Kursk, Russia, October 4, 2018
Photo: курская-епархия.рф The wonderworking Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God, the guardian of the Russian diaspora that is treasured in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia’s (ROCOR) Cathedral in New York City, returns to its homeland of Kursk, Russia every year. The icon arrived this year, carried by a ROCOR delegation, on September 22.
Photo: курская-епархия.рф On September 26, the miraculous icon left the Znamensky Cathedral in Kursk, where it was being kept for the veneration of the faithful, to visit the city’s medical and social institutions, reports the site of the Kursk Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Photo: курская-епархия.рф The great Orthodox treasure was first taken to the Church of the Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon located on the territory of the Kursk Clinical Psychiatric Hospital. Parishioners, medical staff, and patients met the icon with great joy. Church rector Fr. Ilia Kozlov served a moleben and blessed all the worshipers with the wonderworking icon.
The icon was then taken to the home for war and labor veterans, where priests carried it to all the rooms, giving the elderly and infirm residents the opportunity to venerate the sacred Russian icon. From there it was taken to the Provincial Specialized Home for Children where the children-patients venerated the icon as a moleben was being served. Following the moleben, Archpriest Alexander Lobanov visited the ward for seriously ill children with the Kursk Root Icon.
Photo: курская-епархия.рф
Photo: курская-епархия.рф
Photo: курская-епархия.рф
Photo: курская-епархия.рф The icon was also taken to several provincial children’s clinical hospitals, the Kursk City Clinical Hospital for Emergency Care, two oncology centers, and the Provincial Prenatal Center. Molebens were served at each destination, and the icon visited all the wards with bedridden patients.
Photo: курская-епархия.рф
Photo: курская-епархия.рф The “tour” ended at the Kursk Province Clinical Hospital where the icon was taken to patients in intensive care.
Photo: курская-епархия.рф
Photo: курская-епархия.рф The patients and staff of the medical and social institutions sincerely thanked Bishop Herman and the clergy for bringing such a great and sacred treasure to them for their consolation. Many approached the icon with excitement, trembling, and even tears in their eyes, and went away with renewed strength to continuing fighting against their illnesses.
Photo: курская-епархия.рф The Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God remained in its homeland of Kursk until early this morning, when the ROCOR delegation flew with the icon to Rila, Latvia.
Read the full history of the miraculous 13th-century icon, connected to many major events in Russian history, here.
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