With the blessing of Bishop Mitrophan of Gatchina and Luga, the wonderworking Icon of the Mom of God, “The Seeker of the Misplaced”, which first started to stream myrrh on the church of Marienburg (a historic district of the city of Gatchina within the Leningrad area) thirty years in the past, is at the moment touring by the Diocese of Gatchina visiting its church buildings. We talked about this with its rector, Archpriest Anthony Antipov [the interview took place in 2024.—Trans.].
Wonderworking Icon of the Mom of God, “The Seeker of the Misplaced”, within the church of Marienburg, Gatchina. Photograph: Marienburg-hram.cerkov.ru —Father Anthony, how did the icon seem in your church?
—The story of its look on the church of the Defending Veil of the Mom of God in Marienburg (the realm is known as Yeygerskaya Sloboda as a result of the gamekeepers of the Imperial Hunt used to dwell there) is inextricably linked to the tragedy that shocked the entire of Russia, together with the clergy. On October 17/30, 1888, over twenty folks perished within the Imperial practice derailment close to Kharkov. However the entire Orthodox nation noticed a miracle in the truth that no member of the Royal Household was injured or killed. Emperor Alexander III was so sturdy that he held the collapsed roof of one of many practice automobiles on his shoulders till everybody obtained out from beneath the wreckage. Then he supplied first assist to these injured. It occurred on the feast of the Monkmartyr Andrew of CreteThe Hieromartyr Andrew of Crete lived throughout the reign of the iconoclast emperor Constantine Kopronymos (741-775), who ordered Christians, beneath penalty of demise, to take away the holy icons from their church buildings and houses.
“>Venerable Martyr Andrew of Crete, a defender of the holy icons (he shouldn’t be confused together with his namesake—the writer of the well-known Nice Penitential Canon). Icons have been painted and church buildings constructed in several elements of Russia to commemorate this miracle. Individuals noticed on this the Windfall of God and the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Tsar Alexander III, who miraculously got here out unscathed, wrote to his brother, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, concerning the tragedy he had skilled that he would by no means have the ability to overlook the day that “was too dreadful and too miraculous, as a result of Christ needed to show to the entire of Russia that He nonetheless works miracles and saves those that imagine in Him and in His nice mercy from imminent demise.”
On the myrrh-streaming Icon, “The Seeker of the Misplaced”
I, a sinner, love this stunning icon very a lot, and I used to be vouchsafed to see a miracle in 2017, on the feast of this icon, which is well known on February 18. The Divine Liturgy and prayer service have been presided over by Archpriest Vladimir Feer, the pinnacle of Gatchina city deanery. I concelebrated with him. We prayed with him earlier than the icon, sang the glorification and went to the refectory to fortify ourselves. Unexpectedly, the church store assistant on responsibility got here operating and exclaimed: “The icon is streaming myrrh!” It turned out {that a} trickle of holy myrrh was flowing from the face of the Mom of God to the toes of the Savior, the hint of which remains to be seen. It was for the primary time in my life that I noticed this miraculous phenomenon “right here and now”. It was fantastic and strengthened the religion of all of the individuals who grew to become witnesses of the miracle.
And for the primary time myrrh (oily odorless drops) appeared on the icon on February 17, 1994, throughout the Vigil on the eve of the icon’s feast. A fee of specialists was appointed beneath the diocesan administration, and it confirmed the miracle. It was repeated twice beneath the reposed rector of this church, Archpriest Anatoly Pavlenko († 2013). He favored to talk about the burials on the territory of the church and concerning the foundations of 
Hieromartyr Charalampus (Haralambos) the Bishop of Magnesia in ThessalyDespite the bishop’s superior age (he was 113 years previous), he was subjected to monstrous tortures.
“>St. Charalampus Monastery on the banks of the Kolpanka River—an unfinished mission of the martyred Emperor Pavel I. From Fr. Anatoly many discovered concerning the icon of the Savior, which was donated to the church from Kronstadt the place St. John of Kronstadt served at St. Andrew’s Cathedral; concerning the giant crucifix the place Fr. Anatoly himself and lots of parishioners noticed myrrh streaming; and, in fact, about miracles of the myrrh-streaming Icon, “The Seeker of the Misplaced”.
