy of the image of the Most Holy Theotokos, which is located in the larger church of the Winter Palace, and after making a gilded silver setting for the painted image, similar to what is now available, deliver the made image to the Gatchina Cathedral where it should be placed on the analogue. "

The highest command was fulfilled and the list found its place in the Pavlovsk Cathedral. At the same time, the miraculous image itself from 1852 to 1919, as ordered by Emperor Nicholas I, along with other Maltese shrines, was transported to Gatchina. There, on October 12, a crowded procession took place from the palace to the cathedral church, where the shrines were exhibited for worship, and on October 22 they returned to the Winter Palace again.

Meanwhile, the Order of Malta, banned in the Russian Empire by the decrees of Emperor Alexander I in 1810-1817, did not abandon attempts to regain the shrines. In 1915, the senior judge and chairman of the Court of Justice of the Island of Malta, Pullicino, appealed to Emperor Nicholas II with a request to provide the Maltese Museum with photographs of the icon of Our Lady of Filerm. Soon this request was fulfilled.

The Soviet authorities showed interest in the Filermskaya icon only in the early 1920s. On December 29, 1923, the Main Directorate of Scientific and Artistic Institutions of the People's Commissariat of Education tried in a message to its Petrograd branch (containing a number of erroneous judgments on the history of the icon) to find out the fate of the relic: Rhodes of the Icon of Our Lady of Filermus in view of the Italian government's petition to return the icon to Rhodes [during that period of the Italian colony]. The icon was in the palace of Gaea [?], And now it is allegedly transferred to the Gatchina palace. The Department for Museum Affairs asks to answer as soon as possible where this icon is located at a given time, and to provide a conclusion whether the museum value of the icon is so great to defend its abandonment in Russia before the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.

However, there was nothing to defend. Neither in Petrograd nor in Gatchina icons have been kept for a long time. Her fate was mentioned in the response to the corresponding inquiry of January 14, 1924 by Archpriest John Shotovsky: “1919, January 6, the Protopresbyter of the Winter Palace, Fr. A. Dernov brought shrines to the Gatchina Pavlovsky Cathedral: a part of the Tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the right hand of St. I. Forerunner and the icon of the Filermian Mother of God. All these shrines were brought in the same form in which they were always brought to the cathedral on October 12, that is, on the icon of God. Mothers - robe and caskets for relics and a cross were in an old precious attire. After the divine service performed by the Metropolitan of Petrograd, these shrines were left for some time in the cathedral for the worship of believers in the mountains. Gatchina. So they stayed here until October, when the "whites" came and took possession of Gatchina. On one Sunday, on October 13, the rector of the cathedral, accompanied by these shrines, organized a procession with the cross around the city. When the procession was completed, and the people went home, the rector, Archpriest John of the Epiphany, appeared at the cathedral, accompanied by Count Ignatiev and some other military man, and, putting the relics in the cases in which they were brought to the cathedral, took them with him and took them away. to Estonia without asking permission from either the clergy or the parishioners. Neither the clergy nor the Parish Council knows about the further fate of these shrines, where they are and what happened to them ”.
In the mid-1920s. the Soviet government transferred to Italy a certain icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, called Filermskaya, but this was just a list. In April 1925 the People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky sent a telegram to Leningrad: “The delay in the transfer of the Filermskaya Icon from Gatchina causes trouble with the Italians; I strongly suggest that the icon be sent to Moscow. Immediately report the execution ”. Following this instruction, the administrative council of the Trotsky district executive committee withdrew a copy of the Filerm icon and handed it over to V.K. Makarov to be sent to Moscow. A photograph was taken from the icon and left in the cathedral. Thus, the Italian ambassador in 1925 in Moscow was given only a copy of the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God made in the middle of the 19th century, and it was she who was placed in the Roman residence of the Order of Malta (later this icon was transported to Assisi and placed in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli ).

In the report of Vladyka Anthony to the Synod of Bishops on December 10, 1932, it was emphasized: “Accepting the named Shrines, and handing them over to His Majesty King Alexander for safekeeping, I invariably recognized them as the property of the Russian Emperors. Therefore, my successors, as the Chairman of the Synod of Bishops, must recognize the Head of the Russian Royal House as the owner of the Shrines, and if the Shrines are transferred to one of my successors by the King of Yugoslavia, then the Right Reverend will have the duty to turn to the Head of the Russian Dynasty for instructions on how to deal with them. ". Unfortunately, this provisional transfer condition was later forgotten.

