The icon of the Mother of God of Izborsk helps in some ways. Shrines of Izborsk
At a distance of 260 km. from Daugavpils, and from the Latvian city of Aluksne and less than 80 km. The Russian city of Izborsk is located. This is a small town with population 800 people. However, the first mention of the city was already known in 862 AD!
1903-1904 Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich and his wife toured ancient Russian cities, studying architectural monuments, frescoes and icons. Having visited Izborsk, the artist was fascinated by the beauty of these places.Here he painted several paintings, including “Towers” and “Cross on Truvorov Hillfort”. Izborsk occupied the main place in the work of local artist Pavel Dmitrievich Melnikov. More than 200 works dedicated to his native city remained after his death.
In 1920, Izborsk was even a Baltic city and, together with Pechory, was part of Estonia, and only after the war in 1945 the city was transferred to the RSFSR.
But even for today’s tourists and pilgrims who find themselves in Izborsk, the beauty and history of this part of Russia takes them by surprise and everyone admits that they did not expect to encounter such beauty and a corner of such an ancient and untouched history here. There are practically no excursions here, and people end up passing through Pskov, Pechory or Tallinn, and everyone who passes through these places promises to return to spend the whole day here.
X Although formally Izborsk is a small village, in spirit and aura it is a city. Small, but ancient and proud. There is a compact historical center with peaked wooden houses, barns and wild stone fences, almost like a fortress. There are quite rural suburbs. And a complete feeling of living history.
An ordinary-looking utility room suddenly turns out to be an 18th-century chapel with a medieval cross hanging inside, and a Soviet water pump can easily be mistaken for a fortress tower. The heavy dilapidated towers of the fortress are visible from almost everywhere, hanging over the roofs. Below is the spacious Mal Valley.
Izborsk has its own fortress.Of course, there were older stone fortresses in Russia, even from the 10th-11th centuries, but endless wars required them to be constantly rebuilt and improved, so the preservation of Izborsk is unique.
The Izborsk fortress, with its walls made of wild stone, thick towers and weeds on the ridges, resembles a rock outcrop.
Built in the 1330s on Cape Zheravya Gora, it has been preserved in almost its original form. The thoroughly medieval appearance makes you remember Ivanhoe and Robin Hood.
But even in the archaic Izborsk fortress, the Lukovka tower inside the line of walls stands out for its archaic appearance - this is a donjon of the 12th-13th centuries, built in what was then a wooden fortress.
The names of other towers: Talavskaya, Ploskushka, Vyshka, Ryabinovka, Temnushka, Kolokolnaya. The area of the territory enclosed by the fortress walls is 2.4 hectares, the total length of the stone walls reaches 850 meters, the thickness of the walls is up to 3 meters.
There are three churches outside the fortress in Izborsk. One of them - the Nativity of the Virgin Mary from the early 18th century - is clearly visible from the main street on the way from the bus station to the fortress. It stands at the bottom of a ravine, and in its appearance one can discern a distant echo of the Pskov school, which by modern times had become considerably simplified and lost its grace.
The Church of Sergius and Nikander in the ravine near the fortress was built at the beginning of the 18th century and clearly preserves traces of the Pskov architectural school. It is very simple, essentially a house with a dome over a gable roof, a belfry over the entrance and an apse. But the look is very archaic - more like the Middle Ages.
On the road from the fortress to the Truvorovo settlement, you can clearly hear the splash of flowing water. These are the Slovenian springs, gushing out of a rock wall at the bottom of the valley. Not even springs, but waterfalls as tall as a man. There are twelve of them in total - hence the second name: the keys of the Twelve Apostles.
Located near the Izborsk fortress on the coastal terrace of Lake Gorodishchenskoye, they were sometimes called the keys of the Twelve Apostles. The first written mention of these sources dates back to the seventeenth century. In the “Book of the Big Drawing” about the first geographical description of the Russian land it is said that: “From Pskov, thirty miles to the west, the city of Izborsk stands on the Slovenian Springs.” The springs flow for at least a thousand years. These are karst-fissure type springs. Water is collected over an area of three to four kilometers. Passing through limestone and layers of clay, the water is filtered and purified, but a lot of calcium and mineral salts remain in it. The mineralization of the water is quite high, as is the power of the sources, releasing up to four liters of water every second. However, the origin of the keys is much older. St. Serapion of Izborsk, who lived in the 16th century, is depicted on the icon standing near twelve springs.
