- 5 days ago
MIRACLES, SIGNS, WONDERS, GRACE, HEALING,
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I'm Fr. Richter. Hello, Linochka. Thank you for being here with me today. This is where I often come. Today I'm going to be asking you questions about the icon over here.
00:30Can I ask you some? Sure, of course, I'd be happy to try to answer. So, I want to ask how, like, where is it from and where on earth do they make them?
00:45Well, the icon is called the Kursk root icon. Kursk is a city in southern Russia. It still exists, the city. Actually, it's a rather large town.
01:01And the icon is also called the root icon, the Kursk root. Because sometime, about 750 years ago, this icon, well, not this icon, this is a new icon.
01:20It's a copy of the original Kursk icon. This is the, what the original looks like. Except the original is underneath this encasing.
01:33This is a beautiful jewel case, which they put over the icon. And just for safekeeping and also because people so loved this icon that they would give money to decorate it.
01:52But the icon was found 750 years ago at the root of a tree. No one knows where it came from. And the icon that was found was actually this center portion in the middle of the icon.
02:11Everything else here around the icon, which I will explain a little bit later, was added later. So, the icon was found at the root of a tree by a monk who built a little house, chapel, near where the icon was found.
02:37And he prayed before the icon, which he kept in the chapel, all the time, every day. And then, one day, 750 years ago, when the Tartars, who were a nomadic people from the east, invaded Russia,
03:06in Russia, they were not Christians. And they burned down a lot of the towns, a lot of the churches. And when they came to this place where the icon was, and the monk was, they wanted to burn down the church.
03:28And whatever they did to burn the church, the chapel, where the icon was housed, nothing could, nothing happened. The church would not catch fire.
03:39And the invaders asked the monk, what's happening? Are you a magician? Are you not allowing the chapel to be burned? And he said, not at all. It's probably the grace of the mother of God, which is preventing the church from being destroyed.
04:06So the invaders, the Tatars, got angry. They went into the chapel, took the icon. And one of the invaders took his axe, and hit the icon with the axe. The icon was broken into two. And they threw the icon into the forest, and took the monk as a slave.
04:33The monk was very, of course, saddened by what had happened. First, his chapel was burned down. The beautiful, miraculous, little icon was destroyed, as he thought. And he was taken prisoner, made a slave.
04:55Years later, years later, the Russian nobles were going to the place where the invaders set up their city or capital to pay tribute, to pay their taxes.
05:17Okay? The Tatars, the Tatars, the invaders, would leave them alone as long as they paid them their tribute.
05:24Do you understand what tribute is? It's like taxes. All right?
05:29And on the way to where they were going, they heard religious songs being sung, sung in their own language, in Russian.
05:42And they asked about where the songs are coming from. And it was explained to them that this is a monk who was taken prisoner, and the nobleman, the Russian nobleman paid for his freedom.
06:01So the monk went back to where he lived before he was taken prisoner, and prayed to the Mother of God, hoping for a normal life.
06:16And suddenly he found both halves of the icon in the forest. He was so happy. He took both of these icons, both of these pieces of the icon that were split into two,
06:32He put them together, and he began praying for this icon. And when he woke up, the icon grew back together again.
06:48And on the original icon here, the Korsak icon, if you take the cover off, and you look carefully at the middle of this icon, which is the original icon,
07:01you will still see the scar from the axe. All right?
07:07So the icon is from Kursk, and it's called the root icon because it was founded the root of a tree.
07:13In Russian, we call it the Kurska Korinaya Ikona, Kursk root.
07:22So that was a very unimaginable, magical story. And I now got like, so much in mind. Like, why, so why do we kiss the icon?
07:39Where is the best place we should kiss?
07:43Well, this icon has played a very important role in the history of Russia.
07:56It is possibly the oldest miraculous icon of the Mother of God in the Russian Church.
08:06And this icon was so beloved by the Tsars that it was taken from Kursk to Moscow by Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
08:22He's called Ivan the Terrible. It's a bad translation of the name, but that's the way he's known.
08:31And he put, he had his iconographers or artists add these saints to the icon around the middle, around the original icon.
08:44These are all, the saints here, are all Old Testament prophets.
08:52These are people who lived before the birth of Christ.
08:57And they all, if we read their books in the Old Testament, which is the first part of the Bible,
09:06all of these prophets foretold the birth of Christ, the coming of the Mother of God.
