Igorevskaya Russian Icon of the Mother of God | Theotokos Tenderness (Eleusa) Orthodox Christian Icon | Religious Canvas Wall Art

The Igorevskaya Icon of the Mother of God is an icon of the Mother of God, revered as miraculous. It is named after the Grand Prince of Kiev, Saint Igor Olgovich, who prayed before the icon in the final moments of his life and who was later canonized as a faithful prince and passion-bearer.

The icon's feast day coincides with the celebration of the transfer of the relics of Grand Prince Saint Igor from Kiev to the Transfiguration Cathedral in Chernigov , which occurred on June 5, 1150. The image was later moved to the chapel of the Apostle John the Theologian in the Dormition Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra , where it remained until the early 20th century; the icon then remained in the altar above the altar table in the chapel of the first martyr Stephen. The current location of the original icon is unknown. An idea of it can be formed from reproductions in publications about the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

The icon is of the "Tenderness " (Eleusa) iconographic type, emphasizing the mutual human devotion between the Mother of God and her Divine Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.

According to Russian art historian E.K. Guseva, the earliest known copies of the icon are two icons from the second half of the 16th century (both in the State Tretyakov Gallery, one from the collection of Pavel Tretyakov, the other came from the State Historical Museum ). Both were made in Moscow, possibly during the time of Metropolitan Macarius (1542-1563), when copies of ancient venerated icons were created in his workshops with precise adherence to their iconography and dimensions.

Grand Prince Saint Igor Olgovich

Igor, Grand Prince of Chernigov and Kiev (d. September 19, 1147), was the son of Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich of Chernigov. Two groups of princes fought for the Kievan principality: the Olgovichi (Olegovichi) and the Mstislavichi, all great-grandsons of Yaroslav the Wise. The haughty reign of Prince Vsevolod Olgovich of Kiev aroused the hatred of the Kievans toward himself and his kinsmen. After Vsevolod's death, the Kievans kissed the cross to his brother Igor, but immediately broke the kissing ceremony by summoning the Mstislavichi and defecting to their side during the battle. The captured Prince Igor was imprisoned in a log cabin (a cold log cabin without windows or doors) and there fell dangerously ill. Before his death, he was allowed to take monastic vows. The newly tonsured George recovered and took the schema with the name Ignatius.

The struggle for Kiev was continued by Igor's cousins. Then the Kiev assembly, determined to take revenge on all the Olgovichi, decreed the execution of the prince-monk . A frenzied crowd stormed the church during the liturgy, where the monk was praying before the icon of the Mother of God (it is this icon which was later called the Igorevskaya Icon), killed him, and desecrated his body. In 1150, Yuri Dolgoruky ascended the Kiev throne , and his ally, the Chernigov prince Svyatoslav Olgovich, Igor's brother, solemnly transferred the relics of the passion-bearer to the Cathedral of the Savior in Chernigov.

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