Feast of the Icon of the Holy Theotokos of Kupyatichi

Life

This icon first appeared to a certain girl named Anna in the village of Kupyatichi in the Minsk province in the year 1182. While guarding her flock, Anna saw a certain light in the forest. When she approached that light, she beheld on a tree a medium-sized cross with the image of the Most Holy Theotokos. Anna took that cross and carried it home, and then returned to her flock. But to her great wonder she again saw in the same place the same cross on the tree. She took it, placed it in her bosom, and carried it home. When she wished to show the cross to her father, she reached into her bosom, but the cross was not there. She told her father everything; and with her father she went, they saw the cross in the forest, and carried it home. The next day the cross again was not in the house. They alarmed the whole village, and all the villagers went and saw the cross and bowed down to it. Soon people built a church there. Numerous miracles were manifested from that miraculous cross with the image of the Mother of God. That icon is now located in the church of Saint Sophia in Kiev.