---
title: "The Kazan Icon of the Theotokos: history — Church history"
description: "The appearance of 1579, the militia of 1612 and the fate of the original."
url: "https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/icon-kazan"
language: "en"
---

Icons

# The Kazan Icon of the Theotokos: history

The appearance of 1579, the militia of 1612 and the fate of the original.

## Contents

1. [The appearance](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/icon-kazan#s1)
2. [1612](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/icon-kazan#s2)
3. [The original](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/icon-kazan#s3)

## The appearance

According to the account of Metropolitan Hermogenes (then a priest in Kazan), the icon was found in 1579 on the site of a fire in Kazan at the direction of a girl named Matrona.

## 1612

A copy of the icon accompanied the militia of Minin and Pozharsky; the liberation of Moscow from the Polish garrison on 22 October (Old Style) 1612 began the feast, made nationwide in 1649.

## The original

The icon that appeared was kept in the Theotokos convent in Kazan and was stolen in 1904; its fate is unknown. The many venerated copies have their own histories, which should not be identified with that of the original.

## Related

- [Kazan Icon of the Theotokos](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/icons/kazan)
- [Moscow copy of the Kazan Icon (Epiphany Cathedral at Yelokhovo)](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/icons/kazan-yelokhovo)