According to Orthodox tradition, the icon is a real open window between Heaven and Earth, a sacramental reality that becomes a "sign" of the mystery of Salvation, simultaneously effective for the graces it conveys and rich in values โโthat go far beyond the plane of appearances, of simple corporeality and the transitory.
di Nuccio D'Anna
Introduction on sacred iconography
The traditional icon is a sacred image that intends to represent the divine dimension contemplated by the artist by virtue of his direct and unmediated communion with the depicted spiritual hierarchies. According to Orthodox tradition the icon is a real open window between Heaven and Earth, a sacramental reality that becomes a "sign" of the mystery of Salvation, simultaneously effective for the graces it conveys and rich in values โโthat go far beyond the level of appearances, simple corporeality and the transitory. With impeccable clarity Pavel Florenskij explained that ยซthe icon has the purpose of raising consciousness to the spiritual world, showing โmysterious and supernatural spectaclesโยป.ย
To achieve these results, the iconographer does not use mineral substances in their gross and material appearance, but works directly on their more "essential" and "subtle" nature, transfiguring the substances used and tracing them back to the pre-formal roots from which they took shape and consistency. By virtue of its special sacred art, for example, gold will not only be the raw material known to ordinary man, but the vehicle of divine light. Its incorruptible hate it will reveal the inexhaustible richness of celestial splendor preceding its very crystallization as a mineral. Taking up the indications kept by the master iconographers, Paul Evdokimov remembered that the icon ยซrepresents the Hypostasis and shows God in Manยป. This is a very special โformโ of revelation. Therefore all forms of "prayerful contemplation" ritually ordered in front of an icon must lead the man of prayer to go beyond any merely representative appearance, to free himself from sensible appearances, to contemplate its symbolic contents and to intimately experience the theophanic values โโconveyed by the sacred icon.
When the faithful physically approaches a towering icon in a church, they are on the verge of going beyond what in reality appears to be a real โroyal doorโ. It is not a question of portraying biblical events or characters, nor of presenting the figurative story of a fundamental event in the history of Salvation, but of bringing back to the direct experience of an authentic sacred dimension a concrete and lived divine reality that is revealed in the sacred liturgy. and in prayer. It is a true sacramental "Presence" which is based on fundamental aspects of Revelation and is intimately connected with contemplation, with the mystical experience and with the mystery of Salvation itself. To take up again the illuminating words of Pavel Florensky,
the icon evokes an archetype, that is, it awakens a spiritual vision in the conscience [...]. For someone who thinks differently, the icon will respond to a spiritual perception dormant far below awareness, a perception that borders on the threshold of consciousness without clearly emerging.
From this fundamentally traditional perspective, it may be of special interest to draw attention to the most venerated Russian icon of Our Lady of Kazan, the Mother of God painted on wood by an unknown Byzantine iconographer which some scholars of sacred art and iconology believe they can safely date back to at least the XNUMXth century. This is the period that Russian folk tales have always considered as the date of the first "random" discovery of this extraordinary painting. Like all icons of Theotokos which always portray the Mother of God together with the Son, here too the Madonna is depicted without the slightest actual correspondence with her historical and human reality, but in an archetypal, Principial, "original" dimension, with her face turned towards the Child Jesus who is erect, standing on her knees, caught in the sovereign act of blessing with his right hand. It's the authentic Axis mundi which orients, governs and nourishes every aspect of creation.
The Madonna's head is slightly inclined towards the Child, not to express transitory affection, but to indicate to the contemplative "Where" to find the Truth, the authentic Way that leads to the triumph of light, to victory over disorder and to spiritual transfiguration. Following the same archetype that, for example, will triumph everywhere with the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, Christ is depicted as the Puer Aeternus which abolished every form of change and becoming. Therefore he is covered like an adult with a tunic and a gold-colored cloak that shines continuously like a perpetual sun that never sets and radiates the infinite graces bestowed by his blessing hand. The icon seems to have wanted to depict a "form" of Divine Wisdom itself, not the Child Jesus but il Verbum Dei which royally grants its transfiguring light to the entire cosmos and to all the celestial hierarchies which safeguard its order and reason for being.
Our Lady of Kazan
After being transported from Constantinople to a monastery in Kazan, the icon disappeared in 1209. There is no particular news of it until 1552. That year, however, it Tsar Ivan the Terrible decided to fight i Tartars who continued to prevent Christians from even the most basic exercise of their sacred traditions. October 1 of this year is fateful for the entire history of Russia, on the occasion of Cover, the festival that celebrates the maternal "Protection" of the Madonna over the Russian people, the tsar managed to defeat the Tatars and finally enter the city of Kazan, then the capital of the invaders occupying the national territory. A few years later the city was devastated by a terrible fire. Thinking that the destruction caused by this event might find the Russians militarily unprepared because they were painfully affected, the Muslims attempted to occupy the city and finally manage to subdue the Christian Orthodox population.ย
During these terrible events the Madonna appeared three times to Matrรซna (Matrona), a nine-year-old girl, daughter of a soldier, poor among the poor, and ordered her to search among the ruins of the city for her icon hidden by the faithful to steal it from the Tartars. It was not, nor could it have been, an easy undertaking, but after various ordeals on 8 July 1579 Matrรซna finally found among the rubble the sacred icon of Our Lady of Kazan protected from the elements and the wickedness of men only by a thin veil of rags , but shining with an extraordinary light that little by little overwhelmed all doubts, even those advanced by the excessive prudence of the episcopal hierarchy.
