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Znа́meniye ( Russian: ''Зна́мение'') or Our Lady of the Sign is an icon in the orans style, dated at the first half of the 12th century. The icon was painted in medieval Novgorod. It is one of the most revered icons of the Russian Orthodox Church and the main holy of Russian North-West. In past the icon was the main icon of the Novgorod Republic and the symbol of Novgorod sovereignty and republicanism due to the event that has glorified the icon.
The importance of that victory was hard to overestimate, taking into consideration the fact that a year before the same army of Andrei Bogolubsky and his allies had captured Kiev for the first time in history, aborting the reign of the Novgorodian prince’s father.
The miraculous icon dwelt in the
Description
The icon symbolizes the pregnancy of the Virgin: it shows Our Lady with hands raised for praying and the figure of the holy infant in her chest in the circle (orans type of icons). The icon is 2-sided:saint Joachim
Joachim (; ''Yəhōyāqīm'', "he whom Yahweh has set up"; ; ) was, according to Christian tradition, the husband of Saint Anne and the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The story of Joachim and Anne first appears in the Biblical apocryphal ...
and saint Anne
According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...
in praying are pictured on the back side. It has a shaft which for an icon indicates the ability to be carried outside.
In the 17th century the paint was refreshed: Macarius Macarius is a Latinized form of the old Greek given name Makários (Μακάριος), meaning "happy, fortunate, blessed"; confer the Latin '' beatus'' and ''felix''. Ancient Greeks applied the epithet ''Makarios'' to the gods.
In other languag ...
, the metropolitan of Moscow, is believed to be the possible executor). The initial ancient paint is retained only in fragments (some of the Virgin’s dress, and the circle around the Jesus). The back side image is absolutely original, in the ancient paint.
History
The origins of the icon are unknown. The icon is ascribed to be miraculous. The miracle reportedly occurred in 1170, whenNovgorod
Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...
was besieged by the army of Andrei Bogolubsky, the prince of Suzdal. The struggle has become a seminal iconographic theme since.
In 1170 the united army of four Russian kingdoms ( duchy of Vladimir, duchy of Smolensk, duchy of Murom and duchy of Polotsk
The Principality of Polotsk ( be, По́лацкае кня́ства, ''Polackaje kniastva''; la, Polocensis Ducatus), also known as the Duchy of Polotsk or Polotskian Rus', was a medieval principality of the Early East Slavs. The origin and ...
) laid siege to the city. Subsequent events are described in the Novgorodian saga, cited below.
The importance of that victory was hard to overestimate, taking into consideration the fact that a year before the same army of Andrei Bogolubsky and his allies had captured Kiev for the first time in history, aborting the reign of the Novgorodian prince’s father.
The miraculous icon dwelt in the Church of the Transfiguration on Ilyina Street
The Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior (russian: Церковь Спаса Преображения на Ильине улице) is a former Russian Orthodox Church that stands on Ilyina (Elijah) Street in Veliky Novgorod just east of the ...
for 186 years afterwards. Later it was moved in a church in honour of the sign on the Holy Virgin, built specially for the icon. The last isn't preserved, as in 1682 it was replaced with the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign in Novgorod. In 1992 the icon was moved into the Cathedral of St. Sophia, where it dwells now.See ''Slovo o znamenii'', in I. Kuprianov, ''Obozrenie pergamennykh rukopisei Novgorodskoi Sofiiskoi biblioteki'' (St. Petersburg: N.p., 1857), 71-75 and L. A. (Lev Aleksandrovich) Dmitriev’s modern translation in L. A. (Lev Aleksandrovich) Dmitriev and D. S. (Dmitrii Sergeevich Likhachev), eds., ''Pamiatniki literatury drevnei Rusi XIV-seredina XV veka'', 3 vols., (Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1981), 448-453; Janet Martin, ''Medieval Russia 980-1584'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 114-115; E. S. (Engelina Sergeevna) Smirnova, “Novgorodskaia ikona Bogomater’ ‘Znamenie’: Nekotorye voprosy Bogorodichnoi ikonografii XII v.” in A. I. (Aleksei I.) Komech and E. O. Etingof, eds., ''Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo. Balkany. Rus’'' (St. Petersburg: Dmitrii Bulanin, 1995), 288-309.Elisa Aleksandrovna Gordienko, ''Vladychnaia Palata Novgorodskogo Kremlia'' (Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1991), 49; Gail Lenhoff, “Novgorod’s Znamenie Legend in Moscow’s Steppennaia Kniga,” in ''Moskovskaia Rus’: Spetsificheskie cherty razvitiia''. (Budapest: Lorand Eotvos University Press, 2003): 178-186.
Numerous copies of the icon were well known all around the Russia. Some of them are believed to be miraculous as well. Memory about the miraculous deliverance of Novgorod had been retained in oral tales for a long time.
References
{{Theotokos in Russia Veliky Novgorod Russian icons 12th-century paintings Paintings of the Madonna and Child