On the 6th of November 2003 the following report appeared in our local newspaper:

Vatican City

Pope meets Putin, doesn’t get invited to Russia

From a correspondent in Vatican City

POPE John Paul II met Russian President Vladimir Putin today, and while he made a gesture in the hope of improving relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, he didn’t get an invitation to visit Russia in return.

The Pope has made improving relations with the Orthodox Church a priority of his papacy, but his long-sought dream of visiting Russia has been blocked by the Russian Orthodox Church, which is wary of advances by Catholics since the fall of communism.
In a gesture of reconciliation, the pontiff had his aides bring into the Vatican Library for the meeting an icon revered by Russian believers, the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan, which usually hangs in his private chapel.
Putin watched as the Pope blessed the icon, and then the Russian leader himself kissed it, Vatican interpreters said.
The Pope then said: “I want to thank President Putin for everything he has done to bring the Russian Orthodox and Catholic Churches closer together, and for peace in the world,” according to Russian reporters who were in the room.
The Pope has said he wants to return the icon as a gift to the Russian people, but he didn’t give it to Putin to take home.
The Vatican said both the Pope and Putin expressed the hope for a “positive development” in relations between the Holy See and Moscow. But an official Vatican statement made no mention of any possible papal visit.

Between 1953 and 1965, the Black Virgin of Kazan hung in the home of Anna Mitchell Hedges for all to see and admire. Hers was an open house as is her life; full of adventure, color, drama, sadness, happiness but above all absolute loyalty to the things she believed in with all her heart. This is her story of the Icon remembered from letters and articles… told in her own words.

A private home, an open museum

“Over the years I have entertained thousands of visitors from all walks of life. My home has always been open to those who needed to see and touch some of the very precious and historical things that I and been so fortunate to have come through my hands. I have given hundreds of interviews in support of books, radio and television programs, but in all this I have found that the truth as given from my lips has been rarely reported accurately… few actually listen with a clear crystal mind. People want to believe what they want to believe. Behind every single “personal” event there are thousands of stories all telling their own tale.

So now when “at last” in my life I have found the time to unpack everything and to have a read-through of much of my correspondence; I can remember so much more than what was first told. Reliving each emotion as if it were happening right now is in itself is another adventure. I can never tell you the whole truth only how I see and remember it through my eyes and feelings. So for the time being see and feel this through me and then form your own visions but… Don’t try to destroy or change mine… that you could never do!

So much has happened in ours lives and by saying “our” I mean my late father “F A Mitchell Hedges (d.1959) and myself. There is just not enough time to tell it all. So with the help from a few close friends I have embarked on the journey to open a web information page so I can put it all down for you to read and form your own opinions but mine will be as true to me as they day they were born. I cannot make you fully hold or feel the vast adventures and thrills that passed through our lives. Like us all we can only read, imagine and know what we ourselves have the capacity “to imagine”.

This will be a glance… a section of my own personal views on the Icon with links to quotes and references to personal correspondence that both my father and I wrote and received from the time the Icon came into our lives and how it went out into the public domain… where we always wanted it to go.

We believe this Icon is the Black Virgin of Kazan which went missing in 1917 during the Russian revolution. We don’t know whether it was secretly hidden, sold or stolen. All we know it went missing and there have been a lot of stories to support all sorts of theories. So first let me give you the history of the Icon as we know it from experts and the historical accounts.

The mystery begins

On the 15th April 1953 my father was approached by letter from a business friend who was negotiating the purchase of a collection of great historical and artistic value. It was initially refereed to as “The Louis Tussaud’s Collection”. This may have been because part of the collection had been on display in Blackpool’s (UK) wax works museum for a period of 20 years… as we understand.

My father was at the time a collector and dealer in fine antique silver and as this collection did not accommodate anything of this nature he was not initially interested. But… the correspondence persistently continued for several months as the buyers of the collection were keen to make good their purchase by offering various pieces to well know art collectors.

Most of the collection was in small items but there were three which were in themselves “outstanding”: the Icon (as yet not fully unidentified); a copy of the book “Mein Kampf”, which was hand made and reputed to have cost at the time £150 per page. Measured 13”x11” in an excellent binding but the pages were stained with blood. It was “the book” used by the top Nazi party leaders to swear a blood oath to the allegiance to all the beliefs contain in the book… Namely the ideals of the Third Reich. Their oaths were sealed in the blood of the pure Aryan race… Another icon if you would like to see it as such. The third item was a magnificent jeweled sword. That I have no knowledge of.

At this stage there was a great interest from many quarters including a possible interest from the then Russian government in power at the time (1954). Many industrialists and people in high political ranking were secretly vying to see what this wonderful treasure was and whether it was genuine or not? With the view to a safe investment or political subtle gain! There were discussions of splitting all the gems on the Icon and selling them off privately…

On the 25th Sept. 1953 a memorandum of sale was drawn up selling the Icon to Anna Mitchell Hedges… myself. Although the Icon was negotiated by my father it was actually paid for by myself. I had recently returned from S.E Africa where I had sold a large fishing and game reserve called “The Estuary” in St Lucia after having just finished one of our expeditions. After a year there I came back to England to look after my father and I put The Estuary under management. It was sold it in the early 1950’s. Part of that money went to pay for the Icon.

