Patriarch Kirill said at an April 4 service in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior that President Vladimir Putin had personally ordered the transfer of the Vladimir and Donskaya icons of the Mother of God to the Russian Orthodox Church.
The church had “repeatedly raised the question of returning these sacred objects,” Kirill said, but representatives of the cultural sphere had obstructed this “in every way,” citing the icons’ status as special cultural treasures and claiming the church would be unable to preserve them. In his view, the icons had remained “as if in captivity.”
“But my appeal to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, our Orthodox president, led to his decision to return these sacred objects to the Church,” he said.
Kirill also thanked Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova and the staff of the Tretyakov Gallery for ensuring that “the president’s wise decision was not challenged in any way and that no public movements were created that could call into question the legitimacy, the authority, and above all the usefulness of this act.”
“But now it is very important that, coming to these icons, we pray. Pray for our Fatherland, for our Orthodox president Vladimir Vladimirovich, for the authorities, for the military, so that the Lord protect our Fatherland and not allow those who wish evil upon our country to achieve their goals,” Kirill said.
Both icons were placed before the ambo during the service, according to the Moscow Patriarchate’s website.
The Vladimir and Donskaya icons of the Mother of God had been held at the Tretyakov Gallery since 1930. The Vladimir icon was painted in the 12th century; the Donskaya dates to the late 14th or early 15th century. The Donskaya was part of the permanent collection, while the Vladimir icon was kept at the Church-Museum of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi.
Art historian Sofya Bagdasarova first wrote about plans to transfer the icons on March 7. The Russian business daily RBC and the Russian newspaper Kommersant later reported the same. On April 3, the Tretyakov Gallery announced that the icons would be displayed at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
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