Thus, the Gatchina shrines were lost for the Russian Orthodox Church. However, in some churches in Russia, copies of the Filermskaya icon have been preserved. In the Pavlovsk Cathedral of Gatchina, a copy of the icon and a pictorial depiction of the right hand of St. John the Baptist was made by Archpriest Alexy Blagoveshchensky, who served as the rector of the church until his arrest and execution in February 1938. In the first half of the 1950s. in the Pavlovsk Cathedral appeared a donated silver cross-reliquary with a particle of the relics of St. John the Baptist, and in the 1990s. a particle of the Tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord was also donated to the temple. The holiday established in 1799 with a special service commemorating the transfer of the Maltese relics to Gatchina, and now on October 12/25, is annually celebrated with special solemnity in the Pavlovsk Cathedral. In 1999, exactly 200 years after the transfer of the great Christian relics from the island of Malta to Russia, the old tradition of the solemn procession of the cross was renewed in Gatchina.

A large number of pilgrims and tourists from Russia now come to the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God and other former Gatchina shrines located in Montenegro. The memory of their stay in our country continues to persist.

Lecture "Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God"

On December 2, within the framework of the project "Russian Museum: Virtual Branch", a meeting dedicated to the history of the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God was held in the Concert Hall of the RCSC in Kiev. In terms of its iconographic type, the Filermskaya icon of the Most Holy Theotokos belongs to an abridged version of the Hodegetria, which also corresponds to the original name of the image.

At the beginning of the meeting, two short computer films were presented: “M.-F.Kvadal. Coronation of Pavel and Maria Feodorovna "and" V.L. Borovikovsky. Portrait of Emperor Paul I in coronation vestments. "

The first film, created according to the script of the director of the Russian Museum V.A. Gusev, tells about the work of the famous in Europe artist of the second half of the 18th and early 19th centuries M.F. Kvadal, who depicted the coronation of Paul I and his wife Maria Feodorovna, which took place on April 5, 1897 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. This large-format multi-figured composition is a kind of carefully thought out and rehearsed theatrical performance and at the same time - a group portrait of the highest state dignitaries. The painting, which did not find a place in the Mikhailovsky Castle, was acquired by Prince A.B. Kurakin for his estate "Nadezhdino". Now it is kept in the Saratov Art Museum. A.N. Radishchev. The film tells about the coronation itself and about the characters depicted in the picture. An analogy is drawn with the painting by J.-L. David's "The Crowning of Napoleon I and Empress Josephine."

The second film contains a detailed story about the portrait of Paul I in the attire of the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, which came to the Russian Museum in 1897 from the Romanov Gallery of the Winter Palace. The film contains interesting information about the history of the adoption by the Russian emperor of the title of Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, named after John the Baptist. The presentation to Paul I of the regalia brought to Russia by the plenipotentiary ambassador of Malta, Count Litta, took place on November 29, 1797 in the Throne Room of the Winter Palace. The portrait, executed during the life of the autocrat, in 1800, recalls the solemn ceremony, which was decorated with all events related to the Order of Malta, which looked magnificent and sometimes mysterious, with a touch of theatricality and chivalrous romance.

The film tells about the work of the author - the outstanding painter V.L. Borovikovsky, about the architecture of Pavlovsk time, in particular, about the new residence of the emperor - Mikhailovsky Castle, as well as about the symbolism of the portrait, associated not only with architecture, but also with state building and the activities of masons ...

After short short films, the topic of one legendary shrine was touched upon, for which the status of an apostolic shrine seen by the Most Holy Theotokos was entrenched both in the West and in the East. If the question of the apostolic letter is closed in relation to most of the icons, and some are said to have become a copy from the icon written by Luke, then by default the Filermskaya is spoken of as the one written by the apostle. The first three centuries of Christianity do not give us any information about the appearance of the Mother of God, no indications regarding the iconography of the Mother of God have come down to us, and the evidence of the 4th-5th centuries and some a priori considerations, apparently, even against the existence of Her images at that time or recognized as such. According to the remark of the blessed Augustine Aurelius (354–430): “We do not know the face of the Virgin Mary, from whom Christ was born in a miraculous manner ... Mary, which appears in the mind when we speak or remember this, we do not know at all and are not convinced. You can say, keeping the faith, maybe She had such a face, maybe not like that. " All the numerous testimonies about the Apostle and Evangelist Luke as an icon painter of late origin, not earlier than the 6th century.