It becomes a very dark and whispering world when such a purchase of the Icon happens… When people are not privy to the real truth, gossips starts. Suddenly all sorts of rumors started to dart here and there and usually are so speculative and inaccurate that they do not deserve the time of day.

Here is a transcript from one of my father’s letters just 2 days after we had taken full possession of the Icon.

Dated 27th Sept. 1953
“I am quite glad the deal concluded quite happily for the Icon ‘though I must admit it has caused me a terrible lot of trouble. As I expect you have been told the Grand duchess Zenia I think her name is, and Princes Ludenderff were most anxious to see it and wanted me to take it straight away down to Hampton Court Palace (King Henry VIII palace London) to show it to them and to Lady Tredeger. I told them it was not for sale at any price. We could not get anything but a slow train to Reading until the 9.50 express so we decided to have dinner in London. Not certain where to go at ten minutes to seven I rang up the Savoy and asked them to keep a table for us. The most astonishing thing happened I have ever known. We none of us spoke to a soul yet when we arrived at the Savoy we were told that The Daily Mail were waiting for us, complete with photographers. We were escorted into a private room with a detective and told all about it.
Somebody, who I cannot tell you, must have supplied this information ‘though I cannot understand and how they knew we were going to the Savoy, and informed the Daily Mail that I paid £75.000 for it. I neither denied or confirmed this after all neither you nor I want to know what one buys or pays for something.
The Icon was guarded and when we left the detective had a cab waiting in readiness and escorted us to do it and we arrived home safely. I should think you are thanking goodness you have got rid of it.”

Another account of this meeting at Hampton court from Anna’s recounted notes dictated to her secretary in 1960.

“One day seven years ago Miss Mitchell-Hedges and her father agreed to take he icon to Wilderness House in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace: the home in exile of the aged Grand Duchess Zenia, sister of the last Czar of Russia. (Grand Duchess Zenia Alexandrovna eldest sister of Czar Nicolas II d 20th April 1960 aged 85)They expected a small informal occasion. Instead when they arrived, they found awaiting them a large assembly of Russian nobility priests and sisters: about 200 altogether in a small rooms,“It was a very moving occasion” she recalls “I shall never forget it” Tears streamed down the face of the Grand Duchess at the sight of the link with her far-off days as a little girl in Russia“It was pathetic.” I could not bear to remain in the room. But it was wonderful that I had been able to bring her a little Joy”The Black Virgin of Kazan says the first of the many traditional stories about it, was found miraculously in 1679.Was this the same icon that moved the Grand Duchess to tears almost four centuries later?Simple to ask: incredibly difficult to answers even for experts who have spent years exploring the labyrinthine maze of historical clues.

Uncovering history

From this moment we started to look more deeply into the Icon’s history and why it is so important to the Russian Orthodox Church. We knew we had bought a valuable Icon but which one? And why hadn’t the Russian government seized the opportunity for this item being sold at the time… There were now more questions than answers! The intrigue was beginning to create whispers in all sorts of directions.

Taken from notes at the time… Looking into the history of the Icon…

That first story is the simplest: A soldier’s young daughter in Kazan (on the Volga, halfway between Moscow and Sverdiovsk saw two visions in the snows in the courtyard of her father’s house, lay an icon of The Mother of God, emitting rays of light as bright as the suns.

She heard a voice, directing her to tell the monks of a nearby church what she had seen.

And so, says tradition the precious icon was found; and became the centre of veneration of the Russian Church. It was supposed to cure blindness: later, it was credited with the retreat of Napoleon from the gates of Moscow.

Is this the same one? The experts wish they knew.

The trouble, they say, is common to many another Russian treasures a gap in its history during the unsettled years after the revolution. Precious objects released by the Bolsheviks passed through many hands within short time. It has became impossible to say which or from where they originally came.

Miss Mitchell-Hedge’s icon is supposed once to have belonged to Goering. One of its former owners once exhibited it among that booths and sideshows of Blackpool’s “Golden Mile”.

Veteran Matton Garden diamond Merchant Mr. Norman Weitz may well have seen it in Russia when he went there after the revolution on behalf of a syndicate backed by the late Mr. Solly Joel, the South African millionaire.

Mr. Weitze spent £1.000, 000 buying antiques released by the Bolsheviks: among them many of the Russian Grown Jewels and about 250 icons.

“Icons are impossibly confusing” he says now, “Russia was in such a turmoil at that time that it was almost impossible to say which area any of them came from,

Most had some kind of icons and rich families had quite elaborate ones.

Five years ago detailed notes about the icon’s history were compiled by Mr. Cyril G E Bunt author of a book on Russia art and 49 years on the staff of London Victoria and Albert Museum. (See

Chronology

.)

