Pendant-image "Icon of the Mother of God" Tenderness "Serafimo-Diveevskaya"

Miraculous image of the Mother of God Tenderness was the icon of the great elder of the Reverend Seraphim of Sarov. On this icon, the Most Pure Virgin Mary was sealed at the moment when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her and announced that she would become the mother of the Messiah, the Son of God. The face of the young Virgin Mary, with her eyes down and folded crosswise on her chest, expresses the deepest humility. She as if makes her mild response to the Arkhangelsk gospel: "Behold the servant of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy verb, which began the salvation of men from the bondage of sin and death."

The name of the icon Pretending in the Old Russian language means compassion, mercy, humility and love. Such a combination of different, seemingly, states of the soul in one word reveals the greatness of the love of the Blessed Virgin to all people. Father Seraphim himself often called his shrine Joy of All Joys and also ordered to call it the worshipers who visited him. The holy old man smeared the weak and sick people with the consecrated oil from the lamp and, praying, healed from infirmities. It was in front of this icon, kneeling and folded arms crossed on the chest, the Monk Seraphim and departed to the Lord on January 2, 1833.

After the death of St. Seraphim, the rector of the Sarov Monastery Fr. Nifont gave the holy icon of "All Joys of Joy" to the sisters of the Seraphim-Diveevo Convent. There she was in the Trinity Cathedral in a gilded kiot to the right of the Royal Gates. The last Russian emperor, the passion-bearer Nicholas II, profoundly revered St. Seraphim, donated to the miraculous image of the Mother of God a golden salary adorned with precious stones, the work of the famous jeweler Faberge.

Now the miraculous icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, preserved by believers in the years of persecution of the Church along with the precious salary, is in the Patriarch's sacristy. Orthodox Muscovites have the opportunity to pray before her on Saturday of the fifth week of Lent, which the Church calls the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos or the Sabbath of Akathistos. At the evening service on the eve of the holiday in all Orthodox churches, an akathist is read, a hymn composed in the 7th century and praising the Intercessor of the Christian family. At this time in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Icon of the Mother of God is carried out for worship. Pity, the same one before which Father Seraphim prayed in his cell.

In Diveevo now there is a miraculous list from the shrine. The holiday in honor of this icon, on August 10 (July 27), is the patronal celebration of the monastery and gathers many pilgrims from all parts of Russia. Once when laying the monastery of the sister of the Diveevo community, with the blessing of St. Seraphim, dug a ditch around the place where construction began. This is the path where the Queen of Heaven herself passed, "said the saint. The Most Holy Mother of God herself, in the words of the Monk Seraphim, pointed out with her little pawls where to build the monastery, announced that it would be Her fourth destiny. Now the Diveevo nuns, together with the pilgrims, led by the mother Abbess, walk around the Holy groove every day, carrying before them a miraculous list with the icon. Tenderness and chanting the prayer to the Theotokos, rejoice. Sisters faithfully believe that the Queen of Heaven herself, the Abbess of the Diveevo Convent, will forever be the protector and guardian of Her earthly inheritance.

On the back of the image are written the words of the angelic greeting, which the Blessed Virgin Mary heard from Archangel Gabriel: Virgin, Virgin, rejoice, Graceful Mary, the Lord with You.