In almost every description of the Filermian icon, there is by default a mention of the fact that “in 46 St. Luke sent the image to his hometown - Antioch of Syria - to the Nazirites who dedicated their lives to monastic exploits. "

During the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great, when the Christian shrines of Jerusalem were restored, and material evidence of the earthly life of Jesus Christ and the holy apostles began to be collected, the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God was also transferred to Jerusalem from Antioch. Where the icon stayed until 430, the Greek Empress Eudoxia, wife of the Emperor Theodosius the Younger, during a pilgrimage to holy places, sent the holy image to bless the Queen Pulcheria, to Constantinople. In the royal city, the icon was placed in the Blakherna church dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos. The image stayed here for several centuries and became famous for its miraculous power. It is known that two blind men were healed, to whom the Most Holy Theotokos appeared and ordered them to go to the church to the icon, where they immediately received enlightenment. After this incident, the image was also called Hodegetria (Guidebook).

In 626, during the reign of the Greek emperor Heraclius, during the invasion of the Byzantine Empire by the Persians and Avars, Constantinople withstood the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. All night long, many people, together with the patriarch, stood at prayer in the Blachernae church, asking for the help of the Mother of God. The next day, a religious procession was performed along the city walls with the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, the Hodegetria icon and the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, after which the patriarch immersed the vestments of the Mother of God in the waters of the bay. The rising storm stirred the sea and sank the enemy ships, saving the city from ruin.

Over the course of several centuries, by the miraculous intercession of the Queen of Heaven through Her holy image, Constantinople was delivered from the Saracens (under the emperors Constantine Pagonatus, Leo Isaur) and from the detachments of the Russian knights Askold and Dir (under Emperor Michael III).

In the difficult times of iconoclasm, Christians preserved the image of the Filermic Mother of God from the reproach of wicked heretics. After the restoration of icon veneration, the miraculous image was again placed in the Blakherna church.

In 1204, when the knights of the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople, they took away, among many other shrines of Constantinople, the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God. The image was again transferred to Palestine, where it went to the knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. At the end of the crusades, the knights transferred the icon to the island of Rhodes, where they built a temple for the icon on the territory of the ancient village of Filermios, near the city of Rhodes.

In 1573, after the capture of Rhodes by the Turks, the holy image acquired a new location on about. Malta, in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. After its consecration, the revered icon was placed in the Filermsky side-altar, where it remained until the very end of the 18th century.

On June 10, 1798, the island of Malta was occupied by Napoleon's 40,000-strong army. Leaving Malta by order of the French government, the Grand Master of the Order of Gompesh took with him several shrines. Among them were the right hand of St. John the Baptist, part of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord and the miraculous image of the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God. Rescuing the sacred relics, the Master of the Order transported them from place to place throughout Europe, until he reached Austria. From here the icon made another long journey, this time to Russia.

The Austrian Emperor Francis II, who was looking for ways of an alliance with the Russian Empire against the rebellious and chaos-stricken France, wishing to win over Paul I, who had already held the title of Grand Master of the Maltese Order for more than six months, ordered to transfer the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God along with other shrines to Gatchina. And in memory of this solemn transfer of the Maltese relics to Russia, a special holiday was established on October 25: “Celebrations of St. John the Baptist of the Lord in commemoration of the transfer from Malta to Gatchina of a part of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the Filermsky Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of St. John the Baptist "

In his residence, Emperor Paul arranged a new rich robe for the Filermskaya icon, on which the radiance around the face of the Most Holy Theotokos was performed against the background of the Maltese cross.

After the assassination of Emperor Paul I in 1801, the relics were transferred to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and placed in the Cathedral of the Savior Not Made by Hands - the home church of the Royal family.