Paganism coexists peacefully with Christianity - it is believed that the water of each spring heals certain diseases: there are “heart”, “eye”, “skin” and other keys. Clean, cold water flows into Lake Gorodishchenskoye, where swans live right off the shore, sometimes staying in Izborsk for the winter.
The keys are named after Prince Sloven, the chronicle founder of Izborsk; the city is named after his son Izbor.
It is necessary to wash your face in every spring) to preserve eternal youth. And you can see a lot of swans nearby from May to September) But in January 2013The regional Rospotrebnazdor checked the quality of water in Izborsk springs. The samples taken showed bacterial contamination and the water did not meet hygienic requirements for microbiological indicators. Rospotrebnadzor prohibited drinking water from the Slovenian Springs without boiling, as well as swallowing water from reservoirs during water procedures. Despite this, the administration of the Izborsk Museum-Reserve has still not placed appropriate information posters near the sources, endangering the health of numerous tourists and pilgrims.
St. Nicholas Church on Gorodishche was erected in the 1650s as the “sister” of St. Nicholas Cathedral in the fortress; It was not for nothing that Izborsk was called “The City of Nikola”.
The appearance of the temple is very medieval and very Pskov, there are black crosses on the white walls. Behind the apse there is an almost vertical drop to Lake Gorodishchenskoye: the place on a steep slope, surrounded by ravines, was chosen just right. It had only one drawback: this impregnable site turned out to be very cramped; it was impossible to build a large fortress.
From the site of the fort there are long-distance views of the hills of the Malskaya Valley and a completely epic aura.
Izborsk has its own shrines, for example the miraculous Izborsk Icon of the Mother of God.
This icon is correctly called Our Lady of Korsun Izborsk
. Her memorial day is April 4. It was located in the St. Nicholas Cathedral in the suburbs of Izborsk, Pskov region and was placed in the iconostasis of the main chapel, on the left side of the royal doors. In the handwritten legend about the miracle that occurred from this icon, it itself is called “Pyadnichnaya”, because its image is equal in width to the ancient Russian measure - “span”, or 4 vershoks, and that on the icon the Mother of God is depicted across the chest. " Her head slightly bent to the left side towards the Infant God, Who with His slightly raised face pressed to the face of the Most Pure Mother, clasped Her neck with His right hand and extended His left hand to Her right shoulder. The freshness of the colors, the clarity and distinctness of the image are amazing! The icon seems to have been painted in very recent times, and yet no one remembers that the painting was updated; This is not clear from church documents either. Local residents say that no one has been able to reproduce a completely accurate copy: the list always differs sharply from the original in the dryness of the image" Further known is the following story from 1657, “ great and glorious miracle to the Mother of God" in Pskov Izborsk, when "in the Holy and Great Lent, on the sixth day, on Tuesday, the month of March 17th day, the Germans came to the Pechersk monastery on the night of desecration and burned the entire settlement, and on that day there was a lot of bloodshed created." And so a certain Posad widow Evdokia, who had a Pyadnik icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in her house, brought the Image to Izborsk. “On the same March 22nd day, in the week of color (Vaiy),” praying before the Icon, that widow, together with her daughter Photinia, “saw a terrible sign and filled with horror,” appearing from that icon from the image of the Most Pure Mother of God, tears flowing from both eyes" These Mother of God “tearful streams from both eyes” were later seen by parishioners in the cathedral church of St. Nicholas of Myra, where the icon was exhibited. Then, through the prayers of the Mother of God, “the city of Izboresk was quickly delivered from the invasion of the Tatars,” and the Icon was transferred to Pskov for two weeks.
From the fortress you can clearly see a place similar to the Sacred Grove: a round, isolated forest on the edge of the Malsky Valley. Perhaps this was the Sacred Grove - after all, on the hillfort behind it, Izborsk stood long before the Baptism of Rus'.
Now in the grove there is a huge, old and very mysterious cemetery, surrounded by a fence of wild stone. Among the thousands of graves, a giant (more than two meters) stone cross stands out, clearly erected in the Middle Ages. Rumor calls it the Truvor Cross - in memory of the legendary Varangian, Rurik’s brother, who “settled” in Izborsk. However, the cross was erected in the 15th century, and although it is more than five hundred years old, it is separated from Truvor by more centuries than from us.
