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Posted on 05/23/2007 4:39:58 PM PDT by fatima
An Italian noblewoman gives a fragment of Our Lady’s robe, and relics of six other saints, to the Russian Orthodox Church in Kazan, Tartarstan, in the heart of Russia
- by Dr. Robert Moynihan
KAZAN, Russia, May 13 - Are relations warming between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches after years of grave tensions?
Possibly, if the simple but extraordinary events which took place today in this city on the Volga River in the heart of Russia are any indication.
An aging Italian Roman Catholic noblewoman, her grey hair covered with a white veil, in a church packed with nearly 1,000 Russian Orthodox, today, in a simple but moving ceremony, handed over to the Russian Orthodox bishop of the city seven precious relics of saints -- including a tiny fragment of the robe of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Some women in attendance wept openly.
"I bring these relics as my gift to you, and to the people of Russia, as a sign of my respect and love for Russia and all her people," the Marquise Immacolata Solaro del Borgo, 77, a member of Rome's historically powerful Colonna family, said to Bishop Anastasi as she handed over the gift to him at 10 a.m. today in a packed church. "I hope the relics can enrich the new Marian sanctuary you are building around the icon of Our Lady of Kazan."
"We appreciate these gifts very much," Bishop Anastasi later told "Inside the Vatican." "We are grateful to Immacolata that she made this long and tiring journey to bring us these gifts personally. The city of Kazan will appreciate them forever."
Showing the seriousness with which today's gift of the relics was treated in Russia, the ceremony was broadcast live throughout the country on the main national television channel, NTV.
The ceremony took place in Kazan's Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul.
In the ceremony, the Marquise Immacolata (a "marquise" ranks above a countess and below a duchess) gave Bishop Anastasi a fragment of the robe of Mary and relics of six other saints: St. Basil the Great, St. Blaise, St. Nicholas, St. Daria, St. Natalia and St. Pancratius.
The relics were contained in a single reliquary made by a Neapolitan jeweler in 17th century, a small silver box in the center of which was the fragment of Our Lady’s robe surrounded by the six saints’ relics, with their names inscribed there in Latin.
The reliquary came to Marquise Immacolata from Princess Giovanna Barberini, the widow of Prince Augusto Barberini, whose relatives included many cardinals and Pope Urban VIII (1623-1644).
The head of the internal affairs and tourism committee of the Kazan City Council, Vladimir Leonov, said that Marquisde Immacolata is an old friend of the Russian Orthodox Church.
She was prominent in Italy in the 1980s in arranging for medical treatment for the children from Chernobyl, Ukraine, and in the past has given a relic of St. Nicholas to Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, and a relic of St. George to the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery near Moscow.
Bishop Anastasi invited Marquise Immacolata to a lunch at his residence after the ceremony. She will remain in Kazan for two more days, visiting the holy sites of Russian Orthodoxy in Tatarstan.
There is one 300-member Roman Catholic parish in Kazan, a city of about 1.5 million on the Volga River which is about half Muslim and half Russian Orthodox -- and where Christians and Muslims both venerate the Virgin Mary in the icon of Kazan.
The head of the Catholic parish is Father Diogenes Urquiza, an Argentine priest who, assisted by three nuns, ministers to his small Kazan flock. Father Diogenes was present at this morning's ceremony. As a line of Russian Orthodox priests passed by him during the 2-hour thanksgiving liturgy which followed the handing over of the gift, many of the priests nodded to him in respectful recognition.
"The relations between the Catholics and the Orthodox in Kazan are cordial," Father Diogense told "Inside the Vatican." "We have respect for one another as Christians, and we have plans to work closely together on a number of social problems, like drug addiction and family problems, in years to come."
The city of Kazan has decided it will soon build a new pilgrimage center for the Kazan icon, which was given back to Russia in 2004 by Pope John Paul II.
The saints' relics handed over today will join the icon in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the center of the planned sanctuary.
The Kazan icon is considered one of the most precious of all the icons of Russia, because prayers in the presence of the icon in past centuries preceded important military victories. It is thus sometimes referred to here as "the protection of Russia."
The Kazan icon depicts a serene Madonna and Child. It was found under mysterious circumstances in Kazan in 1579, then lost to Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1918.
It was re-discovered in the West in the 1940s, purchased by the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima (a group interested in the message of Our Lady of Fatima, given to three shepherd children in Portugal in 1917 starting of May 13, 90 years ago today).
The icon was then held in Portugal for two decades, before being transferred to Pope John Paul's private apartment in 1993, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union.
