The Mother of God of Panagia

The Panagia Theotokos icon called the Kursk-Root icon is one of the variants of the depictions of the Mother of God. The image is derived from Ornata - Mother of God the Intercessor, praying with her hands raised, already known in early Christianity. In Byzantine and Rus icons, the depiction of Ornata was supplemented with a medallion with the young Christ, placed on Mary's bosom; in this way, the mystery of the Incarnation, and therefore also the Announciation of the Mother of God and the Birth of Jesus. In Rus, the earliest known painting of this type was carried in a procession in 1170, during a siege of Veliky Novgorod, and contributed to the retreat of the troops of Andrei the Pious from the city walls. The miraculous icon, known as 'Sign' or 'Znamenie', was placed in a church built in its honour, in 1356. Over time, the image of Our Lady of the Sign, worn by archbishops on the chest, became known as Panagia, meaning the Most Holy in Greek. The Novogrod icon has spread throughout Rus in many copies and variants and the Kursk-Root Mother of God is one of them. Its name comes from the circumstances under which the original icon was obtained; it was found in a forest, among the roots of a tree, after Kursk was burned down by the Tatars in 1295. During the second Tatar invasion, in 1383, the icon was chopped into pieces, but after the parts were put together, they supposedly joined spontaneously. In 1597, in the time of Ivan III, the icon was moved to Moscow; on its edges, depictions of the Lord of Hosts and Old Testament prophets were added. These figures appear on all the later copies, as can be seen on the displayed icon. Since 1919, the original painting had been in Kursk, from where it moved along with Denikin's retreating troops. Ultimately, in 1920, the icon left Russia with Wrangel's troops; it travelled through Belgrade, Karlsbad, and Munich, and after World War II, it arrived in the United States. In 1957, it was placed in the New York Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967