The Mother of God Odigitria, The Mother of God Odigitria of Jerusalem

According to tradition, the icon of the Mother of God of Jerusalem was painted in Gethsemane by Evangelist Luke in 48 AD. The Byzantine Emperor Leo the Great moved it to Constantinople to the Church of the Life-Giving Spring in 463. There is a belief that the icon saved the Byzantine capital from the Scythian invasion in 7th century. The event was considered a miracle, and the image of the Jerusalem Mother of God was transferred to the temple in Blachernae. In 988, the icon was brought to Ruthenian Korsun as a baptismal gift to Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, who presented it to Novgorodov following baptism of the townspeople. From the Cathedral of Divine Wisdom in Novgorod, Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible moved the image to the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God in the Moscow Kremlin in 1571. After the capture of Moscow by Napoleon's army in 1812, the original icon was lost. It was supposed to have been stolen by the French and placed in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, but this rumour was not confirmed. At least eight famous images of the Jerusalem Mother of God are known in Russia and abroad, not to mention their numerous copies, such as the exhibited painting. The iconographic peculiarity of this image is the clear gesture of the hand of the Mother of God pointing to Christ. 

Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967