“Experts will agree” he wrote, that it is the work of a great icon painter of the 16th century… the pigments and the wood of the panel are perfectly preserved as exhaustive X-ray tests have proved, and have mellowed with age.

“The total value of its gems with their precious settings must be great.. historical and artistic values apart.”

His verdict was that this is a precious copy of the original miraculous icon that it was carried by Prince Pozharski during his march on Moscow with his Nationalist Army in 1612.

A copy he added that had been credited with miraculous powers in its own right as when, in 1737 it was supposed to have arrested flames that threatened a Moscow church and Convent.

Letters…

A series of letters between F A Mitchell-Hedges and Metropolitan Anastassy

(President of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia)

Between 1953 and 1957, we were living at Farley Castle near Reading in England. Not a week passed without an entourage of common men and women, dignitaries, Archbishops, bishops, priests, nuns of all denominations that came to see the Icon. We were in a constant state of entertaining the many guests that came to the house. All were treated in the same way… with courtesy and helpfulness. Each person no matter how important or humble came for its own reason and had its own story to tell… Neither my father nor I ever sought pry too deep in anyone’s personal need to be near the Icon. Through those years we knew how important it was to so many people that we sought to make sure it went back to Russia when the time was right. That has always been our first consideration.

During these years my father’s health was becoming “a cause for concern”… we sold Farley Castle and bought a house beside the sea at Shaldon in Devon (UK). Over the years of expeditions and adventuring my father had sustained several knife cuts, five bullet wounds and two bouts of malaria plus a recurring stomach inflection he picked up whilst we were in East Africa which it nearly cost him his life.

All through this time we both were in a quandary as to how we were going to return the Icon to its rightful home in Russia whilst there was still a communist government there! My father had grown very fond of this little jewel and knew like the Crystal Skull he was only a caretaker looking after it on behalf of an unseen vitality. We had received numerous very attractive offers from many parties over the years to sell it but we knew like most things it would “possibly” end up in a private collection or in a bank vaults so nobody would be able to see it… Our whole lives have been about allowing people to experience and share in the miracles of life in its full adventure.

“Father” passed away peacefully in his sleep in Shaldon on June 12 1959; a day I will never forget. He was 77 and had lived a very full life as you will read throughout this web site.

So the Icon and the Skull were now left to me to deal with… I sold Shaldon and moved back to Oxfordshire and set about putting into operation a way that I could pass on the Icon to its rightful owners…

More years passed……

Preparing the return home

It was decided in 1962 to set up a “foundation” to help the Icon and the Russian people in exile (they have no money), and in June 1962 sister Mary Loyola, who is the head of the History Department at the College of Holy Names commenced writing an independent history of the Icon which agrees with the one already done in this Country, for this purpose. Frank Dorland took the Icon to The Unites States to initiate all the ground work that would get things started.

Photographs (true color prints) were done to help with finance and arrangements made for the Convent of Our Lady of Vladimir to handle distribution of the pictures to the Russian Churches and Communities everywhere. In this way the Russian’s themselves are throwing their full support into the Icon project. These are being solely to help defray expenses for the setting up of the foundation, legal work etc. On the reverse side to the photo print of Virgin and Child is a brief history of the Virgin of Kazan also in Russian, the prayers used at the services held at the Convent of our Lady of Vladimir and a beautifully worded English translation of the Troparion through the courtesy of Mr. Jon Gregson.

Also in June, Mother Ariadno head of the Convent of Our Lady of Vladimir had a special service and requested they might borrow the Icon. That evening the Icon was taken from the bank vaults in San Francisco by armored car to the church where the seals were broken and the Icon given to Mother Ariadno. There vas about 1,200 people present, and they had a procession completely around the church with flower girls strewing flowers in the path, and stopping and holding the Icon up at certain points.

The Icon was then taken into the church which was absolutely packed and everyone was holding candles. The service took a little over an hour, and then it took another hour and a half so that everybody could pass individually up to the Icon and touch the glass front. After touching the case the priest would draw a cross on their forehead most beautiful, impressive and sincere.

There was another procession back to the armored car and all started to sing as the car moved away with a well resealed Icon. Mother Ariadno said “God Bless Miss Mitchell-Hedges for sending the Icon over”.

On November 4th 1962, for the first time since 1917, the Icon was used in a service on her feast day in the Russian Orthodox church. This service also included a requiem observance in Memory of those who lost their lives because of communism, The occasion for the part of November 4th ceremonies was the 40th anniversary of the start of the Bolshevik revolution which occurred on November 7th, 1917.

A proclamation was issued by the Mayor of San Francisco, the Honorable George Christopher as follows:

“Recognizing the importance of the occasion when the miraculous Icon of Kazan is used in Public worship in San Francisco I join the people of the Russian Orthodox faith in prayers for the ultimate restoration of complete freedom to enslaved peoples everywhere.These services in which the Icon will be used for the first time since 1917, are of great significance both for the members of your faith and for San Francisco. It’s uses here symbolizes your steadfast dedication which as done so much to enrich our country as well as your own lives.I am confidant that Sunday’s services of commemoration, thanksgiving and intercession will reflect the Christian spirit which will burn brightly in the hearts of the Russian people. May your prayers bring then comfort and strength the”(sgd) George Christopher mayor

The work continues

The Rev. Michael Sokolov recently returned from Paris conducted this service with Father Leonid Kaspersky and Father Strumer. Gregory Bologoff the center chairman also participated.