09:15So all of these saints prophesied or foretold the coming of God and the role that the Mother of God would play.
09:28So the icon was in Moscow for a while, and they came back to the city of Kursk.
09:35And in 1812, when the French Emperor Napoleon invaded Russia,
09:47the famous Russian General Kutuzov, before the big battle at Borodino,
09:58General Kutuzov requested this icon be brought to the battlefield before the battle was fought,
10:07so that the Russian soldiers could pray before the icon.
10:13This icon was brought, and another very famous Russian icon, the Smolensk Mother of God, was also brought.
10:20So this icon brought a lot of comfort to the soldiers.
10:25It gave them faith that they would defeat the enemy.
10:29And sure enough, they were defeated, and Napoleon left Russia.
10:34This icon has worked many, many miracles.
10:38Now again, I'm not talking about this copy, although this copy may have done miracles too, that we don't know about.
10:45Because every icon potentially is a miraculous icon.
10:49But this particular icon also helped a little boy who became very famous in Russian church history.
10:59His name was Saint Serafim of Sarov, Saint Serafim of Sarovsky.
11:04He's the saint that you see right behind you, the big icon right there hanging on the wall.
11:09That's Saint Serafim.
11:11He was born and grew up in Kursk, the hometown of this icon.
11:18When he was a little boy, he became very ill.
11:23And his parents were worried that he might die.
11:27He had such a terrible illness.
11:30And this icon was often brought through the city in procession.
11:38And the parents of Saint Serafim of Sarovsky requested that the icon be brought to his home where he was lying in bed and sick.
11:51And the icon was taken over his bed by people.
11:57It was passed over his bed.
12:00And he was healed.
12:02And he became one of the greatest saints Russia ever knew.
12:08He lived in the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century.
12:13He died in 1833.
12:18This icon worked many miracles in Russia.
12:23And when the revolution happened in Russia in 1917, it was followed by a civil war.
12:33That often happens when there's a revolution.
12:36The society becomes separated into two parts.
12:41This icon during the civil war was taken out from Russia to Europe.
12:51By the bishop of Kursk.
12:54Because when the civil war ended, hundreds of thousands of Russians left Russia.
13:02Because they were afraid to fall into the hands of the communists.
13:07The communists were bad people.
13:10They declared war against religion, against God.
13:15And the Russian people who left, immigrated to the west, took this icon with them.
13:24And this icon has been with us, Russian, Americans, Europeans, since that time.
13:33More than, well almost a hundred years now.
13:38In 2007, that was what, eleven years ago, ten years ago.
13:48The Russian church came back together again.
13:53After all these years of separation.
13:56And because of that coming together, this icon has been going back to Russia every year.
14:06To bring comfort to the Russian people.
14:09But this icon has become such a part of the Russian immigration.
14:15Of the Russians who live in the west.
14:19That it is also called, sometimes, the indicator of the way of the Russian people in the west.
14:31In Russian, we say, the putevoditelitsa.
14:34So, for us Russians who don't live in Russia, this icon is very, very special.
14:42And, God willing, it will be with us forever.
14:47Although, the icon is always traveling.
14:51It goes to Russia.
14:53It goes to Europe.
14:55It goes to Australia.
14:57And, we here in Washington are very lucky.
15:00Because, every November, on Thanksgiving Day, the icon comes here.
15:07And, we are able to have it for a whole week.
15:13So, people can come to church.
15:16Pray before this icon.
15:18We are able to take the icon to the sick people.
15:21To hospitals.
15:22And, pray for miracles.
15:24Pray for the healing.
15:26But, most importantly, this icon, the miracle that this icon works, is a spiritual miracle.
15:38It brings people closer to God.
15:41Which is more important than anything else.
15:45Because, we are all going to die.
15:49Right?
15:50No one likes to think about that.
15:53But, we have to think about that.
15:56Because, we have a soul.
15:58Which will remain.
16:00Which will leave our bodies.
16:02And, remain forever.
16:04And, the main goal of our lives.
16:08Should be the salvation of our souls.
16:11That we enter into union with God one day.
16:16And, the mother of God helps us.
16:19Because, she is a mother to all of us.
16:22You know, we know how much our own mothers care.
16:26But, you can just imagine, the mother of God cares for us a thousand times more than our own mothers think care about us.
16:37If I can compare it.
