PESCHANSKAYA ICON OF THE MOTHER OF GOD by Nika Yufereva

In 1923, Prince Zhevakhov's book was published in Berlin. From the first pages it will take the reader to Izyum, linking Izyum with the Tsar's palace, with the Stavka in Mogilev, with the names of the Tsar and the Tsarina, as well as with a number of glorious and infamous historical figures.

Izyum, Sloboda Peski, Holy Ascension Cathedral. Prince Zhevakhov came here "as an ambassador on special assignment" in 1915.
A living heart beats in this temple. It is sensitive and responsive to any misfortune, to any incurable disease, especially childhood illnesses. This merciful, sensitive heart is an old image of Our Lady of Peschanka. This Cossack icon, as if touched by the steppe sun, unknown when and by whom it was brought to Izyum, was forgotten and, by a special revelation, was found again in 1754 by St. Joasaph of Belgorod


Saint Joasaph of Belgorod was glorified under Emperor Nicholas II. An autocratic voice for his glorification was first heard from Alexander III, who believed that the salvation of the August family during the train wreck at Borki in 1888 occurred through the prayers and intercession of Saint Joasaph.

A year after his glorification, St. Joasaph appeared to a certain military doctor, Colonel O. Taking this faithful man by the hand, the saint led him up a mountain, from where the whole of Russia, drenched in blood, was visible.
"I shuddered with horror," the colonel told members of the brotherhood of St. Joasaph of Belgorod. - There was not a single town, not a single village, not a single piece of land not drenched in blood... I heard the distant cries and groans of people, the ominous roar of guns and the whistle of flying bullets zigzagging through the air; I saw how rivers overflowing with blood overflowed their banks and menacing streams poured into the earth ... The scene was so terrible that I threw myself at the saint's feet to beg for mercy. But from the trembling of my heart, I only clutched convulsively at the clothes of the saint, and looking at him with eyes full of terror, I could not utter a single word. Meanwhile, the saint stood motionless, staring into the bloody distance, and then he uttered: "Repent... It is not yet here, but it will be soon..." After that, the marvelous image of the saint, radiant and luminous, began to slowly recede from me and dissolve into a bluish haze of horizon.


Who would have believed that only a few years would pass and a cadre of the imperial army would lay down their heads in the fields of war; that terror and murder would begin in 52 "emergency stations" in Kiev; that Chekists would roast living people in Russian ovens in Kazan province for the sake of "variety"! In the State Historical Library one can read the "Weekly Book of Extraordinary Commissions" of the revolutionary years, on the pages of which some Saratov and Odessa, Tver and Kharkov "emergency committees" with knowledge exchange their "experience."


In 1914, when war was already raging, Colonel O., in answer to his fervent prayer for the salvation of Russia, St. Joasaph appeared again.
"It is too late," said the saint, "now only the Mother of God can save Russia. The Vladimir image of the Queen of Heaven, with which my mother blessed me for monasticism and which now abides over my shrine in Belgorod, as well as the Peschan icon of the Mother of God, which is in the village of Peski, near the town of Izium, which I found when I was bishop of Belgorod, must immediately be taken to the front, and while they are there, the grace of the Lord will not leave Russia. It pleased the Mother of God to pass along the lines of the front and cover it with Her omophorion against the attacks of the enemy... In these icons is the source of grace, and then the Lord will have mercy on the prayers of His Mother

Once again no one believed the colonel. For his attempt to draw attention to the appearance of St. Joasaph, he was almost put in an insane asylum.
Colonel O. was believed by a priest who had taken a great part in the glorification of St. Joasaph of Belgorod. It was he, Father Alexander Malyarevsky, a respected St. Petersburg archpriest and personal friend of Father John of Kronstadt, who gave the story and came to Prince Zhevakhov himself.
"You will have to do it," he said to Prince Zhevakhov, blessing him. - So look upon this matter as a mission entrusted to you by the saint, your patron saint... You must not refuse... It's a delicate matter, and must be handled with care... Here it is not enough to believe, but you need to be able to transfer your faith to someone else. Not everyone will do it, and not everyone can be entrusted with it... You have the court connections; think about it, look for ways, but do not leave this thought, for it is your business."


