concept
Icon of the Kazan Mother of God
the Kazan icon
also: образ Казанской божией матери, Kazan Mother of God
A revered icon type of the Virgin, associated with the miracle-working original found in Kazan in 1579; a faded, weather-worn copy of it rides in Yefrem's cart as the sanctioning object of his church-alms collection, kissed by peasants he meets on the road and later invoked when Kuzma, confronted with his theft, searches the icon's stern painted face as though for God Himself.
Reading notes
- In the Ravine §125 the feast of the Kazan Mother of God
A major Orthodox feast honoring a revered icon of the Virgin, associated with a miracle-working original found in Kazan in 1579.
- The Meeting §7 Kazan Mother of God
The icon of the Kazan Mother of God, one of the most venerated Marian icon types in Russian Orthodoxy, traditionally credited with miracles and invoked as a protector of the nation; that Yefrem's copy is faded and "half-peeled by rain and heat" signals both the poverty of Malinovtsy's collection effort and the many months of travel already behind him.