St. Peter's and Paul's is a massive and beautiful baroque cathedral. Built to commemorate Peter the Great's visit to Kazan, construction was finished in 1726. Inside it is equally sumptuous, featuring a towering iconostasis.
From the top of the steps leading to the main entrance is a view of Kazan's skyline. The tower-like building next to the church is the cathedral's chapel.
Click here to see photos. http://www.insidethevatican.com/newsflash/2007/newsflash-may13-07.htm
very nice post. thank you.
It’s too bad that they were given to those not in communion with Rome.
IMO they should have been given to the Mother Church of the Russias - the Ukranian “Uniates”. And IMO the Pope ought to raise them to a Patriarchate.
-A8
adiaireton8,I had the honor of seeing and touching this Icon before it was returned to Russia.
“Our Lady of Kazan is an icon of the Theotokos popular in Russia since the 16th century. A close-up variant of the Hodegetria (Directress) style, it is noted mainly for the Child standing, with the Virgin chest-length. The Kazan icons are traditionally small, following the original (9×11 inches). The Kazan icon of the Virgin remains popular, especially as a wedding gift, and is sometimes associated with Russian nationalism.
[edit]History
The image of Our Lady of Kazan is said to have come to Russia from Constantinople in the 13th century. After the Tatars besieged Kazan and made it the capital of their khanate in 1438, the icon disappeared, and it is not mentioned again until the 16th century, some years after the liberation of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible in 1552.
After a fire destroyed Kazan in 1579, the Virgin appeared in a prophetic dream to a 10-year-old girl named Matrona and told her where to find the precious image again. As instructed, Matrona told the archbishop about her dream, but he would not take her seriously. After two more such dreams, on July 8, 1579, the girl and her mother themselves dug up the image, buried under the ashes of a house, where it had been hidden long before to save it from the Tatars. The unearthed icon looked as bright and beautiful as if it were new. The archbishop repented of his unbelief and took the icon to the Church of St. Nicholas, where a blind man was cured that very day. Ermogen, the priest at this church, later became Metropolitan of Kazan. He brought the icon to Kazan’s Cathedral of the Annunciation and established July 8 as a feast in honor of the Theotokos of Kazan. It is from Ermogen’s chronicle, written at the request of the tsar in 1595, that we know of these events.
By 1612, when Moscow was occupied by Polish invaders, Ermogen had become Patriarch of All Russia. From prison, he called for a three-day fast and ordered the icon of Our Lady of Kazan to be brought to Princes Minin and Pozharsky, who were leading the resistance to the occupation. This icon – possibly the original, but more likely a copy – was carried before their regiments as they fought to regain the capital from the Poles. When the Polish army was finally driven from Moscow on October 22, 1612, the victory was attributed to the intercession of the Mother of God, and the Kazan icon became a focal point for Russian national sentiments. Later that year, when Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich came to the throne, he appointed both July 8 and October 22 as feasts in honor of Our Lady of Kazan.
The victorious Prince Dmitry Pozharsky financed the construction of a small wooden church dedicated to the Virgin of Kazan in the Moscow Kremlin. The icon was kept there until the small church burnt down in 1632. The tsar ordered the construction of a larger brick cathedral to replace it. After its completion in 1638, the icon remained there in Moscow’s Kazan Cathedral for nearly two centuries. It was regularly borne in solemn liturgical processions along the city walls as the protectress of Moscow. The intercession of Our Lady of Kazan was successfully invoked against a Swedish invasion in 1709, and again when Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. To commemorate this latter victory, Peter the Great had the Kazan icon moved to the new Kazan Cathedral in his new capital, St. Petersburg, in 1821.
By this time, the Kazan icon had achieved immense popularity, and there were nine or ten separate miracle-working copies of the icon around the country. There is considerable disagreement about which, if any, of these was the original. Some claim the original remained housed in Kazan, while others hold that the one moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg was the original. Many experts, however, believe the original was lost and both of the venerated Kazan icons were early copies. In any case, both icons disappeared in the early 20th century. The one in Kazan was stolen in 1904 and probably destroyed by the thieves, who were more interested in its jeweled gold covering. The one in St. Petersburg disappeared after the October Revolution of 1917. Some say it was smuggled out of the country to protect it from the Bolsheviks, while others suggest the Communists themselves hid it and later sold it abroad. But during World War II, an icon of the Virgin of Kazan surfaced in Leningrad to lead a procession around the fortifications of the Nazi-besieged city.