The little white Korsun chapel stands at the Talavsky Zahab - the “back door” to the fortress from the Truvorov settlement. In contrast to the ancient towers it looks very impressive. The chapel has a very unusual construction date for Russia - 1929 - after all, the Pechora region, also known as Setomaa or Petserimaa, was part of Estonia between the two world wars.
Izborsk is famous for its nature and landscapes.
At the entrance to the fortress from the main street, one cannot help but notice a two-story wooden house with a peaked roof. This is the mansion of the local merchant Belyanin, built in 1885 and had quite a rich history - for example, the Russian patriotic society was located here as part of Estonia. The museum's exposition is small, but rich: archeology, history, replicas of medieval weapons, samovars, embroidery... A separate exhibition is dedicated to the Set - Orthodox Estonians who have preserved many remnants of paganism. In the backyard of the museum there is a small ethnographic exhibition: peasant household items, carts and even an entire stone house.
The main cathedral of the city, Nikolsky.In 1966, the film Andrei Rublev was filmed in Izborsk.
Driving along the Pskov highway from Pskov to Pechory, pay attention to the reclamation hill located near Izborsk, on which a ten-meter wooden cross was recently erected and called the Hill of Glory (no joke). Next to it is also the newly built chapel of the Sovereign Mother of God. The chapel is always closed, but above its entrance you can see a very beautiful mosaic icon.
Prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos before Her Izborsk Icon O All-Holy Lady, we pray to Your mercy, Your generosity to be accepted by Your people and Your wealth, become a Prayer Book to our God born from You, may He help us, who are of course perishing, and may we be swept away from incurable misfortunes. See, O Lady, we are drowned by the colic of tears, have mercy on us and do not completely reject us. Turn away Thy face, O Queen, and forget our poverty and our sadness, squander the fear and trembling that is upon us, calm down the wrath of God that has come upon us, and tame the destruction, and pacify the strife and rebellion that exists among us, and grant silence and peace to Thy servant good deed, and having applied this, we always preach Your miracles, hoping to achieve eternal life through Your prayers, glorifying the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and forever and ever. Amen.
Like a bright star, Your honorable image, O Virgin Mother of God, has risen in the city of Izborsk, from which tears sometimes flow from both eyes, like a stream, which the people of Izborsk saw then, husbands and wives with children, weepingly praying to him, but we, looking tenderly , here we say: O Most Holy Lady Theotokos, do not forget us, Your sinful servants, who pray to Christ our God to save us.
Zealous Intercessor of Christians and unashamed Representative of our city of Izborsk, do not despise the prayers of us sinners, as sometimes from Your honest image You shed tears from both eyes, praying diligently, but precede, as the Good, to our aid, faithfully falling to You, hear ours prayers, Mother of God, deliver us from finding the filthy, from all evil, hasten us to prayer and strive for supplication, interceding ever since, Mother of God, those who honor Thee and cry out to Thee: Rejoice, Virgin, praise to Christians.
We magnify You, Most Holy Virgin, God-chosen Youth, and honor Your holy image, through which you bring healing to all who come with faith.
Descriptions of the icon
Icon of Korsun Izborsk (Izborskaya Pskov) - description
Source: Website "Miracle-Working Icons of the Blessed Virgin Mary", author - Valery Melnikov
It is a copy of the Korsun Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. She became famous in 1657 during the Swedish invasion of Pskov land. For forty days in the St. Nicholas Church in the Pskov town of Izborsk, believers prayed before the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, and all this time tears flowed from Her eyes. At the end of the forty-day prayer service, the Swedes left the outskirts of Pskov.
Description of the Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos Korsun Izborskaya (Izborskaya Pskov)
Icon of Our Lady of Korsun Izborsk. It was located in the St. Nicholas Cathedral in the suburbs of Izborsk, Pskov region and was placed in the iconostasis of the main chapel, on the left side of the royal doors. Yegor Poselyanin notes that in the handwritten legend about the miracle that happened from this icon, it itself is called “Pyadnichnaya”, because its image is equal in width to the ancient Russian measure - “span”, or 4 vershoks, and that on the icon the Mother of God is depicted across the perimeter. “Her head slightly bent to the left side towards the Infant God, Who with His slightly raised face pressed to the face of the Most Pure Mother, clasped Her neck with His right hand and extended His left hand to Her right shoulder. The freshness of the colors, the clarity and distinctness of the image are amazing! The icon seems to have been painted in very recent times, and yet no one remembers that the painting was updated; This is not clear from church documents either. Local residents say that no one manages to reproduce a completely accurate copy: the list always differs sharply from the original in the dryness of the image.” Further[...]