From 1852 to 1919, at the behest of Emperor Nicholas I, all three miraculous shrines were once a year transported from the Winter Palace to the Gatchina Palace Church, from where a crowded procession took place to Pavlovsky Cathedral, where the shrines were exhibited for 10 days to worship the Orthodox people.

In 1919, in order to avoid humiliation from the atheists, all three relics were secretly taken to Estonia, to the city of Revel, where they stayed for some time in an Orthodox cathedral. Further, their path extended to Denmark, where at that time the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna was in exile. After her death in 1928, the daughters of the royal personage, the Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga, handed over the shrines to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky).

For some time, the sacred relics were in the Orthodox Cathedral of Berlin, but in 1932, foreseeing the consequences of Hitler's coming to power, Bishop Tikhon handed them over to the King of Yugoslavia Alexander I Karadjordievich, who kept them in the chapel of the Royal Palace, and then in the church of the country Palace on Dedinya island.

In April 1941, at the beginning of the occupation of Yugoslavia by German troops, the 18-year-old King of Yugoslavia Peter II and the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Gabriel, took the relics to the remote Montenegrin monastery of St. and from there they were transferred to the State Depository of the Historical Museum of the city of Cetinje.

In 1993, the Orthodox community managed to rescue the right hand of St. John the Baptist and a particle of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord from many years of imprisonment. The Filermskaya miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, by the inscrutable will of God, is to this day in the historical museum of the ancient capital of the Montenegrin Metropolis, the city of Cetinje.

The audience of the Russian Museum was presented with an interactive program and a film: “Coronation of Paul I and Maria Feodorovna. Painting by Martin Ferdinand Quadal. " The program includes pictorial and graphic portraits, views of cities and buildings, biographies of historical persons and documented descriptions of events and regalia and vestments.

At the end of the evening, a film from the author's cycle of the director of the State Russian Museum V.A. Gusev - "The Coronation of Paul I and Maria Feodorovna."

The painting by M.F. Kvadal, opened in the Mikhailovsky Castle of the Russian Museum for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Emperor Paul I. , demonstrates both the eccentricity of the personality of the emperor himself, and the arrangement of priorities and political predilections of the court and Russia itself characteristic of that time. The canvas by Martin Ferdinand Quadal, which depicts one of the highlights of the ceremony that took place in the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin on April 5, 1797, is a unique historical document, being a group portrait of the imperial family and top officials of the state.

Miraculous words: the prayer of the phylermic icon of the mother of God in full description from all the sources we found.

Icon of the Mother of God "Filermskaya" - a famous shrine, one of the few images of the Mother of God, which was painted during her lifetime.

The holy image of the Mother of God "Filermsky" was written by the most holy apostle, preacher of the Christian faith and one of the twelve disciples of Jesus - Luke. The follower of the Son of God painted a miraculous icon in 46 year after the birth of Christ. The Most Pure Virgin personally gave her blessing to paint Her holy image. This shrine is glorified throughout the world and is known to every Christian for its divine power.

The history of the Filerm icon

The Filermskaya Orthodox icon of the Mother of God has visited many countries and islands around the world. Once the sacred image was brought by knights to the lands of Greece, to a village called Filermios. There, the warriors erected a church in honor of the holy image of the Virgin Mary. From here the famous Vilermskaya shrine of the Mother of God takes its name.

In the 18th century, the miraculous icon fell into the hands of the ruler of Austria. At that time, Paul I stood at the throne, whom all neighboring countries respected and feared. To become allies with Russia, the Austrian ruler brought as a gift the most holy image of the Mother of God, called Filermsky. So the icon ended up in Russia, on the territory of St. Petersburg, and took its place in the Court Cathedral of the Savior Not Made by Hands.

The famous shrine of the Blessed Virgin has performed many miracles. According to legend, she returned sight to two blind elders and helped every believer who prayed in front of her. Christians were imbued with warmth and love for the face of the Theotokos and came from all over the world to see with their own eyes the image of the Mother of God, created by one of the apostles of the Savior.

In the first half of the 20th century, the icon was taken out of our country. The shrine began its journey around the world again. But after a few years, the movement of the miraculous image of the Mother of God to various countries ended in Montenegro. The Russian Orthodox Church has repeatedly tried to return the holy icon back to the Russian lands, but not a single attempt has been crowned with success.

