Triptych of seriograph icons crafted in canvas on wood, with silver coating and locally gilded.

Virgin Mary our Lady of Kazan

An icon-symbol for the Russian Orthodox Church, the Lady of Kazan or Virgin Mary of Kazan, also known as the Black Virgin Mary of Kazan, was found in the city of Kazan in Russia by a young girl, Matrona. The Monastery of the Lady of Kazan was built at the spot where the icon had been found and was kept there until 1904, when it was stolen. The loss was considered by the Church of Russia a source of many sufferings for the country; even the October Revolution was attributed to it. There are more than sixty copies of the certain icon. One of them, a copy of 1730, was transferred to the Vatican in 1993 and became an icon of prayer for the Pope John Paul II. Today the icon is kept at the Church of the Holy Cross Exaltation in Kazan. In Greece, copies of the icon are exhibited at the Temple of the Holy Monastery of the Virgin Mary (Keratea), at the chapel of the Russian Saint Xeni (Mandra, Attica) and at the Church of the Dormition in Kallithea, Attica.