Nikolai Davydovich Zhevakhov played a key role in preparing the canonization of St. Joasaph. The State Historical Library keeps the fruit of his many years of work: four volumes of materials for the canonization of St. Joasaph. Therefore, a trip to Headquarters with the Peschanskaya Icon was a spiritually natural event in his life.

On the way to Headquarters, Prince Zhevakhov learned from Father Alexander Yakovlev, an Izyum priest, that Saint Joasaph also appeared to a blessed old man on Pesky, “strongly blamed the sins of the people” and ordered that the Peschanskaya icon be taken to the tsar to the front as soon as possible.

In 1754, terminally ill Bishop Ioasaph of Belgorod travels around his diocese - from Kursk to Mariupol - in search of an icon that was revealed to him in a dream. And he finds it in Izyum, in the town of Zamostye, in a dilapidated Cossack church on the banks of the Donets.

What is the place where this temple stood?
The temple in honor of the Ascension of the Lord was erected by the Cossacks on the very field where in 1111 Vladimir Monomakh defeated the Polovtsy. On this field, Prince Igor with his retinue camped. Not near Poltava, but precisely here, on this very field, Peter the Great, who had lived in Izyum for three years during the Azov campaigns, was going to give battle to the Swedes.
The Peschanskaya Icon of the Mother of God was found on the military field of ancient Russia.


In 1915, the Vzbrannaya Voyevoda rushed to the aid of the tsarist army.
But it was kind of hidden from the attention of Prince Zhevakhov.


After three days of prayer before the newly-found icon, St. Joasaph heard a voice: "This image is a source of great grace for this province and for the whole country.


For a century and a half after the discovery, the first part of the prophecy of the holy icon was abundantly fulfilled.
In 1800, a dead child was resurrected by the Peschan icon before the eyes of his parents and a multitude of people. This event is witnessed by the clergy of the temple and was included in the akathist of the Peschan icon. Having brought the boy back to life, the Mother of God rewarded him with strength of body and spirit. He grew up and became a military man. The life of Colonel Peter Stepanovich Gelevsky, who died in St. Petersburg in his advanced years, is living evidence of the miracle of rising from the dead.
Through miracles and healings, the Peschan icon revealed itself to be "a source of grace for this region.
In a sovereign sense, as "a source of grace for the whole country", the Peschan icon first revealed itself in 1915, when it came to the Tsar who had taken command of the Russian army a month before.
The Peschan icon and Emperor Nicholas II were linked by an invisible thread. In honor of the coronation of the Emperor, the inhabitants of Izyum made a procession with the icon every year from the suburb of Peski to the place where the icon was found, in Zamosc. The old Cossack church in Zamość had been demolished by that time and a chapel in honor of the coronation of Nicholas II was built in its place, on the banks of the Donets River. Bolsheviks destroyed it to the ground. But an old copy of the icon of Peschan - a gift from the royal family - is still kept in the Church of the Holy Ascension. It was probably given to the temple for the canonization of St. Joasaph.
Empress Alexandra Feodorovna herself took part in the trip of Prince Zhevakhov. Thanks to her personal order, in the fall of 1915, on the day of the names day of Tsar Alexei, the Peschanskaya Icon arrived in Mogilev, where the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander was located. But the procession with the miraculous image of the Mother of God did not take place. The same people who, two years later, disoriented and entangled the tsar in a conspiracy, participated in preventing the procession along the front line.
Having been rejected, the Peschanskaya Icon left Headquarters on December 15, 1915. Zhevakhov took the icon back to Izyum.
On December 29, 1915, a large-scale financing of a state catastrophe in Russia and an aggressive campaign to demoralize the army began. Parvus makes a bet on Lenin.
Apparently, it was the Peschanskaya icon that was intended to keep Russia from destruction. As soon as the Peschanskaya icon left Headquarters, the “red wheel” of history began to spin.


