User:Sterndmitri/Znamenie

Znа́meniye or Our Lady of the Sign is an icon in orans style, dated by the first half of the 12th century. The icon was painted in medieval Novgorod. It is one of the most revered icons of the Russian Orthodox Church and the main holy of Russian North-West. In past the icon was the main icon of Novgorod Republic and the symbol of Novgorod sovereignty and republicanism due to the event that has glorified the icon.

Description
The icon symbolizes pregnancy of the Virgin: it shows Our Lady with hands raised for praying and the figure of the holy infant in her chest in the circle (orans type of icons). The icon is 2-sided: saint Joachim and saint Anne in praying are pictured on the back side. It has a shaft what means for an icon the ability to be beared outside.

In the 17th century the paint was refreshed: Macarius, the metropolitan of Moscow, is believed to be the possible executor ). The initial ancient paint is retained fragmentary only (some fragments of the Virgin’s dress, and the circle around the Jesus). The back side image is absolutely original, in the ancient paint.

History
The icon is ascribed to be miraculous. The miracle happened in 1170, when Novgorod was sieged by army of Andrei Bogolubsky, the prince of Suzdal. The struggle had become a seminal iconographic theme afterwards.

In 1170 the united army of 4 Russian kingdoms (duchy of Vladimir, duchy of Smolensk, duchy of Murom and duchy of Polotsk) had come toward the walls of Novgorod and sieged the city. The further events are well described in Novgorodian saga, cited below.



Importance of that victory was hard to overestimate, taking into consideration the fact that a year before the same army of Andrei Bogolubsky and his allies had captured Kiev for the first time in history, aborting the reigning of the Novgorodian prince’s father.

The miraculous icon had been dwelling in Church of the Transfiguration on Ilyina Street 186 years afterwards. Later it was moved in a church in honour of the sign on the Holy Virgin, built specially for the icon. The last isn't preserved, as in 1682 it was replaced with the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign in Novgorod.

Numerous copies of the icon were well known all around the Russia. Some of them are believed to be miraculous as well. Memory about the miraculous deliverance of Novgorod had been retained in oral tales for a long time.