Sunday, August 29, 2010

17th-Century Icon hidden during Communist persecutions found and restored to its place over the Spassky Tower Gates

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Today I went to see this with some of my friends from the “Moo-Moo Cafe” crowd, who told me about it.  You can’t get too close to it right now, but in September there will be a big Spassky Tower celebration and after that we’ll be able to get close and take better pictures.  (Click on the picture to see a full-size view of the icon.)

The icon, from the 17th century, was plastered over during the atheist yoke in order to hide and save it, and now it has been found and restored to its former position over the Spassky (Saviour) Tower gates.  Слава Богу!

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Yesterday on the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God His Holiness Patriarch Kirill blessed the icon in a solemn ceremony, in spite of a downpour of rain.  It has rained here literally every day since the heat-wave broke on Transfiguration—God’s blessing to put out the horrible fires.

P1030457   The Spassky Tower is right on Krasnaya Ploschad’ (Beautiful/Red Square), next to St. Basil’s Cathedral.

 

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St. Basil’s (or the Cathedral of the Holy Protection of the Mother of God, “on the Moat,” is much more beautiful “in person” than in photographs: in order to take a photo of the whole cathedral, the cathedral has to appear very small, but in real life the human eye can see the whole, huge, majestic structure towering above…  (Click on the picture to get a better feeling of size….)

P1030443 On the way there, as we were walking down Ilyinka Street "(Prophet Iliya Street—there is an icon of Prophet Iliya right on the wall of a courthouse as you pass by) I saw a very large flower bed formed in the shape of a cross.  My acquaintances told me that it commemorates a church, destroyed in the ‘30’s, that had stood on that spot. 

Glory to God for His mercy!

 

 

 

http://www.rian.ru/religion/20100828/269829454.html

Bad English machine translation:

http://tinyurl.com/Spassky-Tower-Icon-restored