The seven-pointed icon. The Importance of the Image in Russian Iconography

For more than five hundred years, the icon "Semistrelnitsa" is known, or, as it is called otherwise, the Seven-Shot Icon. Its significance for every Orthodox Christian is very great. It softens embittered hearts, before it they pray for the enemies.

The glory of the miraculous image of the Mother of God spread throughout Russia after the cholera epidemic that swept the Vologda province and many other regions of the Empire in 1830. Having brought innumerable disasters, the sea suddenly ended after the procession, performed by the parishioners. Ahead were the banners and the image, the main one of which was the Seven-Shot Icon. Its meaning was understood by believers and then, she was known as a miracle-working and healing long since cured of the lameness of a peasant who found her in the church of John the Theologian, which is on the Tosno River.

It is interesting that in the temple at first did not take care of this image, he was lying face down on the bell tower, and that unknown cripple who had risen upstairs first took her for a simple board. When his miraculous healing happened, his story aroused some doubts about truthfulness. But he insisted, leading to the proof of the non-randomness of his findings. The icon "The seven-sided Mother of God" was found after the voice, which sounded in a dream, ordered to look for it and indicated the place. Then the image was cleansed, set for worship, and the healing continued. Thus, getting rid of cholera proved his miraculousness once again.

Ships by the manner of writing, the icon was created in the North of Russia. The Mother of God is alone, mourning for her son, and her heart is pierced by seven arrows, symbolizing the sorrows of her earthly life. Russian variants differ in asymmetry. Three and four arrows are located on the right and left, unlike other versions, on which in each hand there are three, and the seventh is shown at the bottom of the image.

Praying for enemies is difficult, but the whole point of the Christian teaching is based on philanthropy and hatred of sins, but not to the people who commit them. Help in this difficult sadness to all true believers has a seven-pointed icon. The significance of such a victory over pride is no less than that of bodily healing. Only charity is able to bring humanity out of that civilized impasse in which it, embraced by vengefulness, now abides.

The troubled time of the 1917 coup did not bypass the holy image that divided the fate of many relics - it was lost. However, you can exterminate a material incarnation, but not the Holy Spirit. The list of this icon was mitered in the Moscow church of the Archangel Michael, giving the believers hope.

Great is the power that the Seven-Shot Icon possesses. Its significance is in the healing of bodily ailments, the softening of character. Its beneficial effect on the evil people coming into the house is so great that it is desirable to have it in every home. In Orthodox iconography, she occupies the rank of a certain "divine special forces" who come to the rescue in the most difficult moments in life. In the years of war years, before the Semistrelna, they pray for the victory of the Orthodox army and the defense of the Motherland from the enemy.

Church canons do not establish rigid rules concerning where the "Semistelnaya" icon should be placed. Where to hang this image - everyone decides for himself, sometimes it is placed in the home iconostasis, often he meets guests directly opposite the entrance doors. If the image is in the temple of God, then you need to pray before it, putting seven candles, according to the number of arrows.