Where is the miraculous image now

Only one single list of the miraculous Phylermian image of the Blessed Virgin has survived in our country. It can be found in Moscow, on the territory of the Kremlin, in the Armory. This magnificent face is not an independent icon, since the most holy image of the Mother of God is depicted on a pendant located in the middle of the large Maltese Cross. The sacred symbol of Christians belonged to the Majestic Magister de La Valette.

The original of the Filermian Blessed Virgin, painted by a follower of Jesus Christ, is kept in Montenegro, in the city of Cetinje. Also, the most revered icon of this image of the Heavenly Virgin adorns the iconostasis of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels in the Italian city of Assisi.

Description and meaning of the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God

Today, the shrine continues to work miracles, helping people to overcome life's difficulties and misfortunes. As in past centuries, believers are still filled with love for this image and hope for the help of the Mother of God. The holy face of the Filermian Mother of God has a special meaning for Christians, since there are very few icons of the Mother of God in the whole world, which were painted from Her living face.

As for the iconographic style, the image of Our Lady of Filerm refers to the "Hodegetria", which means "the guide to the true path, which is the Guidebook". The icon itself contains the bust image of the Blessed Virgin. Such a shrine to the Mother of God can be compared with the Kazan icon, which is located in the Cathedral of the Kazan Mother of God in the northern capital of our country.

The special originality of this icon of the Virgin lies in Her face. He fully expresses profundity thanks to graceful lines that give expressiveness to Her beautiful gaze. The outlines of the Virgin Mary in the Filermsky image are similar to the image of the Vladimir Mother of God, in which the face of the Heavenly Virgin is also framed with delicate relief features. There are sufficient grounds to attribute this sacred face of the Mother of God to the icon painting of the Comnenian period.

How the miraculous image helps

In front of the famous shrine, Christians pray with requests to protect them from unbelievers who do not recognize the existence of the Lord. Also, the icon of the Mother of God helps to gain faith, holiness, intercession from false prophets and false teaching.

The Filermsky image provides help and support to every believer who offers prayers to the Mother of God from a pure heart. He acts as a support in various life difficulties, helping to cope with sorrows and overcome obstacles that are encountered along the path of life.

Days of celebration

The feast in honor of the holy icon takes place once a year in October - 25 numbers (12 old style). On the day of the celebration, Christians pay special attention to the prayers of the Mother of God. Believers give numerous earthly honors to this miraculous image.

Prayer to the Mother of God before the icon

“Oh, Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You are the Sovereign both on Earth and in Heaven. Listen to our sincere prayers, see from the heights of Heaven us, sinners, praying for Your help. We are on our knees before Your Face, we pray, with love for You, filled with faith, hoping for the remission of our sins and for the forgiveness of Christ. Near your miraculous image, we pray for protection from the attacks of our enemies and ill-wishers. Oh, Great Most Holy Theotokos, we implore You, drive the unbelievers away from us, protect them from false prophets, whose truths and commandments contradict the law of our Lord! We pray to You, Virgin Mary, do not leave us when we are in grief and sorrow. Do not let us lose heart and stray from the godly path. Show the direction to true faith, for our hearts are filled with love for the Lord. When our earthly lives come to an end, we will go to His Kingdom, where life in eternity is indestructible. But now we live on a sinful earth and need You! We beg You, Blessed Virgin Mary, be near! Give us your protection. Be our shield, our wall and our stronghold. Only You are able to have mercy on us, ask for forgiveness before the Lord for our sinful deeds and become our amulet until the end of our days! You are the Intercessor of Christians, a true believer, truly devoted to our Savior Jesus Christ and the Lord God. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit! Amen".

The Mother of God is the intercessor, patroness and guide of every believer and even a lost soul. People call for Her help in moments of despair, confusion and grief, because they know that help will not be long in coming. Let Her icon become for you a shield, support and amulet from everything unclean, evil and sinful. We wish you peace of mind, take care of yourself and don't forget to press the buttons and

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Description icon of the Mother of God "FILERMSKAYA":

According to legend, the Filermskaya Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was painted by the Evangelist Luke. In the 5th century, the Greek empress Eudoxia transferred this image from Jerusalem to Constantinople. After the fall of Constantinople in the 13th century, the icon went to the knights of the order of the Johannites, who transported it to the island of Rhodes and then to Malta.