After many meetings between Mr. Dorland (art restorer), the Archbishop John and other heads of church it was definitely resolved to purchase the Icon and also at the same time to build a Shrine for her to be known as the “Shrine of Our Lady of Kazan and will be of the Novgorod of architecture which will hold approximately 300 people. This is being erected in San Francisco until such time as the Russian people feel they would like to take the Icon back to Moscow. She will be enshrined there as a symbol of Christian Ideals.

The people concerned now in the negotiations are Mr. Dorland (the Conservator of Art) Mr. Jules Howard, International Jewel Expert and Mr. Hennessy Secretary of the Californian Agricultural Committee.

Another important link in the chain is a secretary from the Russians from New York named, Countess Tolstoy a relative of the author. She handles and coordinates information from various factions of the church

To speed the process of raising funds the church is planning and sponsoring a rapid tour of the Icon to some of the major cities in the United States to show to church leaders and also raise funds at the same time. Mr.Dorland has been told that the Kennedy private plane will be placed at their disposal for the purpose of the Icon as soon as Mr. Jack Kennedy had been given all the details .

Recently the request of the church who were having a rather special meeting Mr. Hennessy took the Icon to New York and was royally received. He was away a week and had a special guard with him constantly, and the Icon traveled in a special case and was handcuffed to Mr. Hennessy, locked and sealed. It was to get the blessing of all church dignitaries who might not be together again for some years.., even the representatives and archbishops from Japan were there…also of course the Syrian, Greek and Russian Orthodox churches.

Mr. Hennessy with the aid of the church and attorneys has set up a separate bank account for the Icon, and money has started to come. This will also be controlled by audit.

This is an accurate description of major happenings to date, but it is a most wonderful and satisfying feeling that the wish of all the people concerned… The Grand Duchess… Miss Mitchell-Hedges…. Mr. Dorland… Mr. Jules Howard is being granted and that once more the Icon will be enshrined in her own setting. Dated 1962

During this period from 1962 I was beseeched on many fronts to sell the Icon to various private parties at a much higher price than what was agreed with the religious parties, but the die had been cast and it was my father’s wish and mine that it would go back to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The handling in this delicate transaction was given to the art restorer Frank Dorland who in hindsight seemed to have his own agenda and was playing both sides against the middle. Because the Icon had been defrayed during its disappearance from 1917 to 1933; some of the jewels had been removed and obviously sold to support who ever needed that money at the time. Frank Dorland was to restore the Icon and be the go between myself and the buyers.

The road to success?

On the March 25, 1963, the Honorable George Christopher Mayor writes to John Shahovskoy. Archbishop of San Francisco and Western United States initiating the purchase of the Icon:

Copy Archbishop of San Francisco and Western United States
2040 Anza Street
San Francisco 18 CalifHonorable George Christopher Mayor,March 25, 1963.
City and County of San Francisco,
City Hall,
San Francisco
Calif.My Dear Mayor Christopher,I am writing to ask an appointment with you for me and a small committee I have appointed to discuss our plans for purchasing the holy Icon The Virgin of Kazan and enshrining it in San Francisco. I feel that your advice and counsel would be of great assistance to us, and that after learning more of this opportunity that has been presented to us, there would be a way in which you, as Mayor of San Francisco, could help to get us started.‘The Virgin of Kazan’ Icon which is now in San Francisco for safekeeping is one of the most famous end miraculous of all our Icons and I feel that It’s enshrinement in San Francisco which is known throughout the world as the birthplace of the United Nations will hold out great hope, and be an inspiration not only for all those of the Orthodox Faith but for all Christendom in their battle and our’s against communism.This will be particularly true with the inclusion of a proviso which we would propose to include in our plans that would make it possible for the Holy Icon to be restored to Russia under some form of stabilised and Christian government. This Icon was enshrined in Moscow from 1631 AD, until 1917 AD. It had been brought to Moscow in 1618 to provide the strength and guidance that resulted in the defeat of the Polish invaders who had overrun Russia,

I am hopefully looking forward to our meeting It cannot help but have great and deep significance for all the world.

May I convey my esteem to you and pray god’s blessing on your work.

Sincere sincerely (sgd) John Shahovskoy.
Archbishop of San Francisco and Western United States

The Icon was taken all around the United Sates and Canada with the view to setting up the funds for its purchase… In 1964-1965 a special pavilion was erected at World Trade Fair in New York to house the Icon. Pope Paul XXIII came to bless it but what he did not know that immediately underneath the Icon was the Crystal Skull hidden from view… so he blessed that as well.

