Icon "Mother of God" Abalatskaya

The Abalakskaya festive icon of the Mother of God "The Sign" on gold. A bright solemn image of a solid silhouette with patterned columns and corners was painted in the last quarter of the 19th century on the eve of Russian Art Nouveau.

The Legend of the Icon says that in 1636, the widow Mary from the Tatar village of Abalak, 30 kilometers from Tobolsk, appeared in a dream an icon of the Mother of God of the iconographic type Orant (Sign) with icons depicted on the sides of Nicholas the Wonderworker and Mary of Egypt. The Mother of God ordered to build a church in Abalak in the name of this icon with the side-altars of the two saints seen. Delayed to announce the vision of Mary, there were new formidable visions with the requirement to fulfill this instruction. When the archbishop became aware of this, the construction of the temple began on his instructions. The writing of the icon was commissioned to the cathedral protodeacon by the peasant Euthymius, whom the Tobolsk holy fool Paul predicted healing from the painted image. As the icon was painted, the peasant strengthened his health and fully recovered when he brought the icon to the cathedral for consecration. The icon began to be revered as miraculous. Preserved (in 10 copies) a legend about this icon, compiled on the basis of the "interrogation speeches" of the widow Mary (1641), later replenished with new miracles. The celebration of the icon takes place on July 20 (August 2) and November 27 (December 10). 1637 has not survived, many copies are known from it, also revered as miraculous; one of them was located in Semipalatinsk and was lost in 1919. A list from this list has survived, originating from the monastery church on the Holy Key, which is located in the Resurrection Cathedral.In honor of the icon in 1783, St. Varlaam founded the Abalak monastery.Wood, levkas, gilding, ceroving, tempera. Central Russia, last quarter of the 19th century. 22X16.5cm