Orthodox Parables and Stories: The icon that came to life

A miracle I witnessed in Znamenskaya Church in Tsarskoye Selo in the beginning of the year 2000. We had a big icon, from where it came from I do not know. It probably came from some other temple, maybe an iconostasis, judging by its semicircular upper part. It was completely black, such that it was almost impossible to make out what was depicted on it. Only by the outlines of the halos and contours of the figures one could guess that it was the Dormition. It was hung in the temple anyway, as the icons were few. It hung without glass, at first and without a frame. Besides the position of regent and the position of overseer, I was responsible for the household at that time in this temple. On duty of this service, I was in constant contact with those women who cleaned the temple, watched the lamps and candlesticks. And so we all began to notice that the icon shone by itself. It began to shine with halos. They began to stand out brightly from the black background. Then the whole icon began to shine.

The cleaners asked me as if I was had wiped it with something? And I told them no. Although it was clear to everyone that no one had wiped it, but there was a natural process that was not understandable by nature, but obvious to the eye. It's a living process. It wasn't smooth. It was as if as it was in the temple, the icon itself was being cleansed from the godless time, the abomination of desolation and its presence outside the walls of the temple. The most amazing thing began to happen later - colors began to appear on the icon! She was bright and bright, warm colors! Everything became clear - the crimson tunic of Christ, the white veils of the soul of the Virgin, which He holds in his hands, burning halo, the red and blue robes of the apostles, the bed, with the Body of the Mother of God lying on it. Here is an amazing and quiet miracle testifying that everything in the temple of God is sacred, lives its own life, sometimes strange and incomprehensible to us, but clearly supporting us and strengthening us in faith.

Valentina Rusakova