Inscription in Church Slavonic: Казанская ПРЕПОДОБНЫЙ Богородицы
Kazanskaya Bogoroditsui Prepodobn’ii
Inscriptions in Greek: MP ΘY, Mother of God; IC XC, Jesus Christ
Feast Day: 21st July, 4th November
Our icon closely follows the iconography of the Kazanskaya. The
Virgin gazes at the onlooker with her head inclined to her left, towards the
Christ-child. Christ is standing before the Virgin. The Virgin of Kazan or Kazanskaya
is a variant of the celebrated Byzantine Hodegetria. The oldest Russian
variation of the Hodegetria is the Virgin of Vladimir, and over the centuries various
versions of this icon arose, often linked to geographical locations in Russia
such as the Tikhvinskaya, Smolenskaya, etc. The intimate close-up of the
head and arms makes the icon especially direct. The eyes of the Virgin are wide
open in sorrowful contemplation and she is not looking at Christ but addresses
her gaze to the person praying in front of the image.
In Russia, the Kazanskaya, the Tikhvinskaya, and the
Vladimirskaya derive from the Umilenie type. The Kazanskaya it was
widely venerated in the 16th and 17th centuries especially as an image for
personal prayer in home chapels or monastic cells.