Focus on Our Lady of the Sign (Novgorod) and explore the History.
The origins of the icon are unknown. The icon is ascribed to be miraculous. The miracle reportedly occurred in 1170, when Novgorod was besieged by the army of Andrei Bogolubsky, the prince of Suzdal. The struggle has become a seminal iconographic theme since.
In 1170 the united army of four Russian kingdoms (duchy of Vladimir, duchy of Smolensk, duchy of Murom and duchy of Polotsk) laid siege to the city. Subsequent events are described in the Novgorodian saga, cited below.The importance of that victory was hard to overestimate, taking into consideration the fact that a year before the same army of Andrei Bogolubsky and his allies had captured Kiev for the first time in history, aborting the reign of the Novgorodian prince’s father.
The miraculous icon dwelt in the Church of the Transfiguration on Ilyina Street for 186 years afterwards. Later it was moved in a church in honour of the sign on the Holy Virgin, built specially for the icon. The last isn't preserved, as in 1682 it was replaced with the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign in Novgorod. In 1992 the icon was moved into the Cathedral of St. Sophia, where it dwells now.Numerous copies of the icon were well known all around the Russia. Some of them are believed to be miraculous as well. Memory about the miraculous deliverance of Novgorod had been retained in oral tales for a long time.
Suzdal Novgorod icon duchy of Murom Cathedral of St. Sophia Russian duchy of Vladimir father Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign in Novgorod Russia Andrei Bogolubsky duchy of Polotsk Church of the Transfiguration on Ilyina Street duchy of Smolensk the Novgorodian prince Smolensk