A setback…. The funds that had been raised and deposited in a special bank were misappropriated by a person or persons who shall remain nameless. So Frank Dorland had to take the Icon back to California where is was renegotiated for its purchase and I agreed with the parties that were buying it… payment will be on a donation basis until the full amount was raised which took 6 years. During this time the Icon was handed over to the Russian Orthodox Church where it was on full display.

So the Icon passed out of my hands in 1965 and the rest is history… Or is it? The Icon seems to have become a political tool in religious hands which is fueling their own agendas.

I would like to remind the reader that the Icon was to be restored to its former glory and returned to the Russian Orthodox Church… That was my father’s wish and mine and we worked hard with so many people to ensure that this happened and to “some” extent it did.

But somehow it went to Fatima which I knew about but that was under the guise that from there it would still be on full public display and would wait for its return to the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. That was in 1970…

 

All roads lead to Rome?

Now the Icon is in Rome… It rests in the private chapel of Pope John II out of public gaze… No matter how one can view this… The Icon is a very sensitive public emotional Relic and of great importance to historical Russia. It was always used for all the people NOT for sole exclusive rights of a single individual.

Its message is very clear in what it represents to those who initiated its role… THE FREEDOM OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE TO WORSHIP ITS ICON PUBLICLY. On more than one occasion it has been used to initiate a revolution and instigated a freedom of the people from oppression and aggression.

I am sometimes very amused at the amount of times that my father has been connected with Revolutions in his life… Riding with Pancho villa in 1912, the small revolution in Honduras, knowing Trotsky in NY, The Icon of the Crystal Skull, plus a few wonderful silver trophies that were all commemorative to great historical events… Which I may add were returned by him to their origins. So to coin a phrase “he would be turning in his grave if he knew all about this”…

If there was to be a revolution now it would be for you the rightful inheritors of this Icon to demand to have it return and put back into public view… This can only be done if you as a person has a voice to speak your truth with your heart… Mine is a past voice but speaking in the present for both myself and my father… This is not a politician battle to use an Icon for religious gain but to have it where it belongs.

The Icon was bought and paid for by the exiled Russian people of New Jersey… Somehow their voice and their contribution was not voted on when the Icon went to Fatima.

Here is my letter to the most Reverend John 23rd September 1970:

The most Reverend John
Archbishop of San Francisco & Western USA
2040 Anza Street
San Francisco., 18.
CaliforniaDear Archbishop John.
I am quite sure you are as delighted as I am that the Icon “Our Lady of Kazan” has been sold to the Blue Arm for our lady of Fatima, an is now certain to return to Russia as soon as the time is right.
It belongs to the Russian people, and I for one wanted then to have it gain one day, but as you will understand I could not possibly have given it to them.
It has been 8 years since it went to the States, but the end was exactly as I wanted, and the long wait was worth it.
I know you were in touch with the people of Fatima some years ago when you went to Baltimore (or rather Mr. Hennessey did) on your behalf.
I am glad it is remaining in the States and will not be travailing… There are so many people there who would wish to see Our Lady I am sure.
As a matter of curiosity what happened to the paper Icons etc. which were printed for the New York World Fair? I wish it were possible to get a few of them.
I treasure the book put out by “Life” in which the Icon and the Pieta are facing each other. I wish I could have got more so that I could have given them to my friends.Etc.I sincerely hope you are keeping well and with all my warmest regards to you, I am.
Sgd Anna Mitchell Hedges.
Mine is the first cry… Yours can be a shout and eventually the misappropriation and injustice can become a rectified restoration of the freedom of the people’s right to view “THEIR HOLY ICON.”

Tags: Anna Mitchell-Hedges | Pope John Paul II | Putin | Russian Orthodox Church | Virgin of Kazan

1579 The Prototype appeared in Kazan, where it has remained and established the Graeco-Russian iconographic type of the Virgin of Kazan, with the Virgin bending to the right with the head inclined towards the Infant Christ who is standing upright.

1612 A copy was Brought to Moscow by Prince Pozharski from Kazan on his march to Moscow and was accommodated (1630) in the new Kazan Cathedral which was built to receive it in commemoration of his victory.

1708 Another copy was brought from Moscow to St Petersburg In 1708 the St Petersburg Kazan Cathedral was eventually built to receive it in 1811. (The Farley Castle Icon is a work of fine art and is so magnificently jeweled that it can only be one of these.)

1737 The original Moscow copy was still in situ. Its wonderworking power is said to have quenched a fire at St. George’s Convent, near the Cathedral.

1768 The Prototype was still in place at Kazan. The Empress Catherine II embellished it with a new crown of diamonds.

1904 The Prototype in Kazan was destroyed and only the jewels of the riza being recovered. (The Times Reuter’s Correspondent)

1911 The Original St. Petersburg copy was still in situ. (Reference the Cathedral authorities in their Monograph with an illustration)

1917 The Bolshevik revolution and subsequent dispersal of many treasures belonging to the Royal family the nobility and the Russian Orthodox Church.