Description of the Korsun Izborskaya (Izborskaya Pskov) icon from the book by E. Poselyanin
Source: Book "E. Villager. Mother of God. Description of Her earthly life and miraculous icons"
This image of the Mother of God is located in the St. Nicholas Cathedral in the suburbs of Izborsk, Pskov province and is placed in the iconostasis of the main chapel, on the left side of the royal doors. In the handwritten legend about the miracle that happened from this icon, the icon itself is called “Pyadnichnaya”, because its image is equal in width to the ancient Russian measure - “span”, or 4 vershoks. On the icon, the Mother of God is depicted across the face. Her head slightly bent to the left side towards the Infant God, Who with His slightly raised face pressed to the face of the Most Pure Mother, clasped Her neck with His right hand and extended His left hand to Her right shoulder. The freshness of the colors, the clarity and distinctness of the image are amazing! The icon seems to have been painted in very recent times, and yet no one remembers that the painting was updated; This is not clear from church documents either. Local residents say that no one has been able to reproduce a completely accurate copy: the list always differs sharply from the original in the dryness of the image. The icon is decorated with a silver-gilded chasuble, decorated with [...]
Before the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos of Izborsk they pray for healing of mental and physical passions, for deliverance from the invasion of foreigners, for deliverance from all evil.
Prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos before Her Izborsk Icon
O All-Holy Lady, we pray to Your mercy, Your generosity to be accepted by Your people and Your wealth, become a Prayer Book to our God born from You, may He help us, who are of course perishing, and may we be swept away from incurable misfortunes. See, O Lady, we are drowned by the colic of tears, have mercy on us and do not completely reject us. Turn away Thy face, O Queen, and forget our poverty and our sadness, squander the fear and trembling that is upon us, calm down the wrath of God that has come upon us, and tame the destruction, and pacify the strife and rebellion that exists among us, and grant silence and peace to Thy servant good deed, and having applied this, we always preach Your miracles, hoping to achieve eternal life through Your prayers, glorifying the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and forever and ever. Amen.
Troparion, tone 4
Like a bright star, Your honorable image, O Virgin Mother of God, has risen in the city of Izborsk, from which tears sometimes flow from both eyes, like a stream, which the people of Izborsk saw then, husbands and wives with children, weepingly praying to him, but we, looking tenderly , here we say: O Most Holy Lady Theotokos, do not forget us, Your sinful servants, who pray to Christ our God to save us.
Kontakion, tone 8
Zealous Intercessor of Christians and unashamed Representative of our city of Izborsk, do not despise the prayers of us sinners, as sometimes from Your honest image You shed tears from both eyes, praying diligently, but precede, as the Good, to our aid, faithfully falling to You, hear ours prayers, Mother of God, deliver us from finding the filthy, from all evil, hasten us to prayer and strive for supplication, interceding ever since, Mother of God, those who honor Thee and cry out to Thee: Rejoice, Virgin, praise to Christians.
Greatness
We magnify You, Most Holy Virgin, God-chosen Youth, and honor Your holy image, through which you bring healing to all who come with faith.
Korsun Icon of the Mother of God has been revered by parishioners for centuries. Unfortunately, we now have to talk about the Korsun Icon in the past tense - thirty years ago it was stolen, and now there is a copy in its place. But who knows, maybe this one will return to these walls?
Many legends are associated with the Korsun Icon of the Mother of God in Izborsk
The miraculous power of the Korsun Icon of the Mother of God
Later, already in the 20th century, the icon again repeatedly proved its miraculous power. Thus, one local merchant, former naval officer L. Kostenko-Radzievsky, was so shocked by the sudden healing of his wife from an incurable illness (she had tirelessly prayed to the miraculous one) that he erected a chapel in honor of this icon at his own expense. On the eastern and western walls of the chapel you can still find fragments of an ancient cross from one of the local burial grounds, as well as a mortgage cross. 
And one more thing - the merchant tried to make sure that the building did not stand out from the architectural ensemble of the entire fortress, but complemented it. And he succeeded perfectly - it is unlikely that an ignorant person would mistake the miniature, traditional Russian Korsun chapel for a monument of the last century. It looks as if from time immemorial it stood at the foot of the Talavskaya Tower.