In 1799, when the threat of the seizure of the island by the revolutionary troops of France arose, the icon of Our Lady of Filermskaya, along with other relics of the Maltese Order of the Johannites - the brush of the right hand of the Baptist of the Lord John and a particle of the Tree of the Life-giving Cross - were donated to Emperor Paul I. During the Russian revolutionary turmoil, the shrines were transported to Denmark, where the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna lived at that time. Some time after the death of the empress, the Maltese relics, including the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God, were in the possession of the Serbian royal couple Karageorgievich.

After the Second World War, with the coming to power of the Communists led by Broz Tito, the Filerma Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, along with other Maltese relics, was kept in a cache of the Orthodox Ostrog monastery in Montenegro. In 1950, the staff of the Yugoslav special services discovered the cache, the relics were seized and until 1993 they were hidden for the believers. Currently, the Filermskaya miraculous icon of the Mother of God is kept in the museum of the Montenegrin town of Cetina.

Prayer of the phylermic icon of the mother of God

THE WONDERFUL ICON OF THE MOTHER OF GOD OF FILERMAN

On October 25, we celebrate the Transfer from Malta to Gatchina of a part of the Tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the Filerma Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of John the Baptist (1799).

The ancient church tradition traces the origin of the icons of the Mother of God to the times of the Apostles. In church hymns, it is mentioned that the Filermskaya icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is one of the few images that, during the earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos, was written by the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, the companion and helper of the Apostle Paul, and was blessed by the Mother of God.

The icon was painted in 46 AD and brought by Saint Luke to the Nazirite monks in Antioch.

Later, the icon was transferred to Jerusalem, where she also had to stay for a short time. In 430, the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius the Younger Evdokia made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and from there sent the icon to Constantinople.

For more than seven centuries the miraculous shrine was kept in Constantinople. But after the capture and plundering of Constantinople in 1203 by the crusaders, the icon was again transferred to the Holy Land. It was then that the miraculous image fell into the hands of the Catholics - the Knights of the Johannes, who were at that time in the city of Acre.

After 88 years, Acre was attacked and captured by the Turks. Retreating, the knights took the Holy Icon with them and moved with it to the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea. Together with the Johannites, the miraculous image did not find rest and traveled around the world. All this time, the knights protected the shrine from the Mohammedans. The icon stayed in Cyprus for a short time. Since 1309, for more than two centuries, the shrine has been hidden on the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea, conquered by the knights from the Turks and Saracens.

At the end of July 1522, the one hundred thousandth army and fleet of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman I Qanuni landed on the island and began a siege of the fortress and capital of the Order of the Johannites. The knights defended themselves with great tenacity. Nevertheless, a white flag was raised over the ruins of Rhodes. In the conditions of the surrender of the island, it was said: “... so that the cavaliers were allowed to stay on the island for 12 days until they transfer the relics of the Saints to the ships (among them was the right hand of St. John the Baptist and the Cross from a part of the tree of the Cross of the Lord), sacred vessels from the Church of St. John, all sorts of order rarities and their own property, so that the churches on the island are not scolded, for which the cavaliers, for their part, concede to the Port both Rhodes and the islands belonging to it ”.

After leaving Rhodes, the knights have been transporting the Holy Places to different cities of Italy for more than seven years; the island of Candia, Messina, Naples, Nice, Rome, fearing to become dependent on any supreme power of the sovereign lords.

In 1530, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V transferred the islands of Malta, Comino and Gozo, as well as the Tripoli fortress in Libya, to the Johannite Order for eternity. In the same year, the shrines, together with the Grand Master of the Order and the council, arrived on the island of Malta, where the Filerme Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos finds a new homeland. The place of its storage was the fort of San Angelo (Saint Angela), and later the castle of Saint Michael - the main residence of the Order of Malta.