Archpriest Anthony Antipov, Photograph: marienburg-hram.cerkov.ru One girl, with the blessing of her father-confessor, requested Fr. Anatoly to rejoice three prayer providers in entrance of this icon, as her son was lacking. She had divorced her navy husband, who served within the Far East. After shifting to St. Petersburg, she got here to the religion, grew to become a churchgoer, and labored as a cleaner in St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Her son, a border guard, was shell-shocked because of shelling, and he spent two years in hospital. Then he was informed at dwelling that after the divorce his dad and mom had left for an unknown vacation spot. His letters didn’t attain his mom. She didn’t recognized something about him for eleven years. However all of a sudden, after two prayer providers celebrated by Fr. Anatoly, on the third Sunday the girl fortunately introduced that her son had miraculously discovered her!
On February 18, the icon’s feast-day, we reminded Vladyka Mitrophan who celebrated the Liturgy at our church about this and different miracles, as it is a second patronal feast for us. He stated that not everybody in our giant diocese can come to Marienburg to hope at such an amazing relic, which appears to be beneath a bushel. In keeping with him, the Icon, “The Seeker of the Misplaced”, ought to be accessible to all of us, as a result of in a way we’re all “misplaced”, however particularly to wives, daughters and moms who pray for his or her wounded or lacking husbands, fathers and sons who’ve been defending their Motherland. When human power isn’t sufficient, we depend on Heaven, on God’s assist. Then religion grows stronger.
In sorrows, difficulties, sicknesses, and trials an individual is spiritually strengthened—that is the legislation of Christ. Because the starting of the Particular Navy Operation, because the rector of the church I’ve reasonably usually obtained requests within the type of letters, textual content messages and cellphone calls: “Please pray that the Mom of God will assist!” And miracles happen.
—Inform us about not less than certainly one of them.
—Not too long ago, a girl informed me that her son was on the entrance line—within the very thick of it. She got here to this icon and prayed on her knees that the Mom of God would shield him. A shell hit the automobile on which her son was travelling: all of the others died and solely her son survived by the prayers of his mom in entrance of the Icon, “The Seeker of the Misplaced”. Wounded, he was despatched to the hospital, then recovered and now continues his service within the flanks. There are many such tales.
—Which church buildings has the icon visited thus far?
—It has already visited numerous deaneries. From March 8 to March 31 it visited the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul within the village of Vyritsa, the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord within the village of Starosiverskaya and the Church of Prince Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles within the city of Kommunar, the place the patronal feast was celebrated on July 28. In April parishioners of the Church of Blessed Matrona of Moscow within the village of Maloye Karlino, two Church buildings of the Kazan Icon—within the village of Vyritsa and the village of Ushaki, and the trustworthy of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross within the village of Opolye have been capable of venerate the relic. In Might we introduced the icon to the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord within the village of Orlino and the Church of the Resurrection of Christ within the village of Voskresenskoye. In June and July the icon visited Volosovo, Kingisepp, Slantsy, Luga, Rozhdestveno, Novoselye, Ropsha, the Church buildings of the Burning Bush and the Righteous Lazarus in Sosnovy Bor and the Church of the Holy Trinity within the village of Gora-Valdai. From July 28 to August 4 the icon stayed within the Church of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mom of God in Siversky, then till August 18 in Tosno—first within the Church of Sts. Peter and Febronia, then within the Church of the Kazan Icon. I hope that from the St. Nicholas Church in Sablino, the place the relic will stay till August 25, it’ll return to our church. We actually miss our principal icon, which is expensive to everyone right here.
Marienburg Church of the Holy Safety in Gatchina
—What is understood concerning the origin of the Icon, “The Seeker of the Misplaced”?
—In contrast to many different icons of the Mom of God, there is no such thing as a dependable details about the origin of this one. In keeping with custom, the icon grew to become well-known again within the sixth century A.D. in Asia Minor, within the city of Adana in what’s now Turkey. There are a number of wonderworking Icons of the Mom of God, “The Seeker of the Misplaced”, by which She confirmed Her mercy to individuals who had already crossed the brink of demise.
In Russia the earliest is the icon that was painted in 1707 and was stored at St. George’s Church of the city of Bolkhov within the Orel province. A replica of it was painted in accordance with the vow made by the pious peasant Fedot Obukhov, who lived within the village of Bor of the Kaluga province. On the feast of the Theophany, freezing in his sleigh throughout a blizzard, he cried out to the Queen of Heaven and vowed to order an icon, “The Seeker of the Misplaced”, for his parish church. The Mom of God helped him by a peasant from a neighboring village who discovered and rescued the half-frozen Obukhov. Instantly after his restoration he ordered a replica of the icon from St. George’s Church in Bolkhov. Over time, the Icon, “The Seeker of the Misplaced” of Bor, grew to become well-known for a lot of miracles and indicators.
