Christ is Risen! What a day! Feast day that is... After preparing a Mothers day special monthly bulletin featuring different Miraculous icons of the Virgin Mary from both the US and Europe, I focused on one from Belarus last night. When reading over what saints and events in the Church are commemorated today [while picking up a lawnmower] ....I saw it was the very icon I was researching for the bulletin! Here is her story! and Blessed Feast Day! The event took place in the end of the 15th century. One day the shepherds of Alexander Soltan, the owner of the Zhirovichi estate, noticed some unusual light between the wild pear-tree boughs. The saw a small stone icon, which the unusual light was coming from. On bowing to the Blessed Virgin and Godchild Christ, the shepherds took the icon to their master. But he did not pay any particular attention to the ordinary looking icon and hid it in a small chest... When receiving guests in the evening, pan Soltan remembered about the shepherds finding and wanted to show the icon to them. But from some reason, there was no icon in the small chest. The next day the shepherds noticed the light again on the same pear-tree. And again the small stone icon of the Blessed Virgin was the source of the light, which was immediately reported to the master. This time Alexander Soltan personally came to the place of occurrence and bowed to the Blessed Virgin. Solta vowed to build a church on the spot, which he shortly implemented. Since that time numerous pilgrims started to come to the Blessed Virgin. After the prayer in the front of the Zhirovichi icon, the people received help and bodily illnesses. There were also people who settled nearby in gratitude and in order to serve God and to glorify the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is the blessed Monastery-Church where our Deacon Janka was baptized also! :) More info: obitel-minsk.by/_oid100001300.html
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 20:43:06 +0000