The Icon of the Mother of God of “Greben”

Commemorated on July 28

The Greben Icon of the Mother of God was glorified by miracles and located in a church in the city of Greben (on the River Chira, flowing into the Don). The inhabitants of the city presented it to Great Prince Demetrius of the Don upon his return from the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380.

In 1471, after a successful campaign against Novgorod, Great Prince Ivan III built the church of the Dormition in Moscow at Lubyanka and placed in it the Greben Icon of the Mother of God, which he had taken with him on the campaign. He adorned the icon with a silver riza covered with precious stones, and ordered an Akathist to be written in honor of it.

When the church burned in 1617, the icon miraculously was preserved. The distinctive folds of the Virgin’s omaphorion and the position of the Christ Child’s legs identify the icon, which is almost a reverse image of the Iveron icon.

By permission of the Orthodox Church in America (www.oca.org)