"Icon of the Mother of God "Three-handed" in the Ioninsky monastery"

"Icon of the Mother of God "Three-handed" in the Ioninsky monastery"

The miraculous copy of the icon of the Mother of God, called the "Three-handed" was brought to the Kiev Holy Trinity Monastery, founded by the Monk Elder Jonah from the Bryansk Beloberezhskaya Hermitage.In this monastery, the elder himself, with the blessing of the Monk Seraphim of Sarov, asceticised for more than ten years, being under the spiritual guidance of the disciples of the Monk Paisiy Velichkovsky. Among the revered shrines of the Beloberezhsky Monastery, the icon of the Mother of God "Three-handed" was famous for the miracles that flowed from it, to which people came from all over the area. Once a year, the monks of this monastery carried the icon around with a procession of the cross through the surrounding villages. Fr. Jonah was still a novice. In one of these processions of the Cross, which took place in winter, a carriage with the icon and everyone who accompanied it fell from the bridge into the river and began to sink. Through the prayer of Fr. Jonah to the Mother of God all remained safe and sound. Elder Jonah always kept the memory of this blessing of the Blessed Virgin in his heart.Coming at the command of God to Kiev, Fr. Jonah settled in the Vydubetsky monastery. Here he became famous for his ascetic life and virtues, for which twice (the first time on March 1, 1861, and the second time on March 9, 1862) he was honored with the vision of the Most Holy Theotokos with the forthcoming host of saints. The Mother of God blessed the elder and ordered the construction of a new monastery in the Name of the Holy and Life-Giving Trinity to begin.

The first altar in the monastery church was consecrated in honor of the Three-Handed Icon of the Mother of God. At the request of the elder in the Beloberezhskaya Hermitage, a copy of the local miraculous icon was written and donated to the new monastery with a will "for everlasting time in the Holy Trinity Monastery." Having received such a priceless gift, the monks of the newly created monastery of Elder Jonah (as they called the new monastery in Kiev) brought him to Kiev with a solemn procession. This image was installed behind the right kliros of the main monastery church, in the place under which the elder Jonah had prepared for himself a crypt for burial during his lifetime.

The Monk Jonah loved very much to pray before this icon. Many residents of Kiev, noticing such a reverence of the elder for the new image, also strove to offer their prayers before it and received what they asked for by faith.

A legend has been preserved according to which a certain girl Matrona Chernienko, who had an incurably diseased hand, desperate to find help from doctors and having heard about the Kiev miraculous image, came on foot from Moldova to the monastery of St. Jonah for help. After praying in front of the icon of the Mother of God "Three-handed", she was completely healed of her illness and thanked God and His Most Pure Mother for the shown mercy.

A blind man was brought from the city of Kharkov to the miraculous icon. After earnest prayer to the Mother of God, filled with joy and thanksgiving, he returned home completely sighted.

In the summer of 1889, an epidemic of typhus raged in Kiev, which claimed the lives of many Kievites, among whom were the monks of the Holy Trinity Monastery. Then, with the blessing of the Monk Jonah, in front of the miraculous icon "Three-handed" was served a prayer service for water, and the whole monastery was sprinkled with blessed water. On the same day, the cruel pestilence stopped, and the brethren who were already sick received healing and no one else died.

Seeing so many healings flowing from the Kiev image of the Mother of God "Three-handed", many people of little faith and even unbelievers were amazed at such an abundance of miracles and brought true repentance. There is a known case when, through a prayer to the Mother of God in the Holy Trinity Monastery, an Old Believer, who was seriously suffering from an illness of the hand, was healed, who then left the schism.

In 1934 the Holy Trinity Ioninsky Monastery was closed, and its monks were dispersed or repressed. Some nuns kept the miraculous icon at that time, and as soon as the opportunity arose, they transferred it to the Kiev Intercession Convent, in the St. Nicholas Church of which it is kept to this day.

With the restoration of the Iona monastery in 1991, the brethren diligently took care of the revival of old traditions and the monastery charter. The brothers and parishioners of the monastery keep in their hearts the memory of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God "Three-handed". Many people flock to the conciliar reading in the monastery church of the Akathist in honor of this icon, which is performed on Sundays during the evening service.

The celebration in honor of the Kiev miraculous icon of the Mother of God, called the "Three-handed", takes place on July 12 (25), as well as on March 1 (14) and 9 (22) - on the day of the First and Second Appearance of the Mother of God to the Monk Jonah, the Kiev miracle worker.

Source: website of the Trinity Ioninsky monastery in Kiev