THE icon came originally from Constantinople, a gift from Emperor John II Komnenos to Yuri Dolgoruky, Grand Prince of Kiev. Yuri entrusted it to the Vyshgorod monastery in Kiev, but in 1169 his son and successor Andrey, Prince of Vladimir, ransacked Kiev and took the icon home. Vladimir subsequently survived an attack by the Horde in 1238, and though the icon was damaged all seemed providential after the Horde sacked Kiev two years later and Kiev’s clergy, leaders of Christian Rus’, found sanctuary in Vladimir.

The Bishops transferred to Moscow in 1325, bringing with them a deep-seated veneration of the icon. Kiprian’s thoughts turned to it when Tamerlane was at the gates; Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich gathered Moscow’s people to pray before the icon when Mehmed I, Khan of Kazan, besieged the city in 1521. Mehmed too suddenly pulled out, and Kazan was defeated soon after. Ever since, the Vladimir icon has been venerated as a sign of God’s favour to all Christian Rus’.