Workshop of Kuzma Konov, Moscow
After Sergei Vashkov’s drawing
In 1579 there was a terrible fire in Kazan that destroyed a significant part of the city and the Kremlin of Kazan. The Mother of God appeared three times in a dream to Matrona, a 9-year-old girl, and showed her where the icon was hidden in the fire. After its discovery the miraculous icon was transferred to the Cathedral of the Annunciation, the first Orthodox church in Kazan, laid down by Ivan the Terrible. The icon gained the title of the Mother of God of Kazan, and a copy of it was sent to Moscow. The Time of Troubles saw a universal veneration of the icon when copies of it were sent out to the detachments of the popular levy, and it was believed that the miraculous icon had helped to drive out the enemy. From the time of Alexis Mikhailovich the icon came to be considered a protector of the House of Romanov, and the date of its discovery on 8 (21) July became a national holiday.
On the back of the icon, which was presented by the inhabitants of the Novgorod Province to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Nicholas II, there is a silver plate with a dedicatory text.