The same day two blind men, Joseph and Nikita, had the grace to recover their sight and therefore since then the icon continues to be venerated also as the giver of sight to the "pure in heart". The imperial family itself placed itself under the special protection of Our Lady of Kazan who thus, almost as an immediate and "natural" reflection which extended the consecration to all the Russian people, also became the protector of all the families of the Empire. For a long continuity of centuries, her image was an integral part of the wedding trousseau and was given on the occasion of all wedding ceremonies. During the procession that led the spouses towards the new home, it had to be the icon that led the way, led the festive procession and was the first to triumphantly enter the new home.
After the discovery of the icon by Matrรซna, what the Russian people have always considered her protective "mission" for the benefit of all of Russia begins. Tsar Ivan the Terrible himself was no stranger to this special form of devotion and believed that his extraordinary victories over the Tartars and Muslims, which paved the way for the formation of the essential nucleus of the future Russian empire, were the fruit of the direct protection of Our Lady of Kazan.ย
A few years later, Russia was heavily invaded by Polish armies who devastated its territory and reached Moscow. At the height of the occupation, the Poles did not hesitate to let the Patriarch German, guilty of continuing to be faithful to the sacred Orthodox traditions, but on 22 October 1612, after having once again invoked the protection of Our Lady of Kazan, the Muscovite population rose up. Once again the Russians brought the venerated icon to the streets, which had now become the very symbol of their aspirations for victory and liberation. At the cry of โLiberator of Russiaโ with which the Madonna was invoked, on November 27 of that same year the Poles were finally driven out and forced to definitively abandon Russian territory.
Almost a century later, in 1709, on the occasion ofSwedish invasion which once again threatened to erase the Orthodox tradition in favor of revolutionary Protestantism, the Tsar Peter the Great overwhelmed the Swedish occupiers in the memorable battle of Poltava. Before the decisive clash with the Swedes, the tsar and his entire army had implored the Madonna for three days and three nights, fasting and praying. The triumph of the imperial armies was unanimously attributed to the presence on the battlefield of the holy icon which the Russians now considered the guardian of the spiritual identity of the nation. Immediately afterwards the icon was triumphantly brought to the St. Petersburg Cathedral and again a century later, during the terrible Napoleonic invasion conducted under the banner of revolutionary nihilism that intended to destroy the spiritual foundations of their thousand-year-old tradition, the Russians continued to invoke the Madonna of Kazan. Every Russian citizen rooted in sacred traditional values โโalways remembers that the victorious turning point against the French invaders has a precise date, 22 October 1812, providentially coinciding with the beginning of the three-day cycle that the Orthodox liturgical calendar consecrates to the feast of the Madonna of Kazan.
Transported to Moscow, the new capital of the Empire, for about a century the sacred icon continued to guard the traditional Russian identity. On 29 June 1904, on the occasion of the revolutionary upheavals that broke out in conjunction with the defeat in the war against Japan, the sacred icon was mysteriously removed from the city's cathedral and disappeared precisely coinciding with the Russian ruin caused by its entry into the First World War alongside the Western democracies and the subsequent outbreak of the Bolshevik revolution. The last official political act of Tsar Nicholas II, now at the end of his reign due to the triumph of the revolution, was the consecration of Russia to the Madonna of Kazan in 1918.
A few days later trotsky, well aware of the trans-historical significance and the transfiguring significance of this special event that emerged from the mists of a "traditional" and pre-modern reality, ordered the entire imperial family to be exterminated. He was one of the revolutionary leaders most permeated by that occult desire for annihilation and destruction of the sacred roots of Russia which characterized all the Bolshevik leaders, driven in their action by a dark will emanating from a pre-political dimension assimilable only to a sort of infernal power. And this the watershed that intended to lead to the end of Russian spiritual identity and the traditional basis that had supported it for centuries.
In 1964, on the occasion of the New York International Exposition, the icon mysteriously reappeared and was exhibited to the public. So it was that theBlue Army of the Apostolate of Fatima managed to acquire it and on 26 July 1970 the icon found its "place" in the Byzantine chapel of Domus Pacis of the fateful town of Fatima. As is well known, during his pontificate John Paul II tried in various ways to make a pastoral trip to post-revolutionary Russia, but the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow prevented this event in every way, to which some spirits of great faith attributed a parousiac character could materialize. Then, during the new pontificate of Benedict XVI, fulfilling the vow of his predecessor, but physically unable to visit Russia due to the continuous vetoes, the new Pope donated the sacred icon to the Patriarchate of Moscow in whose cathedral it can now finally reign supreme after his century-long absence.ย
The presence of the icon of Our Lady of Kazan in Fatima may seem like pure chance. But is it really like that? Everyone knows that one of the three most important revelations for the spiritual, doctrinal and historical consequences made to the three Seers of Fatima by Our Lady was precisely that relating to the destiny of Russia. On July 13, 1917, before purchasing, of the triumph of Bolshevism, Our Lady will say to the Seers:
...I have come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my immaculate heart and the communion of reparation on the first Saturdays. If you listen to my requests, Russia will convert and you will have peace; otherwise she will spread her errors throughout the world by promoting wars and persecutions of the Church; the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have to suffer a lot, several nations will be annihilated. Finally my Immaculate Heart will triumph.