16:40So, but this is a copy of the icon.
16:46And, we keep it in our church, here all the time.
16:49To remind people, of how much she helped the Russians who now live in America.
16:56Any more questions?
17:00Yes.
17:01Why could, did the case have to be like, blue?
17:06Why couldn't it be like, green or red or golden?
17:11Well, because, tradition tells us that the favorite color of the mother of God was blue.
17:21And, when we celebrate feasts of the mother of God, holidays that are dedicated to the mother of God.
17:31The priests, the altar servers, and all the vestments in the church are in blue.
17:39To remind us of her fondness for blue.
17:42Also, blue reminds us of, of heaven.
17:46When we look up in the sky, we imagine that heaven is up there, right?
17:50So, but there are, this icon also has other covers, which are never used.
17:59But, this is the one that, it wears on a daily basis.
18:04And, for those who are listening to us and are interested, this is, this is all solid silver, covered with enamel.
18:15Uh, it's a very beautiful, uh, workmanship.
18:21Uh, the, the, the Riza was made by famous Russian jewelers in the 19th century.
18:28Or maybe the beginning of the 20th century.
18:30So, I see, um, how the icon is made, but why did it have to have the specific saints?
18:41It could have had, like, only the angels.
18:45Well, uh, as I explained earlier, uh, these specific saints are, uh, important because they foretold the coming of Christ.
18:58They prophesized.
19:00And they also prophesized about the Mother of God.
19:03So, a person who is very interested, uh, acutely interested in the history of, uh, Christianity, the Church, uh, will be, may be moved to read their prophecies.
19:21Uh, to help support their faith in Christ and, uh, His Holy Mother.
19:30Okay?
19:32So, if I were right now to come and kiss the original, or see the original icon, or this one, which place would it be the best to kiss it?
19:50Anywhere except the face of the Mother of God, or the face of Christ.
19:56Because, uh, uh, whenever we come up to an icon, we always avoid, uh, kissing the faces.
20:05We just kiss some, somewhere to the side.
20:07Uh, because, uh, kissing an icon is not the same thing as when we kiss Mama, or someone who is close to us.
20:16Uh, it's a different kind of expression.
20:20Uh, kissing is a very, uh, intimate thing.
20:25It's a very intimate act.
20:27And, uh, because they are pure and holy, uh, we try to avoid kissing the face of the saints, or, of, of Christ, or the Mother of God.
20:41So...
20:42So...
20:43Out of humility.
20:44Yeah.
20:45So...
20:46It...
20:48Like, why, like, why on Earth could...
20:53Had it, like, been like this?
20:58Could it have...
20:59Couldn't they have been wearing other colors?
21:02Like...
21:03Like...
21:04Like...
21:05Like...
21:06Like she could be wearing blue.
21:07Completely blue.
21:08Well...
21:09Uh...
21:10Many icons, uh, depict Mother of God in blue.
21:14Others depict her in...
21:16In red.
21:17Um...
21:18There's no particular reason for that.
21:21Um...
21:22The...
21:23The...
21:24This icon, if you took the cover off, you would see that she's dressed in the same dark outfit.
21:33Uh...
21:34Which depicts her, uh, earthly existence.
21:38She lived on Earth.
21:40Um...
21:41The blue, as I said, depicts her heavenly side.
21:46Um...
21:49But that's not the most important thing.
21:51Of course.
21:52The most important thing is that, uh, she is depicted.
21:56Uh...
21:57Always with a very serene face.
21:59A very...
22:01Calm.
22:02Collected.
22:03Uh...
22:04Very...
22:05Regal.
22:06Because she's the Queen of Heaven.
22:09After all.
22:11Why are her hands, like...
22:15Like...
22:16Like that?
22:17Why can't they be like...
22:19This?
22:20Or like...
22:21Any other position?
22:23Well, because...
22:24This is...
22:25This position...
22:26Is a position...
22:27Of prayer.
22:29She's raising her hands.
22:31And also, she's...
22:32She's...
22:33Uh...
22:34Enveloping with her...
22:35With her hands...
22:36With her arms...
22:37A Christ child.
22:39A Christ child is...
22:42In front of her.
22:44But, uh...
22:45It...
22:46What...
22:47What...
22:48His position...
22:49Is like...
22:50He's...
22:51Coming out of her womb.
22:52In a sense.