1933 N. P. Kondakov conforms that the Kazan prototype was no longer in existence and says that the Moscow Cathedral copy “exists”.

1935 The Moscow Cathedral copy reached Western Europe.

1950 It passes into the possession of Mr.Mitchell-Hedges. (This is the dates given by Bunt when in fact the date should be September 1953.)

1956 The inescapable conclusion is that the Mitchell-Hedges icon is the Virgin of Kazan formerly in the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow

Summary of Mr. Cyril G.E. Bunt’s notes (December 1956)

Tags: Mitchell-Hedges | Virgin of Kazan

Correspondence between FA Mitchell Hedges and Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church

President of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

312 WEST 77th STREET • NEW YORK 24, N. Y.
Tel. Susquehanna 7-0077

January the 6th, 1954

RE. No ….46/53/ 1650

Mr. F.A. Mitchell Hedges, Esq. Farley Castle Farley Hill nr. Reading Berkshire, Great Britain.

Sir:

Thank you very much for all the information that you have so kindly extended to me in your letter of the 30th December.

That information and especially the photograph give us the posbility to do some research in order to identify the Icon. The present gems with which the Icon is decorated bear witness of it being highly venerated. We are now looking for exact descriptions of the Icon that was stolen from the Convent in Kazan in 1904. Some scientist will be working on this matter for us in the best American library

This work would be easier to a large extent if you could kindly give us some more information especially in regard to the exact dimensions of the Icon in your possession. We would also be glad to know is it enclosed in a metal case or is it covered only on the front? Could you or some experts identify the nature of the wood on which the Icon is painted and do you know in which year the Icon was acquired by Sir Lindsay Parkinson in Poland?

As I told you in my last letter,we would heve to collect the money to acquire the Icon from you. But we cannot begin the drive before we get full information and before we are fully convinced that the Icon being genuine. After some preliminary work to that end we will discuss your proposal in detail. I will not fail to write to you as soon as possible.

At present I wish to tell you how very much we appreciate your desire that the Icon should not be acquired by any Government it is quite possible that the communist government wished to get hold of the icon with a purpose which has nothing in common with religious aims

very truly yours

Metropolitan Anastassy

Reply from Mitchell-Hedges

13/1/54

The Metropolitan Anastassy
President of the Russian Orthodox Church
312 West 77th Street
New York 24
New York USA

Your Grace,

I must thank you for your letter of the 6th January just received, in regard to the Icon, The Black Virgin of Kazan.

The painting of the Virgin and child is cased on the front only, as you can see from the photograph, with what I am told is gold. The dimensions are approximately 12½ in length by 10¾ in breath.

I do not know at what period it was acquired by Sir Lindsey Parkinson, who I believe is now deceased. I have investigated the authenticity of the Icon in many quarters and I think one may take it that there is no question of it being the original Icon which was stolen in 1904. I can hardly conceive that the religious ceremony conducted in the presence of the Archduchess Zenia at Hampton court Palace by the very Reverend Archimandrite Nicodemus and Father George Sheremeteff would have taken place if they had not gone into the matter and were quite convinced it was genuine Icon.

I am told that the jewels alone are worth more than an amount of £25.000 but of course it would be absolute sacrilege of the worst description to have it broken up.

In the meantime I am being very worried from quarters which you know, to part with the Icon and I entirely agree with you when you say that it is quite possible that the communists are desirous of acquiring the Icon for other that religious aims. As I wrote you my own personal belief is that their chief desire would be to exhibit and quite probably collect a fixed fee from all who came to ask the Blessing of the Black Virgin.

I do hope your inquires will be successfully concluded very shortly. If I knew definite that you were going to acquire it I could then truthfully say that the icon was definitely going back to where it rightfully belongs and that was the importunities of others and will be an end to my worry from that direction

very sincerely yours

F A Mitchell Hedges

Reply from the Synod

President of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

312 WEST 77th STREET • NEW YORK 24, N. Y.
Tel. Susquehanna 7-0077

February the 2nd, 1954.

REF. No.. 46/53/160 ……

Mr. F.A. Mitchell Hedges, Esq. Farley Castle Farley Hill. nr. Reading Berkshire
Great Britain.

Sir:

Your letter of 13th January, for which I must thank you very much, was received in due time, but I has not able to answer it at once because I was just waiting for some more information in connection with the investigation we are conducting.

I think I can now say for certain that the Icon in your possession is not the one that was stolen in Kazan in 1904. It appears that the stolen Icon was considerably smaller (10.1/2″ in length by 8.3/4″in breadth. The valuable case in which it was stolen was originally made at the time of John the Terrible (16th century) with the crown and some of the gems of later date, whereas the metal work and gem setting on your Icon is of the 18th century and the painting according to specialists is of the 17th century.

We therefore conclude that your Icon may be one of the also wonderworking copies of the original Icon of Kazan and namely that it may probably be the Icon which was stolen from the Moscow Cathedral of the Virgin of Kazan in autumn 1917. This Icon was also very much venerated in Russia and was covered with a richly decorated plate.

