Description
This beautiful icon of the Theotokos of Tikhvin is a copy from Moscow in the 16th century. The original icon of Tikhvin is attributed to St. Luke the Evangelist who tradition says painted several icons of the Virgin from life. This icon miraculously left Constantinople in 1383 for Russia, and was seen as a light flying through the air first over Lake Ladoga, then near Lake Onega, then on the Oyat River, and finally appearing on the bank of the Tikhvinka River during the reign of Dmitriy Donskoy. Later a monastery was built to house the icon and look after it.
During the Nazi invasion of Russia, it was targeted for confiscation. But refugees escaped with it and brought it first to Riga, then to refugee camps in Germany at the World War II’s end, and then to America, where it was kept in Chicago for almost 50 years. Finally in 2004, after the fall of Soviet Communism, the icon returned to Tikhvin and its monastery, recently rebuilt.
In this copy, there is a beautiful green background. It is a Hodegetria style icon, which means that the Virgin is pointing the way to salvation by indicating her Divine Son with her right hand.