Due to the web it grew to become recognized that the wonderworking icon, earlier than which individuals pray for a miracle when somebody is dying spiritually or bodily, disappeared from Bolkhov, however in Might 2012 it returned there within the type of its newly painted copy, blessing the city and looking for all, dwelling and useless. It’s a true story of repentance for a person named Victor who was born and raised in Bolkhov, however then left the city, the place as a toddler within the godless years of the Thirties he used to sled downhill on icons with out realizing that this was an amazing sacrilege and sin. In 2011 his son got here to Bolkhov from Moscow. It turned out that on his deathbed his father, Victor, had requested his son to atone for his guilt earlier than God and the Mom of God. That is how a brand new copy of the Icon, “The Seeker of the Misplaced”, appeared in Bolkhov.
—Of the surviving historic copies probably the most well-known ones are stored in two church buildings of Moscow: of the Renewal of the Temple of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem in Uspensky Vrazhek and of the Deposition of the Lord’s Gown.
—One other historic copy is housed within the Holy Safety Cathedral of the town of Samara. The fourth copy is stored in our church. In keeping with the reminiscences of the feminine altar server Alexandra Ivanovna Savina, who reposed in 2007, the Icon, “The Seeker of the Misplaced”, appeared within the church after the Second World Warfare—within the late Nineteen Fifties. On the best way to the church two aged ladies needed to cross the Kolpanka River over a ramshackle plank bridge. Throughout its renovation it was found that certainly one of its planks was really an icon of the Mom of God! It was dropped at the church. After all, it was broken, however an inscription remained, stating that the icon was painted on October 31, 1888, by the efforts of Abbess Anatolia of the Rakovsky Holy Trinity Convent1 and her sisterhood in reminiscence of the miraculous deliverance of Alexander III and his household from demise after the practice catastrophe. The icon, painted in simply two weeks on the convent workshop, was offered to the Emperor. At first, it was stored within the vestry of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ within the Winter Palace, after which Alexander III gave it to Marienburg, to the cavalry church he had constructed at his personal expense, which wanted to be stuffed with icons. When the church was closed throughout the Soviet persecution, the church utensils and icons, as in lots of different church buildings and monasteries all through the nation, have been stolen or destroyed. The Icon, “The Seeker of the Misplaced”, offered to the Royal Household, disappeared as nicely. It’s unknown the place it was after 1917. A replica of the royal icon will be seen within the heart of the house iconostasis in {a photograph} taken within the Twenties within the cell of the Venerable Martyr Maria of Gatchina. It was well-known for healings and was obtainable for veneration by the trustworthy.
The icon discovered by the previous ladies on the bridge was transferred to our church. There have been many inventive intellectuals amongst individuals who got here right here. Restorers from the Russian Museum restored the icon, and somebody made a silver-plated brass crown on it. When the icon returned to our church, miracles began occurring by it—sick folks have been healed and the struggling started to obtain the Lord’s assist by the Mom of God. Miracles started to happen in a visual manner too: the icon began streaming myrrh.
There are a wealth of different relics in our church. Miracles are carried out from the “Queen of All” Icon (“Pantanassa” in Greek), which is commemorated on August 31, in addition to from the icons of the holy Proper-Believing Princess Anna of Kashin, Nice-Martyr Catherine and St. Maria of Gatchina, with particles of their relics.
On St. Maria of Gatchina
—In ROCOR Nun Maria, who died in 1932 in a jail hospital in Leningrad, was canonized again in 1981 along with the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. On July 17, 2006, on the advice of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate added her title into the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors. On March 26, 2007, Nun Maria’s relics have been uncovered on the Smolensk Cemetery (not removed from the Chapel of Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, the place her relics relaxation). They have been moved to St. Paul’s Cathedral of Gatchina. The shrine along with her relics is at the moment within the small picket Church of St. Maria of Gatchina. The relic will return to St. Paul’s Cathedral after its restoration. By the grace of God, particles of St. Maria’s relics are stored each on the Cathedral of the Defending Veil of the Mom of God in Gatchina and in our church with the identical dedication.
—A memorial stone was lately arrange on the location the place St. Maria lived, not removed from St. Paul’s Cathedral. However she wasn’t born in Gatchina. How did she find yourself there?
—The longer term saint was named Lydia in Baptism. She was born in 1874 in St. Petersburg. The daughter of the proprietor of a sealing wax manufacturing facility, she studied at a highschool, however contracted encephalitis and was bedridden for the remainder of her life. She was unsuccessfully handled by each Russian and European medical luminaries alike. On the recommendation of docs, in 1909 the household took up their residence in Gatchina. For twenty years Lydia lay on her again immobile, with out murmuring in opposition to God, humbly and meekly enduring her struggling. Any motion or contact to her prompted insufferable ache. She prayed incessantly, and for the common-or-garden endurance of her sorrows God bestowed on her the good items of clairvoyance, non secular comfort and therapeutic of the sick.