In 1571, the miraculous icon and relics of the order were solemnly transferred to the new city. Here in the capital of the Sovereign Order of Malta John of Jerusalem, the city of La Valletta, in the Cathedral of St. John, the chapel of the Madonna Filermo was built. In it, next to the Altar, they placed the miraculous image written by the Holy Evangelist Luke. Since then, the icon has been called Filermskaya. For more than two centuries, the shrine did not leave the island, remaining together with other Christian relics of the Order of Malta.

On June 10, 1798, the island of Malta, without visible resistance, was captured by Napoleon's 40,000-strong army. Leaving Malta by order of the French government, the Grand Master of the Order of Gompesh took with him the Shrines: the right hand of St. John the Baptist, part of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the miraculous image of the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God. Rescuing the Shrines, the Master of the Order transported them from place to place throughout Europe. So they found themselves for a short time in the city of Trieste, later in Rome, and finally ended up in Austria. Here the master, deposed by Napoleon, as a private person, stopped in private, hoping to find protection in the person of the Austrian emperor.

Russian Emperor Paul I became the Grand Master of the Order of Malta since 1798. The Roman throne did not prevent this, confident in the help of the Russian Emperor, the only and true Christian Emperor, able to withstand the rapidly spreading revolution. The Emperor had every right to the title of the Grand Master of the Order. After all, he autocratically ruled over millions of Catholics in the Russian Empire, and de facto could lead the order. This fact was recognized by almost all the secular governments of Western Europe, except of course France itself, Spain and Rome.

The decision of Sovereign Paul I Petrovich received recognition from the first among the crowned heads of Europe - the Emperor of the Holy Roman-German Empire and the Apostolic King of Hungary Francis II. He was the last non-Orthodox monarch who owned the miraculous Phylerme Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos and other Holy Places of the Order of Malta.

The Austrian Emperor was looking for ways of an alliance with the Russian Empire against the rebellious and chaos-stricken France. And in order to win over the Sovereign Emperor Paul I, who had held the title of Grand Master for more than six months, Francis II forced von Gompesh to abdicate, and ordered to confiscate from him the sacred relics of the Order, which he kept after finding refuge in Austria.

The shrines, including the miraculous Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God, were immediately sent by a special delegation to the new residence of the Order, St. Petersburg, by order of the Austrian Emperor. This is the story of their movement to Russia.

Since 1801, the Maltese shrines have been in the Imperial Winter Palace, in the richly decorated Cathedral of the Savior Image Not Made by Hands. From 1852 to 1919, as Emperor Nicholas I Pavlovich ordered, all three Shrines were transported once a year from the Winter Palace to Gatchina to the Palace Church. From there, a crowded procession took place to the Pavlovsk Cathedral, where the Shrines were exhibited for the worship of the Orthodox people for 10 days. Pilgrims came from all over Russia and the world, and then the Shrines returned to St. Petersburg to the Imperial Winter Palace. This would be the case now, if the revolution of 1917 had not happened.

In 1919, the Shrines were secretly taken to Estonia, to the city of Revel. For some time they were there, in the Orthodox cathedral, and after that they were also secretly transported to Denmark, where the Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna, wife of Alexander III and mother of Nicholas II, was in exile.

After the death of Maria Feodorovna in 1928, her daughters, the Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga, handed over the Shrines to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Metropolitan Anthony.

For some time the shrines were in the Orthodox Cathedral in Berlin. But in 1932, foreseeing the consequences of Hitler's coming to power, Bishop Tikhon handed them over to the King of Yugoslavia, Alexander I Karadjordievich, who kept them in the chapel of the Royal Palace, and then in the church of the country Palace on the island of Dedinya.

In April 1941, at the beginning of the occupation of Yugoslavia by German troops, the 18-year-old King of Yugoslavia Peter II and the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Gabriel, took the great Shrines to the remote Montenegrin monastery of St. Basil of Ostrog, where they were secretly preserved. But in 1951, local security officers arrived at the monastery - a special service "Udba" (Yugoslavian OMON). They took the Shrines and took them to Titograd (now Podgorica) and after a while transferred the relics to the State Depository of the Historical Museum of the city of Cetinje.

In 1968, one of the policemen secretly reported about the Shrines to the Cetinje abbot Mark (Kalanya) and Bishop Daniel. In 1993, they managed to free the right hand of St. John the Baptist and a particle of the Life-giving Cross from their long-term imprisonment.