22:53She gave birth to him.
22:55So...
22:56So he's...
22:57Right now...
22:58Depicted as part of her.
22:59And he's...
23:00He's depicted as a very young...
23:02Child here.
23:03But this is a position of prayer.
23:06If you've been to church recently...
23:08You've probably noticed...
23:09The priest sometimes raises his hands...
23:11Like this...
23:12In front of the altar table.
23:14And he says...
23:15Glory to God in the highest...
23:17And on earth peace...
23:18Good will among men.
23:19And then he crosses himself...
23:21And then he raises his hands again.
23:23So it's a position of prayer.
23:26Uh...
23:27Sometimes...
23:28You see...
23:29In the conastas...
23:31How the mother of God is standing up...
23:33And she's...
23:34Pointing...
23:35She's also holding her hands...
23:37Upright...
23:38But she's pointing to her son...
23:40Right there...
23:41You see...
23:42To the right...
23:43To the...
23:44Our left of Christ...
23:45In the middle...
23:46Yes...
23:47Up there...
23:48Uh-huh...
23:49So...
23:50Different icons depict her in different positions.
23:54So...
23:56I know they could be holding anything else...
23:59But it's just very curious...
24:00Why...
24:01Are they all holding...
24:02A piece of paper?
24:04Because that shows that they all...
24:06Wrote something during their lifetime.
24:08And as I mentioned...
24:09They prophesized...
24:10They wrote down prophecies...
24:12Which...
24:13Which were entered into...
24:15Books...
24:16The books of the prophets...
24:18In the Bible...
24:19And...
24:20Uh...
24:21Here is...
24:22Saint David...
24:23The king of Israel...
24:25And the prophet...
24:27The...
24:28Uh...
24:29He wrote Psalms...
24:30And the Psalms contain many...
24:32Many prophecies...
24:33About Christ...
24:34And the mother of God...
24:36This is...
24:37Uh...
24:38Holy prophet...
24:39King Solomon...
24:40Who also prophesized much...
24:43In the Old Testament...
24:45Daniel...
24:46Jeremiah...
24:48Elias...
24:49Avakumas...
24:50Gideon...
24:51Uh...
24:52Isaiah...
24:53Isaiah...
24:54Moses...
24:55Uh...
24:56So all these were great men...
24:57Who lived...
24:58Hundreds...
24:59Of years...
25:00Before Christ came...
25:01And they all wrote down...
25:02Very...
25:03Precisely...
25:04Uh...
25:05Uh...
25:06Who lived...
25:07Uh...
25:08Hundreds...
25:09Of years...
25:10Before Christ came...
25:11And they all wrote down...
25:13Very...
25:14Precisely...
25:15Uh...
25:16What...
25:17Christ...
25:18Would be...
25:19Who he would be...
25:20What he would do...
25:21For example...
25:22Isaiah...
25:23The prophet Isaiah...
25:24Is sometimes called the...
25:26Old Testament evangelist...
25:28Because he wrote down in great detail...
25:30The sufferings that...
25:32Christ would...
25:33Would endure...
25:35For our sake...
25:37It's very interesting...
25:38When you go home...
25:40Take a...
25:41Take down...
25:42Uh...
25:43Take down from the...
25:44From the shelf...
25:45The Bible...
25:46And look up the prophecies...
25:48Look up the...
25:49Books of the prophets...
25:50And you'll see...
25:51Or you can go to Google...
25:53And...
25:54Uh...
25:55Go to Wikipedia...
25:57And you can look up their names...
25:58Isaiah...
26:00David...
26:01Jeremiah...
26:02And you'll get in little...
26:04Concise form...
26:06The essence of what they wrote...
26:08It's very interesting...
26:11Very interesting...
26:12Indeed...
26:13So...
26:15I see like...
26:17The entire icon...
26:19But I don't get why...
26:20Is...
26:21Is that...
26:22Right there...
26:23It could be here...
26:24Here...
26:25Or even like...
26:26Right under here...
26:27Well...
26:28Because...
26:29This little medallion...
26:30If it were here...
26:32It would block...
26:33The writing here...
26:35But what that is...
26:37Uh...
26:38There was a famous...
26:39Iconographer...
26:40His name was Father Kypria...
26:42Uh...
26:43Who died...
26:44Oh...
26:45About ten years ago...
26:46He lived in Jordanville...
26:48And...