—I’ve examine her miraculous assist to the struggling. And who helped her?
—After the deaths of her mom and brothers she lived along with her sister Yulia. They have been supported by pious ladies. Over time, they started to sing not solely at prayer providers, which have been celebrated by clergymen at St. Maria’s bedside, but in addition in church buildings. Quite a few laypeople, clergymen, and even bishops got here to the righteous girl asking her to hope for them or give them recommendation. The longer term new hieromartyr, Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd and Gdov, whom she comforted too, referred to as her “the venerable much-suffering Mom Maria”. In 1922, shortly earlier than his arrest, he gave her his {photograph}.
In 1922, together with his blessing, Archimandrite Makary (Voskresensky) of St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra tonsured the ascetic into the mantiya with the title Maria. At the moment a big group of individuals gathered on the Church of the Holy Safety in Gatchina. Nun Maria distributed all the cash and meals she was given among the many needy. Ten years later, in February 1932, when she was arrested, OGPU2 officers dragged her by her twisted arms and threw her right into a truck like a sack.
—Inform us about your royal church.
Photograph from the Zodchy journal in 1892 —Within the 1870s, due to the railway constructed by Krasnoye Selo to Gatchina, the city’s inhabitants grew quickly. Marienburg residents attended the city’s cathedral constructed beneath Nicholas I, and the gamekeepers attended the Gatchina Palace church, based by Paul I. When Alexander III started to dwell in Gatchina completely, the palace church was closed to outsiders. The Church of the Defending Veil of the Mom of God in Marienburg was constructed by decree of Alexander III in 1885-1888. The Emperor personally accredited the draft design of the church, made by the outstanding architect David Grimm from St. Petersburg. Alexander III himself laid the primary brick within the basis of the church. He additionally paid for the development of a separate church for the imperial gamekeepers, indicating the place the place it ought to be constructed.
The icons for the iconostasis have been painted on a golden background. Costly utensils manufactured from gilded silver and bronze have been purchased for the church, and a bronze chandelier was transported from the Gatchina Palace as a present from Alexander III.
The three tiers of the sumptuous iconostasis have been carved from darkish oak. The 5 onion domes with crosses and the 2 bell-towers above the primary entrance to the church shone with gold. The church facade, constructed within the Moscow model of the seventeenth century, was embellished with kokoshniks3 and pilasters. However after the February Revolution the church grew to become a parish church due to the abolition of the Imperial Hunt. Within the Thirties it was closed, and its extremely wealthy inside was looted.
—Is it true that 
St. John of KronstadtSt. John of Kronstadt
“>St. John of Kronstadt served on the church of Marienburg on the patronal feast?
—It’s believed that he served along with Archpriest Vasily Levitsky, whom he knew nicely and cherished. For twenty years he served on the cathedral of Gatchina and virtually as lengthy on the Church of the Holy Safety in Marienburg. His grave is behind the church altar right here.
Church of the Holy Safety in Marienburg, 1910
—When was the church reopened?
—At first of the Nice Patriotic Warfare (1941–1945 within the USSR) the folks of Gatchina petitioned the occupation authorities, and, unusually sufficient, they allowed them to open the church—this was in October 1941 or in 1943. A short lived plywood iconostasis was put up within the church, and the trustworthy introduced icons and vessels. They earnestly requested Fr. Vasily Apraksin, who after six years of exile labored in secular service in Pushkin (previously Tsarskoe Selo), to grow to be a priest. The Soviet military liberated Marienburg from the Nazis, however Fr. Vasily served on the Holy Safety Church quietly solely till 1945. On the eve of the Annunciation he was arrested once more. He returned from jail on the age of seventy, and though he was exonerated, he may solely work as a choir director—first in Marienburg, and from 1956—at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Gatchina. Previous to 1955 there was a succession of a number of clergymen on the church, of whom little or no is understood. A few of them are buried behind the altar of our church. After its restore, on January 14, 1952, the pinnacle of the suburban deanery, Archpriest Alexander Moshinsky, solemnly reconsecrated the Holy Safety Church, changing the non permanent iconostasis with a brand new one in the summertime of the identical yr. It was given to us from the church of the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary. It’s that very same iconostasis that you simply see in our church as we speak.
