Abalatskaya Mother of God | Inspirational Icon Decor| Size: 5 1/4"x4 1/2"

This miraculous icon, the Abalatskaya Icon, is named after the Siberian village of Abalak in the Diocese of Tobolsk, a village in which a monastery was founded in 1783. During the reign of Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovitch, and during the episcopacy of Archbishop Nektary of Tobolsk, a widow named Maria lived alone in the Abalak country churchyard. In 1636, fifty years after Tobolsk was established, that widow, lightly dozing in her shack, had a vision in which she saw the Image of the Most-holy Theotokos of the Sign suspended in the air; depicted on the right was Holy Hierarch St. Nicholas the Wonder-worker, and on the left, the Venerable St. Mary of Egypt. She heard a voice order her to announce this vision to the people, and to tell them that they should build a new church, dedicated to the Sign Icon of the Most-holy Theotokos, to the right of the old Church of the Holy Transfiguration in the Alabak churchyard. The new church, dedicated to the Sign Icon that is in ancient Novgorod, was to have two side chapels—one to St. Nicholas, and the other, to St. Mary of Egypt. Maria awoke, but was too timid to dare tell anyone about the vision. The vision was repeated four times.