The same site as Fatima, on the other hand, presents some particularities that perhaps should be noted. Starting, for example, from the name of the village itself which, according to local tradition, is none other than that of a Muslim noblewoman who converted to Christianity and is therefore remembered in this way. It's about a tradition that recalls that of the very special "Islamic" Ladies of whom, without ever having seen or heard them, some Troubadours declared themselves to be lovers-servants whose "traditional" culture has always permeated the regions around the Pyrenees. But perhaps it is not superfluous to remember that Fatima was the favorite daughter of the Prophet of Islam and she has always covered a very particular role connected to a precise eschatological function and to her bond with Ali, her chivalrous husband, the fourth Caliph, the "Well Directed", Mohammed's son-in-law and initiator of a series of spiritual brotherhoods with a strong warrior spirit, in many respects linked to a โsacrificialโ dimension of the Way of God.ย
Around the town of Fatima even today there are three important churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary, each of which reveals its own special form of religiosity connected to what Henry Corbin called "spiritual chivalry" and the fight against disorder. In Alcobaรงa there is the church dedicated to Maria Assumption since the XNUMXth century: it is the church that celebrates the parousia triumph of the Virgin; in Batalha there is a famous Dominican convent whose chapel is dedicated to Santa Maria della Vittoria where until very recently the Portuguese armies returning from battles went to pay homage to the Queen of Victory, leaving as ex-votos weapons and anything else that could commemorate their fight for the Order; in Nazarรฉ there is a small but famous and popular sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady of the Milk, i.e. to the Madonna della Sapienza which, as is evident, seems to complete in a mystical-realistic dimension the parousia perspectives also underlying the other two sanctuaries.
From this geographical arc that crowns Fatima and is outlined by venerated people Marian sanctuaries particularly close to chivalric spirituality, the Christian reconquest of Portugal and the reconversion of this region, so important for all of Christianity, began. Not far away, the true heart of the region, in the stronghold city of Tomร r is the Convent of Christ built starting in 1160 by the Knights of the Temple, where it is still possible to celebrate Holy Mass today in the chapel that belonged to the famous Order formed by mysterious warrior monks. If we now put in mind the links of the Templars with some aspects of Islamic spirituality, to their fundamental function of โGuardians of the Holy Landโ and the importance of the cult of the Madonna in the spirituality of Saint Bernard (inspirer of Rule which will support the Temple for centuries), we will be able to begin to glimpse a dimension of human events that is usually overlooked.
Thus, the Christian history of Russia seems enigmatically intertwined with that of the most important apparition of the Virgin in the XNUMXth century, the century of violence and persecution against the Church of Christ. We will add an enigmatic detail, which however can finally be understood after what has been said so far. Following the attack that attempted to nip the pontificate of John Paul II โ according to some visionaries, his election marked the triumph of the Virgin over the forces of evil that intended to operate heavily even in the Conclave โ on May 13 of the year following the attack the Pontiff went to Fatima and "returned" to the Madonna the bullet that it had stopped within a millimeter of his heart. The bullet was set in the โapexโ of the crown of the Marian statue as an indelible and indisputable sign of her triumph.
On that occasion the managers of the Byzantine Chapel of the Domus Pacis of Fatima, the custodians of the icon of Our Lady of Kazan, delivered the extraordinary icon to the Pope in view of his apostolic visit to the land of Russia which everyone at the time believed was imminent. It was supposed to be the historic occasion for the Vicar of Christ to be able to deliver to Russia the "tabernacle" of the presence in the world of the Celestial Guardian of her spiritual identity and reconstruct that โChurch with two lungsโ repeatedly recalled by John Paul II also in the prayer formulated for Our Lady of Kazan, the authentic ecclesial unity for which Christians have always yearned. In the conclusion of his letter which accompanied the gift of the icon to the Patriarchate of Moscow, the Pope explained thus:
Despite the division that, unfortunately, still persists among Christians, this sacred icon appears as one of the symbols of the unity of the disciples of the only begotten Son of God, of Him towards whom it guides us all.ย
This is an aspect of the announcement made to the three Visionaries in Fatima by Our Lady herself (ยซFinally my Immaculate Heart will triumphยป) way back in 1917, exactly 72 years - a cyclical number with a capital symbolic value - before the fateful 1989, the year that concluded the revolutionary misdeeds that devastated the twentieth century.
