Smolensk Icon of Our Lady

Smolensk Icon of Our Lady according to the legend, was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist and brought to Russia’s Kiev by Greek princess Anna, the wife of St. Vladimir. Under Vladimir Monomakh it was moved to Smolensk where it was kept in the cathedral and became famous for many miracles. In the end of the 14th century the miraculous icon was brought to Moscow; in 1399 the Princess Sophia, the wife of the Prince of Moscow Vasily I, brought it from her father, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Vytautas. Having come to Moscow, Sofia put the icon in the Annunciation Cathedral in the Grand Duke's courtyard. In 1456 by the request of the people of Smolensk, the Grand Prince Vasily the Dark returned them their shrine, and the Kremlin was left with a copy of it. In 1524 Novodevichy Convent received the copy of the Kremlin's icon of the Smolensk Icon of Our Lady.