In general we had several wonderworking Icons, copies of the Icon of Kazan, of which the Icons of Moscow and St. Petersburg were venerated nearly as much as their prototype of Kazan.

It is much more probable that Sir Lindsay Parkinson could obtain the Icon of Moscow than the one of Kazan.

The burglar Chaikine who stole the Icon of Kazan stated in Court during his trial that it was destroyed. Some of the jewels as well as particles of burned velvet with which the back of the Icon was covered were actually found in his house. The conclusion of the Court was that the Icon was probably destroyed but the fact that no ashes or particles of wood on which it was painted could be found was regarded by many as a proof that only the valuable plate was destroyed Icon itself being sold to some sectarians and possibly smuggled away from Russia.

We therefore carefully checked the version that was given to you and found expression in your letter of the 30th December, 1953. Now we are checking the possibility of your Icon being the Icon of Moscow which for our Church scarcely means less than the original Icon of Kazan.

One of the important points for the identification of the Icon would be to find out how does the Icon look from the back. Could you kindly inform me, is the back of the Icon covered with some cloth or is the wood open there, the material plate covering only the front of the Icon ?

I would very much appreciate your kind answer to this question.

Very truly yours

Metropolitan Anastassy

PS. I hope you will agree with the necessity of research in the matter of the Icon and will have patience with us while look for data for its exact identification.

Reply from Mitchell-Hedges

Private and Confidential

10th February 1954

The Metropolitan Anastassy
President of the Russian Orthodox Church
312 West 77th Street
New York 24
New York USA

Your Grace,

I must thank you for your letter of the 2nd February just received and am indeed greatly interested in the research you are working with in regard to The Icon.

By an extraordinary chance I have obtained a book “Russian Art” by Cyril G.E.Bunt and on page 145 there is an illustration reproduction of the Icon I have here. Apparently, as you surmised, it was greatly venerated and it would appear to be the actual Icon, The virgin of Kazan which was stolen from the Moscow Cathedral of the Virgin of Kazan in the autumn of 1917.

As you have concluded the metal plate which is definitely either gold or silver gilt, covers the front of the Icon only of the one I have but the back appears to have traces of cloth but, as I said, in the book “Russian Art” by Cyril G.E Bunt there is the exact illustration reproduction which cannot be mistaken. Of course, the jewels which it is emblazed are magnificent.

As I told you I am not actuated by commercial profit in this matter but am truly desirous it should be returned once again to where it rightfully belongs.

As an instance of this I have been telephoned from London and asked if I would sell it to the Bolshevik Government which are anxious to obtain it at any price considerably exceeding that which I have suggested to you, but I am, I can assure you extremely loathed to listen to any suggestions from this quarter as I am sure you will understand.

And so I shall be awaiting your further letter and I can definitely tell you that I shall not part with the Icon until I hear from you

Very sincerely yours

MH

Reply from the synod

President of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

312 WEST 77th STREET • NEW YORK 24, N. Y.
Tel. Susquehanna 7-0077

February the 18th,1954

REF. no 46/53/296 ……

Mr. F.A. Mitchell Hedges, Esq. Parley Castle Parley Hill nr Reading, BERKSHIRE, GREAT BRITAIN.

Sir:

Thank you very mach for your letter of the 10th February and the information it contains.

The book by Cyril G.E. Bunt was known to us before, but the picture he published does not solve our question. Although it may be of big importance.

Actually there were many replicas of the Icon of Kazan in Russia. Many of them were wonderworking and several were known to be richly decorated. Unfortunately Cyril Bunt gives no indication in his book which would serve to exactly identify the Icon of which he has published the picture. One can only say for certain that it is a picture of the same Icon which is now in your possession and that the picture was made at a time when the Icon was not damaged as it now looks on the photograph you so kindly sent me.

However strange it may seem to you, we still were not able to find any book with a photograph of the Moscow Icon which could be compared with yours or even with a really clear and detailed description of it. I hope that one of our specialists in iconography will be able to contact Mr. Bunt and get some helpful explanation from him as to the origin of the picture in this book.

It would be quite impossible for us to raise the necessary funds to purchase the Icon before we could tell our people that the Icon has been unquestionably identified. We therefore have to continue our investigations.

As I wrote before. I very much appreciate the desire you expressed that the Icon should be returned to our church. I therefore hope that you will understand how important it is for us to identify the Icon exactly before we make any further steeps. I also think that our investigations should not be void of interest for you as the present owner of the Icon as well. We will continue to be in touch with you and will inform you of any new dates which we will be able to find out.

Very sincerely yours

Metropolitan Anastassy

There is no further correspondence after this on file

Tags: Mitchell-Hedges | Russian Orthodox Church | Virgin of Kazan

$500 000 Russian Icon comes to the Fair (New York Journal American. Jan. 9, 1964, by James L Kilgallen)

One of the most historic and magnificent of all the world’s icons - the Russian “Our Lady of Kazan” will be enshrined in a Chapel at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair.This was disclosed yesterday by John I. Hennessy, consultant to the most Rev. John Shahovskoy Archbishop of San Francisco and the Western United States of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America

The trip was made to raised funds for the purchase of the privately owned Icon and restore it to the Church so that it will not fall into the hands of the communists.

