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Mother of God of Kazan

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Lisa:
The Virgin of Kazan was came back in Russia on 27 August 2004!

"Pope Agrees to Return Kazan Madonna to Russian Church
Created: 12.07.2004 10:28 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:34 MSK


MosNews



Pope John Paul plans to return a 16th century icon to Russia in order to try to help thaw frosty relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church, his spokesman said on Saturday. The Kazan Madonna, a Russian icon that the Vatican has possessed since the early 20th century, will be handed over to the Moscow Patriarch, Alexiy II, in August.

“The Holy Father hopes this pilgrimage of the Kazan Madonna will contribute to the wished-for unity between the Catholic and Orthodox churches,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls announced at the Alpine retreat where the Pope is on holiday.

The 83-year-old Pope has expressed his wish to visit Russia, but only with the blessing of the Patriarch, which has not been forthcoming. The two churches split a millennium ago. A Vatican delegation will return the icon to Russia on August 28, a feast day of the Madonna in the Orthodox calendar. The icon was originally in the cathedral of Kazan, a city east of Moscow.

The Vatican has had the icon for three decades. The pope had been hoping to return the icon himself, but the pontiff’s spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said Saturday that a delegation, still to be named, would return the wooden icon on Aug. 28.

The spokesman said that there had been positive steps between the two churches in recent weeks, and John Paul believes the “time is ripe for such a donation.” During a recent visit by the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians to the Vatican, both sides agreed that stalled theological talks must be resumed.

The wooden icon, which first appeared in Kazan in 1579, hung in the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square and the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg before being taken to the West after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. A Catholic group bought the icon in the 1970s and later presented it to the Pope."

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/07/12/kazan.shtml

For more informations:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/special_features/kazan/documents/kazan_index_en.htm

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