Mother of God
Zhyrovichy, Belarus (14th c.)
One night around 1500, some herders noticed a wild pear tree radiating light from a small jasper oval carving of a woman and child in Eleousa (Tenderness) style and the Slavonic inscription of the Magnificat in the Orthodox liturgy.
“More honorable than the cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim; in virginity you bore God the Word; True Mother of God, we magnify you.”
The herders took it to the landlord, Alexander Soltan, who put it in a chest, but it reappeared in the forest and Soltan built a wooden church there, that bummed down later.
Some children passing the spot saw a radiant woman holding the stone icon.
When a priest came, she had vanished, but the icon remained on that rock where she sat. A new church was built of stone.
Text and image used with permission.
Source: "365 Days with Mary" by Michael O'Neill
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