By Collette Barnett ’25
When I began working with Russian and Eastern European items in the Blick-Harris Study Collection, I wasn’t sure where to start. But I knew one thing: I wanted to work with icons. There is something uniquely powerful about them. Not only do many of them provide a rich text and which makes for interesting translations, but to me they appear as artifacts of comfort. While handling these pieces, I wonder: Who held this icon close? What did they pray for? What were they hoping to heal?
At the very bottom drawer of the large pullout cabinet in the storage room, I noticed the icon that I have now become enamoured with. The Icon with Four Images of the Mother and Child has four panels in which three show the Virgin interacting with the Christ child, and a fourth with Mary alone and a sword at her breast. The majority of these icons are recreations of ‘wonder-working icons,’ meaning there are tales of how these icons performed miracles, such as shedding blood and tears, causing visions, and curing the sick. The Icon with Four Images of the Mother and Child is a recreation of some of the miracle icons put all into one, allowing the owner to pray at the wonder-working icons without a pilgrimage.
The top left panel features a reworking of the Tashlinskaya Icon of Mary labeled as От беда страждушик, “The God-Bearer Who Deliverers Those Who Suffer from Calamity.” As the story goes, the original icon was unearthed from a ravine and sprang forth a miraculous healing water. This icon was so sacred that in the early Soviet period, when religion was seen as a non-communist trait, thousands lined up to venerate the Tashla icon, and the Soviet government permanently locked the church and hid the icon. It was rediscovered in 2018 and is now venerated daily and has its own Orthodox holiday.
On the top right is a reworking of the icon, Утоли моя печали, “The Virgin Who Assuages Sorrows.” According to the tale, Cossacks brought the original icon to the Belarusian city of Shklov in 1640. The icon was seemingly lost to history after a fire at the church of St. Nicholas in Moscow. A woman of noble birth had fallen fatally ill. During her illness, she received a vision of Theotokos in her sleep, telling her to visit the church of St. Nicholas and venerate the icon of her and Christ, labeled The Virgin Who Assuages Sorrows. After describing her vision to her relatives, she set out on a pilgrimage with an appointed priest. Upon her arrival at the church of St. Nicholas, she instructed the clergy to bring out every icon they had of Theotokos and searched frantically through the pile of icons until she found the Virgin who Assuages Sorrows. The noble woman crossed herself and kissed the dusty icon. Upon veneration, the woman miraculously rose to her feet, cured of her illness. The date of this event was 25 January 1760, which is now an established Orthodox holiday celebrating this very icon. Today, this icon is venerated for physical and mental illnesses.
Collette Barnett ’25 is a Russian Major with a concentration in art history and a history minor.