The Korsun Icon of the Mother of God

Commemorated on October 9

The Korsun Icon of the Mother of God: In Ephesus had been preserved an icon of the Mother of God, written by the holy Evangelist Luke. On 9 October in the year 988, a copy of this icon was transferred from Korsun to Kiev by the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir (Comm. 15 July), and it came to be called the Korsun Icon. Later on this icon was transferred to Novgorod, and from thence – to Moscow to the Uspensk cathedral in the Kremlin. Another like image of the Mother of God was brought from Greece to Russia in 1162 by the Nun Evphrosynia of Polotsk (Comm. 23 May).
Saint Evphrosynia founded the Saviour monastery at Polotsk. When she learned that in Greece was an icon written by the Evangelist Luke, she then dispatched rich presents to the Greek emperor and the patriarch Luke Chrysovergos with a request to send her this icon. The holy image was dispatched to Rus' from Ephesus. They conveyed the icon through Korsun, and at the request of the inhabitants of that city it remained there about a year, likewise receiving the name of Korsun Icon. And in the year 1239 the daughter of the Polotsk prince Bryachislav, Alexandra, leaving for marriage to holy Nobleborn Prince Alexander Nevsky (Comm. 23 November), conveyed this icon to the city of Toropets.