The wonderworking icons Our Lady of Sitka and Our Lady of Soufanieh are both of the Kazan type.
[edit]Liturgical Hymns
Troparion (tone 4)
O fervent intercessor, Mother of the Lord Most High,
thou dost pray to thy Son Christ our God and savest all who seek thy protection.
O Sovereign Lady and Queen,
help and defend all of us who in trouble and trials,
in pain and burdened with sins, stand in thy presence before thine icon,
and who pray with compunction, contrition, and tears and with unflagging hope in thee.
Grant what is good for us,
deliverance from evil, and save us all, O Virgin Mother of God,
for thou art a divine protection to thy servants.
Kontakion (tone 8)
O peoples, let us run to that quiet good haven,
to the speedy helper, the warm salvation, to the Virgin’s protection.
Let us speed to prayer and hasten to repentance.
For the Mother of God pours out her mercy, anticipates needs, and averts disasters
for her patient and God-fearing servants.”
Thanks for the bump NYer.
LETTER OF THE HOLY FATHER
JOHN PAUL II
TO HIS HOLINESS ALEKSIJ II
on the occasion of the return to Russia
of the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan
To His Holiness Aleksij II
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
After a lengthy period of trials and sufferings endured by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian people in the last century, the Lord of history, who disposes all things in accordance with his will, today gives us common joy and hope as the Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan returns to her native land.
In the joy and the sentiments of communion which I have always felt, together with my Predecessors who were ever concerned for the Russian people, I rejoice that Your Holiness today receives the Delegation which I have sent to you. Led by Cardinals Walter Kasper and Theodore Edgar McCarrick, the Delegation has been charged with consigning to you this sacred Icon, so closely linked to the faith and the history of Christians in Russia.
By a mysterious design of Divine Providence, during the long years of her pilgrimage the Mother of God in her sacred Icon known as Kazanskaya has gathered about her the Orthodox faithful and their Catholic brethren from other parts of the world, who have fervently prayed for the Church and the people whom she has protected down the centuries. More recently, Divine Providence made it possible for the people and the Church in Russia to recover their freedom and for the wall separating Eastern Europe from Western Europe to fall. Despite the division which sadly still persists between Christians, this sacred Icon appears as a symbol of the unity of the followers of the Only-begotten Son of God, the One to whom she herself leads us.
The Bishop of Rome has prayed before this sacred Icon, asking that the day may come when we will all be united and able to proclaim to the world, with one voice and in visible communion, the salvation of our one Lord and his triumph over the evil and impious forces which seek to damage our faith and our witness of unity.
Today I join you in prayer, dear Brother, along with the Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, the priests, monks and nuns, and the People of God in the land of Russia. United in this prayer are all the sons and daughters of the Catholic Church in their profound devotion and veneration for the Holy Mother of God. May this venerable image guide us along the path of the Gospel in the footsteps of Christ, protecting the people to whom she now returns, and all humanity. May the Holy Mother of God turn her maternal gaze towards the men and women of our time; may she help believers not to stray from the path which God has set before them: the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the Way, and the Truth and the Life, and a courageous testimony to their faith before society and before all the nations. Today we pray with confidence to the Most Holy Virgin, knowing that she implores for us and for all nations the gift of peace.
With these sentiments of charity, in the joy of the event which we today celebrate, and with our eyes lifted to the Holy Mother of God, I exchange with Your Holiness a fraternal kiss in our Lord.
From the Vatican, 25 August 2004
JOHN PAUL II
.
Orthodox bump!
Too bad at at time when the occupant of the Papal Throne of Rome is a man who as Cardinal expressed the view that conversion from the Latin church to Holy Orthodoxy was not apostacy, there are ultramontanist fanatics like you, in his communion, who want to rewrite history to claim an ecclesial body created in the 16th century under political pressure when the Poles occupied the Ukraine, just shy of 600 years after the conversion of the Rus to Holy Orthodoxy, is the ‘Mother Church of the Russias’.
It was a beautiful gesture. Don’t spoil it by continuing the push the unia. Joint declarations of the Latin and Orthodox churches have accepted the Orthodox position that the unia are an impediment to the healing of the schism of 1054 (or 1009, by your leave—I date it to the dropping of Rome from the Diptychs of the Great Church of Constantinople in response to the addition of the filoque to the Creed).
That picture looks like it has the cover, I forget what it’s called, over the icon.
thanks for your post, if you find the picture you’re looking for, please ping me...
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