Vilnius, September 11, 2024
orthodoxy.lt
The Lithuanian Orthodox Church will festively celebrate in October the recovery of a wonderworking icon of the Mother of God that was long believed to be lost.
The Icon of the Mother of God “of the Sign” from the Church of the Sign in Vilnius was believed to have been lost in the early 20th century under the godless authorities, but in fact, it was secretly kept by a string of rectors, reports the Lithuanian Orthodox Church.
Analyses recently proved that the revealed icon is the same that was brought to the Church by Archbishop Juvenaly of Vilnius in 1903 and “disappeared” no later than World War II. Thus, His Eminence Metropolitan Innokenty of Vilnius decreed that the recovery be celebrated on Saturday, October 12, with an invitation to all Orthodox priests in Lithuania.
The icon will also be carried in procession.
The icon was the main sacred treasure of the Church of the Sign (Znamenny) and, famous for numerous healings, was placed on the iconostasis to the left of the Royal Doors.
A number of later texts talk about the icon disappearing, though a date is not specified. However, it can be no later than WWII, since in 1948, His Holiness Patriarch Alexei I gifted another copy of the Icon of the Sign to the church in place of the one that was lost.
However, it was later revealed by rector Archpriest Peter Muller that the lost icon had, in fact, been preserved by previous rectors. When it was safe, the icon was returned to the church, but kept in the altar. Shortly after his appointment to the church in the late 1980s, Fr. Peter moved the icon to the left-side chapel, dedicated to the Nun-Martyr Evdokia. Few knew its origin, but it immediately began working miracles again.
To verify that the icon in the St. Evdokia chapel is the same one donated by Archbishop Juvenaly, a working group of art historians, iconographers, restorers, and local historians was formed. It was determined that the icon would exactly fit into its original spot on the iconostasis, and that it was painted no later than the early 19th century, which means it was already 100 years old when it was given to the Vilnius church.
After receiving the relevant reort, Met. Innokenty blessed to celebrate the recovery of the icon in October.
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