“Kozel'shchansk” Icon of the Mother of God

Commemorated on February 21.

At the end of March, the Kapnist family went back to their village with the Icon. Then a blind maiden came to the manor, who told them that in a dream the Mother of God ordered her to go to her Icon. The Countess took her to the Icon, before which she prayed for a long time. A few days later, she returned with her sight restored in both eyes. First, a chapel was built in the Count's garden, and then a church. Miracles were recorded, and twenty-one miracles were examined by a commission from Poltava. A certain boy was healed before the commission. In 1885, a women's community with a hospital was opened in Kozel'shchyna, with a school and an orphanage for cripples.

The Divine Child on the Kozel'shchansk Icon rests in the lap of the Mother of God, holding a cross. On the table is a bowl and a spoon, perhaps to symbolize that the Mother of God brought joy to all the world. This may have been inspired by the Akathist to the Mother of God, Ikos 11: "Rejoice, O cup which drawest up joy."

There is a venerated copy of this Icon in Moscow, in the church of the Kazan Icon by the Serpukhov Gate. During Passion Week of 1885 in Astrakhan, the maiden Gitsevich was healed by a copy of the Kozel'shchansk Icon.

In 1882, a church was built, and by the decision of the Holy Synod on March 1, 1885, a women's community was established, On February 17, 1891, it became a convent dedicated to the Nativity of the Theotokos.

When the Monastery was closed in 1929, the Icon was taken by the nuns to a hermitage in the village of Obitok, and after its closure in 1932 it was kept hidden in the town of Kobelyaki, in 1941-1949 it was in the Kozel'shchyna Monastery again. Then it was brought to Lebedinsky Monastery in the Cherkasy region. From 1961 the Icon was in the Kiev apartment of the former Kozel'shchyna nuns, and it was returned to Kozel'shchyna on February 23, 1993.

A Church Service has been composed for the Kozel'shchansk Icon of the Mother of God, as well as an Akathist.

Troparion

O all-hymned Theotokos, hope of the world,
grant unto us abundant gifts of grace from the inexhaustible well-spring of your wonderworking Icon,
that we may cry out in thanksgiving:
“Rejoice, O most merciful Queen and Mother of Christians.”

Kontakion

As your divine Son raised the paralytic from his bed by His word alone,
so you also raised up the afflicted girl in an instant.
Therefore, take pity now on your people who offer you their faith and fervent tears;
grant their every good request, and pro­tect them from all misfortunes, that we may cry aloud:
“All things are possible for you.
Save us, O Mother of God.”