The Filermsky miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is still in the historical museum of the ancient capital of the Montenegrin Metropolis, the city of Cetinje, and all attempts by the Orthodox community, laity and clergy to rescue her from captivity are still unsuccessful.

When in 1852 in Gatchina the six-year-old construction of the magnificent cathedral in the name of St. Paul the Apostle was completed, a copy of the miraculous icon of Filermskaya was made for this Cathedral. In 1923, the Italian government, one of the first to recognize Soviet Russia, turned to Moscow with a request to return the relics of the Order of Malta. Since there were no more Shrines in Russia, in 1925 this list was handed over to the Italian ambassador to the USSR.

It is known that the icon was kept for five decades on the Via Condotti in Rome at the residence of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta (the full name of the Order). From 1975 to the present day, she resides in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in the city of Assisi.

The last image of the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God remaining in Russia is on the medallion of the Grand Master de La Valette - a large Maltese cross with an image of the icon placed in its center, on the medallion. It is currently kept in the collection of the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin museums.

>By the grace of God, in June-July 2006, the right hand of St. John the Forerunner and the Baptist of the Lord was temporarily brought to Russia from Montenegro to worship the people. In this article, a brief history of the origin of each of the Gatchina shrines separately (according to the book "Lives of the Saints" by St. Demetrius of Rostov).

The hand of St. John the Baptist, a particle of the tree

Of the Life-giving Cross and the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God

In 326, the miraculous finding of the Holy Cross at Calvary took place. Queen Helen. Soon after this, on the royal command, a new church of the Resurrection of Christ was founded here, which was destined to become for many years the keeper of this great shrine of the entire Christian world. But it cannot be represented in its entirety as it was when it was acquired. Tradition tells us about many parts of the Cross of the Lord, which in ancient times were separated from it and spread to all ends of the world. The East kept these particles, and the Christian West also kept them. In the same way, Holy Russia, in the 1000-year period of its Christian life, more than once received parts of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord from the East. She received one of these particles from the West from the Knights of the Order of Malta.

When Malta was taken by Napoleon and the crown of the Master of the Order passed to the Russian Emperor Pavel Petrovich, who admired the glorious history of the Knights of Malta as a child, the Johannites, grateful for his patronage, decided to transfer all three great treasures to his possession, none of which they had ever parted with. ...

The right hand of John the Baptist was the first of the shrines transported by them to Russia. In 1798, she was temporarily placed in the order chapel, located in St. Petersburg. In the next year, 1799, on October 12 (c / i. Style - ed.), The remaining two shrines were transported to Gatchina along with her: a particle of the Lord's Cross and the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God. All the details of this solemn event were subsequently entered into the service compiled on behalf of the Holy Synod for the day of October 12.

Gatchina Palace. Church of the Holy Trinity

Then they were taken to Copenhagen, where they were handed over to the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. After her death in 1928, her daughters, the Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga, handed over the Filerm Icon to the head of the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who placed it in the Orthodox Cathedral in Berlin. Bishop Tikhon, who cared for the Orthodox flock of Berlin, in 1932 transferred this icon and the rest of the Maltese relics to Orthodox Serbia - the Serbian royal dynasty as a token of gratitude for the fact that Serbia gave shelter to many Russian emigrants.

Copies of the Gatchina shrines

After the shrines left the Russian land, “copies” of them were made in the Pavlovsk Cathedral in Gatchina, i.e. pictorial images of the gum of the hand of St. John the Baptist and the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God. They were made by the priest Alexy Blagoveshchensky, he also sewed beautiful vestments for them. (Father Alexy served in the Pavlovsk Cathedral from 1919 to February 1938. In the case of the "churchmen" he was arrested on February 24, 1938, and shot in Leningrad).

CETINA MONASTERY

The Cetinje Monastery is the most famous spiritual relic of Montenegro, attracting thousands of pilgrims from all over the world every year. Such popularity is due not only to the presence in the vaults of the monastery of the greatest Christian shrines - the right hand of John the Baptist and a particle of the Life-giving Cross, but also to the atmosphere of deep faith and asceticism that has remained unchanged since the time of the first southern Slavs.