26:50Uh...
26:51He was...
26:52Once asked...
26:54To...
26:56Uh...
26:57Look...
26:58And inspect...
26:59The icon...
27:00Underneath...
27:01The...
27:02Metal frame...
27:03And...
27:04What Father Kyprian did was...
27:06Uh...
27:07He took...
27:08You know...
27:09What...
27:10Old icons...
27:11They become dark over time...
27:13Because of dust...
27:14And oil...
27:15And...
27:16Just time...
27:17It...
27:18Weathers the icon...
27:20So what he did was...
27:21He took the metal cover off...
27:23And he noticed that the icon was very dark...
27:25So he took cotton...
27:27Made a solution...
27:29And...
27:30Cleaned the icon...
27:31Alright...
27:33Um...
27:35And...
27:36Part of the cotton that he used...
27:38To clean the icon...
27:39Is inside that little medallion...
27:41It was given to us by...
27:44Uh...
27:45A young man...
27:46I mean...
27:47He's not young anymore...
27:48But...
27:49Uh...
27:50He remembers when Father Kyprian did that...
27:52And...
27:53Uh...
27:54He was given a piece of that cotton...
27:56Uh...
27:57Containing the dirt from the top of the icon...
27:59From the surface of the icon...
28:01And...
28:02Uh...
28:03Just as a keepsake...
28:04And...
28:05Uh...
28:06You know...
28:07The...
28:08The dirt from the...
28:10Surface of the icon...
28:11Was of course...
28:12Hundreds of years old...
28:13So...
28:14He kept this in his little...
28:16Medallion...
28:17And then he just decided...
28:18That when we bought this icon...
28:20He says...
28:21Well...
28:22Why don't you keep it...
28:23As a reminder...
28:24Of what Father Kyprian did...
28:25Cleaning the icon...
28:26That's all...
28:27Very...
28:28Very...
28:29Pretty...
28:30Too...
28:31I see all the scenes...
28:32But why is there a box...
28:33Right here?
28:34Oh...
28:35That's...
28:36Um...
28:37That depicts...
28:38The altar of heaven...
28:39God's throne...
28:40And...
28:41It reminds us...
28:42Of...
28:43The throne that...
28:44We have in our...
28:45Altar...
28:46Where the...
28:47Holy Eucharist is performed...
28:48But this is considered...
28:49Like...
28:50A depiction of the throne...
28:51Of the Lord of glory...
28:52And...
28:53Of course...
28:54There you see the book...
28:55Which...
28:56Reminds us...
28:57Of the Holy Gospel...
28:58The teaching of Christ...
28:59His life and teaching...
29:00Very...
29:01Pretty...
29:02And...
29:03I like this story...
29:04Why are there...
29:05This specific kind of flower...
29:06It could be...
29:07Rose...
29:08Or...
29:09It could be...
29:10Or...
29:11It could be...
29:12Sunflowers...
29:13Why is it...
29:14This specific...
29:15Flower...
29:16You mean this?
29:17Yes...
29:18Well...
29:19What's...
29:20What's that...
29:21Why are there this specific kind of flower?
29:29It could be rose or it could be sunflowers.
29:35Why is it this specific flower?
29:40You mean this?
29:42Yes.
29:43Well, what that reminds us of is the prophets were all spiritually connected one to another.
30:01This is like a piece of, like a vineyard, like the vines that intermingle.
30:12And all of these prophets were spiritually one because they all focused in their prophecies on the coming of Christ.
30:28All right?
30:30So those, those vines show that this interconnection between the prophets.
30:38Okay.
30:40What is this face back here?
30:43What is it where here?
30:45Right here.
30:48What is that? What's inside?
30:50This here?
30:52Those are nails that remind us that Christ was nailed to the cross.
31:00That He suffered for us.
31:02And His suffering made everything possible for us spiritually speaking.
31:10He died for our sins.
31:17He died so that we could be forgiven.
31:21And always when we see nails, that's to remind us of the suffering that Christ endured for our sake.
31:32Wow.
31:33It must be raining.
31:34Yeah.
31:35Thank you for being here with me today.
31:38Sweetheart, thank you for taking so much interest in the Course Icon.
31:43And I hope and pray that you and I together will pray before it when it comes to us in November on Thanksgiving.
31:50All right?
31:51Right.
31:52God bless you.
31:53Okay.