« The Kursk-Root Icon of the the Mother of God of the Sign visits the cathedral of the Diocese of Sourozh »

On Sunday 13 May The Kursk-Root Icon of the the Mother of God of the Sign arrived at the London Dormition cathedral of the Diocese of Sourozh. The icon will remain at the cathedral until the end of the Divine Liturgy on Tuesday 15 May. The icon was accompanied by Archbishop Mark of Berlin, Germany and Great Britain and the Rector of the Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, Archpriest Vladimir Vilgert.

Archbishop Elisey of Sourozh presided at the molieben and akathist to the Mother of God, assisted by Archbishop Anatoly of Kerch, suffragan bishop of the Sourozh Diocese, together with Archipriest Vladimir Vilgert, Rector of the ROCOR cathedral in London, and clergy of the cathedral and other parishes of the Sourozh Diocese. A large congregation of faithful came to venerate the holy icon. 

The The Kursk-Root Icon of the the Mother of God of the Sign is one of the oldest icons of the Russian Church. During the 13th century, at the time of the Tartar invasion, the city of Kursk, destroyed by the horde of Batu fell into ruin.  A hunter, who was in the vicinity of the ruined town, noticed an icon, face down, between the roots of a tree. The hunter picked up the icon and noticed that it was similar to the Novgorod Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign.  At the same time that the icon was discovered it manifested its first miracle: as soon as the icon was lifted up from the ground, a spring of pure water gushed forth from the place where it had lain. This took place on 8th September 1295. 

The saving help of the Mother of God has been shown forth through her wondrous Kursk-Root icon at important moments of Russian history: the war of liberation of the Russian nation at the time of the Polish-Lithuanian invasion of 1612 and the Patriotic War of 1812. During his childhood, St Seraphim of Sarov was granted his first healing before the icon. In 1919, through the efforts of Bishop Theophan of Kursk and Oboyansk, the icon was taken out of Russia. since 1957, the icon has been kept at the Synodal Cathedral in New York.

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