The icon of Our Lady of Kazan: Icon could hold key to Church dialogue

Sydney
21 July 2002

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The icon of Our Lady of Kazan

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The icon of Our Lady of Kazan: Icon could hold key to Church dialogue

Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Kazan (July 21) and although it is not celebrated in Australia its story could provide a key to healing the ongoing rift between the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, according to Sydney’s Marian devotional group, the Servants of Mary Help of Christians.

The role of Our Blessed Mother Mary is that of a peacemaker, and the Church, like a family, should find its unity in its mother, they say.

The icon of Our Lady of Kazan, named after the capital city in Tatarstan in which it was found in the 16th century, is kept by Pope John Paul II in his private apartment at the Vatican.

Earlier this year government officials in Tatarstan asked to have it back for the city.

But the Pope hoped to return it to the Russian Orthodox Church, to its Patriarch, Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow.

The Patriarch would not meet the Pope, however, because of alleged Catholic proselytism in countries of the former Soviet Union.

The icon of Our Lady of Kazan was discovered in 1579 by a 10-year-old girl, Matryona, after she dreamt of the image resting under ashes in the ruins of a Kazan house.

This is the day commemorated on July 21.

According to legend, the icon has brought many miracles through Our Lady, including the saving of Moscow from Polish invasion in 1612 and the restoration of sight to two blind men.

It was kept in Moscow’s Kazan cathedral and later in St Petersburg until it was stolen in 1904.

The icon is believed to have been bought by a group of US Catholics from a collector and presented to Pope John Paul II in 1993.