A local history investigation into the fate of the Peschanskaya icon in the 20th century refuted Prince Zhevakhov's assertion that the icon left with the elders of Athos.
Zhevakhov writes that the icon mysteriously left Izyum for Europe to some God-chosen people, and will appear in due time.
If Nikolai Davydovich Zhevakhov had learned about the real fate of the Peschanskaya Icon, he would not have been able to hold back his tears. He would have exclaimed, “Wonderful are thy works, Lord!”
The icon is indeed gone. But she left secretly, without leaving Izyum and without moving from the place that was determined for her by St. Joasaph. She's gone from people's minds. And she returned - with a whole stream of miraculous healings - already in the 80s. ......



Without moving an inch from its place, the Peschanskaya icon showed more than a miracle. I dare to think that the Peschanskaya icon revealed a sign of something that did not come true with tsarist Russia.
This sign is revealed in the fate of the Holy Ascension Church, for which, as if there was no destructive, bloody, godless XX century.
When everything around was destroyed, plundered, smashed to pieces, the Holy Ascension Church was not touched by a bayonet, or a bullet, or a bomb, or a godless hand. And even in the most difficult years of the “godless five-year plans” and the war, the Divine Liturgy never stopped in the temple.

The Great Patriotic War spilled over this region like a bloody river. Literally two hundred meters from the Holy Ascension Church was the front line.
The Holy Ascension Church, built for the Peschanskaya Icon in 1826, with its high bell tower, was the tallest building in Izyum. It was used by both warring parties to adjust the fire (the front line was constantly changing, either Soviet or German troops stood here). The temple was repeatedly bombed, but not a single bomb hit the target.
The icon was a real participant in the hostilities. When the Germans went on the offensive, the Peschanskaya icon was taken out and carried along the front line. Old-timers testified that after the procession, the Germans retreated, and the front line moved back.
Once, during a heavy bombardment, they tried to take the Peschanskaya icon out of the church, but it suddenly became so heavy that they could not lift it. When the bombing ended, the temple remained intact, but the house where they wanted to take the icon away to save it, turned out to be bombed.
When the Germans threw stones at the miraculous Peschansky spring not far from the temple, the holy water scattered the stones...
The native house of the Peschanskaya Icon, with all its interior decoration, remained an untouched island of "Russia that we have lost." Tsarist Russia is still secretly alive in it. How this happened is incomprehensible to the mind.

In 1999, the Peschanskaya Icon (a list from Canada) flew around the borders of Russia on a special flight. After this procession, the years of devastation ended, stability came to Russia. Russia, as it were, gained strength, began to grow stronger, to rise. In fulfillment of the blessing of Father Nikolai Guryanov, starting from Volgograd, religious processions with the Peschanskaya Icon began to take place in Russia.
Even before the memoirs of Prince Zhevakhov were published in Russia, the revered elder Father Nikolai Guryanov opened the Peschanskaya Icon to Russia.
In the 1990s, a certain person came to Father Nikolai Guryanov from Canada with a list of the Peschanskaya Icon. It is with the Peschanskaya icon, the elder will say, that it is necessary to fly around the borders of Russia. It is necessary to bypass Russia with the Peschanskaya icon in processions. Peschansky image should be in every home. Even the elder said that the original of the icon was preserved and it was necessary to find it.


Once, when the procession was approaching the St. John the Theologian Monastery in Ryazan, a certain woman had a dream. She saw that there was a religious procession with an amazing icon carried by the military, but the military is not of our time. The icon of the Mother of God is carried by officers and soldiers of the imperial army. The woman did not know anything about the Peschanskaya icon, nor about the history of Prince Zhevakhov, nor that the procession was really going along their Ryazan roads ...

Where is the original of the Peschanskaya icon?
The Peschanskaya Icon of the Mother of God is located in the city of Izyum - not a list, not a copy, but the original. This is the same icon that could stop the First World War and save the Russian Empire from the catastrophe of 1917.
..... And just like 100 years ago, the Peschanskaya Icon of the Mother of God stands guard over the spiritual unity of Holy Russia. She is waiting for our prayers.


Source: "pravznak.msk.ru"