Loss of the Korsun Icon of the Mother of God
In the heady 80s of the last century, disaster struck - the great Izborsk shrine disappeared. It was stolen, and, as one of the local priests said, they took it out by dismantling the pipe. Later, godless attackers stole all the silver vestments from the images from the St. Nicholas Cathedral, and even took away the icon of St. Nicholas from the altar. “There is no peace among the parishioners,” explained the famous elder of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, Father John (Krestyankin), answering the question of why the wicked dare to touch the shrines. “In order to reconcile everyone in the common grief, sometimes the Lord gives such tests.” And sure enough, grief seemed to unite all the Izborians: they prayed together for the acquisition of precious relics, and two weeks later the icon of St. Nicholas was discovered near Novgorod.
The Korsun image, however, has not yet been found, but my father gave a copy of it to the temple - he loved to come here to pray. And now, as before, everyone can again venerate the Korsun Icon of the Mother of God.
Izborskaya
icon of the Mother of God
Izborsk Icon of the Mother of God
The Izborsk Icon of the Mother of God was brought from the suburb to the city fortress by the pious widow Evdokia during the German siege of Izborsk in 1657, on the 6th week of Lent. The miraculous sign of the flow of tears from the eyes of the Most Holy Theotokos on this icon, which was seen by Evdokia and her daughter Photinia, was repeated and was witnessed by the clergy of the cathedral church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, where the icon was transferred from Evdokia’s house. By order of Archbishop Macarius of Pskov and Izborsk (1649-1664), prayer services were held in front of the miraculous icon for forty days. Through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, the city of Izborsk was delivered from the invasion of foreigners.
In the same 1657, during Peter's Lent, on the orders of Archbishop Macarius, the miraculous icon was brought to Pskov, to the cathedral church in the Name of the Holy Trinity. She stayed here for two weeks, after which, decorated with a rich salary, she was returned to Izborsk.
A few years later, with the blessing of Archbishop Arseny of Pskov and Izborsk (1665-1681), a celebration was established in honor of the icon, celebrated on March 22.
The local celebration of the Izborsk Icon of the Mother of God is held in St. Nicholas Cathedral in the city of Izborsk. In the icon, the Most Holy Theotokos is depicted slightly inclined towards the Infant Jesus, who clung to Her face, clasping the neck of the Most Pure Virgin with his right hand, and extending his left to Her shoulder. On the silver-gilded chasuble there was the following inscription: “Renewed by Alexander and Nastasya Kamennogorodsky, July 5, 1833.”
http://iconsv.ru/
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"Izborsk" Icon of the Mother of God. Troparion, tone 4.
Like a bright star, risen in the city of Izborsk/ Thy honorable image, O Virgin Mary,/ from worthlessness sometimes tears flow from both eyes, like a stream,/ the people of Izborsk saw him then,/ husbands and wives with children, crying to him, praying to him, / We, looking tenderly, say: / O Most Holy Lady Theotokos, / do not forget us, Your sinful servants, / praying to Christ our God to save us.
Kontakion, tone 8.
Zealous Intercessor of Christians / and unashamed Representative of our city of Izborsk, / do not despise the prayers of us sinners, / as sometimes from Your honorable image / you shed tears from both eyes, praying diligently, / but advance, for the Good, to our help, / truly those who fall to You, / hear our prayers, Mother of God, / deliver us from the presence of the filthy, from all evil, / hasten to our prayer and strive for supplication, / interceding ever since, Mother of God, those who honor Thee and cry out to Thee: / Rejoice, Virgin, Christian praise.
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Troparion, tone 4:
Like a bright star, rising in the city of Izborsk / Thy honorable image, Virgin Mother of God, / from worthlessness sometimes tears flow from both eyes, like a stream, / the people of Izborsk saw him then, / husbands and wives with children, crying to him, praying to him, / We, looking tenderly, say: / O Most Holy Lady Theotokos, / do not forget us, Your sinful servants, / praying to Christ our God to save us.
Kontakion, tone 8:
Zealous Intercessor of Christians / and unashamed Representative of our city of Izborsk, / do not despise the prayers of us sinners, / as sometimes from Your honorable image / you shed tears from both eyes, praying diligently, / but advance, for the Good, to our help, / faithfully those who fall to You, / hear our prayers, Mother of God, / deliver us from the presence of the filthy, from all evil, / hasten to our prayer and strive to entreaty, / interceding ever since, Mother of God, those who honor Thee and cry out to Thee: / Rejoice, Virgin, Christian praise.
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