It is said that the prototype of this icon was dug up in the city of Kazan in 1579 by a girl named Matrona and her mother after the Virgin appeared repeatedly in the girl’s dreams, telling her of the buried icon. It was found in the ashes of a destroyed house, beneath the stove, wrapped in cloth. One of the two most famous icons in Russia it accompanied soldiers freeing Moscow from the Poles in 1612, and was with the troops fighting Napoleon in 1812, though in the latter case a copy is said to have been used. Some believe the original icon was destroyed in a fire in the time of Peter the Great, when it was housed in the St. Petersburg Cathedral of the Mother of God of Kazan. The image later considered to be the “original” was actually a re-creation. The icon regarded as the true “Kazan,” copy or not, disappeared in 1905. Many regard it to be the same icon, which was sold in America in 1970 to a Roman Catholic society. The image is now kept in the Marian shrine of Fatima, Portugal. The borders of this example display the Mother and Son Martyrs, Saint Kirik (left) and his mother Saint Ulitta (right). Beaded rizas such as this example are most often attributed to the peasant class. In lieu of a silver riza, which would have been quite expensive, peasants turned to sewing, a craft all were familiar with, to make their own icon covers. One can imagine passing the long winter days of Russia making the decorative riza to honor the image which the icon depicted.
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