Miraculous icons of the Mother of God “Vladimirskaya” and “Donskaya” have been transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church

3 April 2026. Moscow. On the eve of the feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, at the petition of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’, the transfer of the miraculous icons of the Most Holy Theotokos “Vladimirskaya” and “Donskaya” from the State Tretyakov Gallery to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior of the Russian capital took place.

These icons are among the most venerated miraculous images of the Queen of Heaven in Orthodoxy.

The Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God has been transferred for gratuitous use to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior for a period of 49 years.

The corresponding agreement has been concluded between the Tretyakov Gallery and the Patriarchal metochion of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior of the city of Moscow in accordance with the standard form approved by the Ministry of Culture of Russia, providing for compliance with all necessary requirements ensuring the preservation of the shrine.

Under similar conditions, the Don Icon of the Mother of God has been transferred by the Tretyakov Gallery for gratuitous use to the Donskoy Stavropegial Monastery, with its temporary placement in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

The transferred icons continue to remain the property of the Russian Federation and under the operational management of the State Tretyakov Gallery, and all decisions concerning their preservation are taken jointly by the parties under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture of Russia.

The icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Vladimirskaya” was brought to Rus’ from Constantinople around the year 1130 as a gift to Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich, who placed it in one of the churches of Vyshgorod — a princely city near Kiev. In the mid-12th century, departing for his patrimony and wishing to obtain heavenly patronage, the son of Yuri Dolgoruky, Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky, transferred the revered Vyshgorod image of the Mother of God to the North-Eastern lands, and after the completion of the construction of the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir placed the icon there. Veneration of the icon grew, and gradually it began to be called “Vladimirskaya,” after the city where it became renowned for miracles and healings and from which it was transferred to Moscow in the 15th century. From that time, the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin became the place where the icon resided. After the revolution, in 1918–1919, the deeply venerated icon, known from numerous mentions in chronicles, was cleaned by restorers from thick layers of soot and later overpainting, and a decade later transferred to the State Tretyakov Gallery. Since 1999, the icon had been kept in the church-museum of St Nicholas in Tolmachi, in a specially equipped display case.

The Don Icon of the Mother of God entered the Tretyakov Gallery in 1930 from the State Historical Museum, to which it had been transferred by the Commission for the uncovering and preservation of monuments of Old Russian painting. The Commission carried out the restoration of the icon, which had been removed from the local tier of the iconostasis of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin in 1919. According to researchers, the icon was painted for the Dormition Cathedral of Kolomna, in whose iconostasis it remained until the mid-16th century, when, by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, it was transferred to Moscow. The icon gained widespread veneration at the end of that same century: during the invasion of Kazy-Girey, Tsar Feodor Ioannovich prayed before it in a campaign church, on the site of which, in memory of the intercession of the Mother of God and the retreat of the Crimean army, the Donskoy Monastery was founded. As follows from the monastery inventory, in 1593 a copy was made from the ancient icon, which was still located in the local tier of the iconostasis of the Kremlin Annunciation Cathedral, and this copy was later placed to the right of the Royal Doors of the cathedral of the Donskoy Monastery (this image is currently located in the Great Cathedral of the monastery).