STORY OF OUR LADY OF KIEFF
Feast Day - April 15
This famous image of Our Lady of Kieff is on the hill, Kieff, at the banks of River Dneiper.
According to tradition, Saint Andrew the Apostle was said to prophesy: “See those hills? On those hills shall shine hereafter the grace of God.” when he was travelling to Rome from Constantinople, when he rested overnight, on waking up to the sight of the Hills of Kieff.
However, around the year 1010, before the Russian Prince Vladimir was baptized at Kieff with all his people, the teachings of the Gospel began to go out from the heights that had so much impressed the Apostle.
According to legend, this famous picture of Our Lady of Kieff was painted by Constantine, while another says he only commissioned it. The Prince sent to Kherson for the picture, endowed the monastery in Petchersk to house the famous picture and here it remained until the fifteenth century.
In 1467, Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow, built the Church of the Assumption in the Kremlin as a memorial of his marriage. As a crowning jewel of his new church, he requested for the famous picture of Our Lady of Kieff. This aged city was both grieved and frightened at the demand. The people rose in protest; they did not want to lose their dearest treasure. Then the Blessed Virgin appeared in a dream to the prince and told him to give up the picture, because she would personally see that it was replaced. He gave it to the agents of the Duke of Moscow on the following morning and returned to his church to find that another picture exactly like it had mysteriously appeared in the place of the one he had given out.
Kieff and Moscow were still disputing vigorously up to fifty years ago, the 400-year old customary disagreement over which city had the original picture of Our Lady of Kieff, and which had the one placed there by the Blessed Mother. There are thousands of copies now spread all over the universe.
However, around the year 1010, before the Russian Prince Vladimir was baptized at Kieff with all his people, the teachings of the Gospel began to go out from the heights that had so much impressed the Apostle.
According to legend, this famous picture of Our Lady of Kieff was painted by Constantine, while another says he only commissioned it. The Prince sent to Kherson for the picture, endowed the monastery in Petchersk to house the famous picture and here it remained until the fifteenth century.
In 1467, Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow, built the Church of the Assumption in the Kremlin as a memorial of his marriage. As a crowning jewel of his new church, he requested for the famous picture of Our Lady of Kieff. This aged city was both grieved and frightened at the demand. The people rose in protest; they did not want to lose their dearest treasure. Then the Blessed Virgin appeared in a dream to the prince and told him to give up the picture, because she would personally see that it was replaced. He gave it to the agents of the Duke of Moscow on the following morning and returned to his church to find that another picture exactly like it had mysteriously appeared in the place of the one he had given out.
Kieff and Moscow were still disputing vigorously up to fifty years ago, the 400-year old customary disagreement over which city had the original picture of Our Lady of Kieff, and which had the one placed there by the Blessed Mother. There are thousands of copies now spread all over the universe.
Post a Comment