 

Once Enshrined in Kremlin

Tile Icon which was protected by armed guards on the 18.581 mile trip is estimated to be worth at least $500,000. It is basically a painting on wood weighing 10 pounds and dazzling with jewels.

Painted around 1400 AD, the image enshrined in the Kremlin in Moscow from 1630 until after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, After the revolution in it fell into private, hands and was sold to raise funds to help, the revolution. It finally found its way to England

Its surface sparkles with 663 diamonds many of them, such as those in the Virgin’ s crown in total some 80 carats ; 153 oriental rubies of about 53 carats, 32 huge emeralds about 220 carats 6 large sapphires of about 30 carats; 150 baroque and other pearls.

Icon was taken to many churches

Mr. Henley said that on the tour the Icon was taken to Russian and Greek Orthodox churches for services and also Chapels of other denominations.

Cities, visited included Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Winnipeg, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, New York City, Buffalo, Albany (NY), New Haven Montreal, Ottawa and Boston.

In New York the Icon was shown at the Protection of the Holy Virgin Cathedral and at Christ the Saviour Russian Orthodox Church.

Special assemblies were held at Maywood College in Scranton, Pa., At Notre Dame College and St Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, in parochial schools in Lykens Pa. and Newark NJ and at a meeting of the Central Board of the World Council of Churches in upstate Rochester.

The miraculous Icon is s now in a San Francisco vault for safe keeping by the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church. This church was separated from the Bolshevik-Dominated Moscow Patriarchate in 1924.

An “Our Lady of Kazan” shrine is to built in San Francisco, birthplace of the United Nations.

Archbishop Shahovskoy in Francisco has been quoted as saying in that “Our Lady of Kazan” is more than a symbol of greater hope and peace - it is a return to Godliness and a unifying force for all Christendom and risen of good will everywhere,”

Fair’s shrine replica of Russian chapel

The Icon is now owned by Miss Anna Mitchell-Hedges of England. One of the dying wishes of her late stepfather F.A. Mitchell-Hedges from whom she inherited the Icon, was that it be restored to the church in such a manner that it could not come under the influence of the Bolsheviks, either directly or indirectly.

The Icon will be enshrined in a replica of the Fort Ross Russian Catholic Chapel at the New York’s World’s Fair. The Chapel is now under construction, Mr. Hennessy said.

The Icon is expected to remain in America as a great art treasure.

Russian Orthodox Pavilion at the World Trade Fair

The Russian Orthodox Pavilion will feature the Miraculous Ikon of Our Lady of Kazan which will be enshrined in a full scale replica of the Fort Ross (Russ) Russian Orthodox Chapel. Our Lady of Kazan is the Patroness of Russia.

The Holy Ikon was enshrined in Moscow from 1630 until after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 when It was sold into private hands. It dates from 1300 approx. The jewel encrusted rizza (1,109 gems), which covers all but the faces of the Virgin Mother and Child dates from 1630 approx.

Funds are being raised to restore the Holy Ikon to the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America, sponsors of the exhibit. The Church in America separated from the Moscow Patriarchate in 1924 because of the domination of the Patriarchate by the Communists. A Shrine of Our Lady of Kazan is to be built in San Francisco for permanent enshrinement of the Miraculous Ikon.

Other icons and religious objects will complete the Chapel exhibit which has an adjoining kiosk where color reproductions of the Miraculous Ikon and other religious articles will be available
The original Fort Ross Chapel, built in 1828 and located 100 miles north of San Francisco, is an historical monument of the State of California.
A cross section of a thousand year old redwood log showing important dates in history marked or the annular rings and other educational material round out the landscaped exhibit.

The exhibit will be open daily during regular Fair hours. No reservations are required. Admission is free.

For further information:

Our Lady of Kazan Shrine

2040 Anza Street
San Francisco 18, Calif.

Tel. Bayview 1-5870

After April 1,1964
Russian Orthodox Pavillion
New York World’s Fair
Flushing 52, N.Y.
Tel.AR 1-8223

John I Hennessy
2/17/1964

Tags: Mitchell-Hedges | New York | Russian Orthodox Church | Virgin of Kazan | World Trade Fair

The Lady of Kazan and its importance to Russia

In the Orthodox Church of Russia there is a special liturgy, or liturgical hymn (akathist), of Our Lady of Kazan. This was translated into English in 1963 with the Imprimatur of the Most Rev. Archbishop Leonty, Metropolitan of all America and Canada who had celebrated the Sacred Liturgy with the Icon of Kazan in Moscow before the revolution.

Identified Icon

Archbishop Leonty was one of those who positively identified the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan when it turned up in an English castle in 1953… having been transported out of Russia in a manner which to this day is a mystery. The Icon is in a special chapel at Fatima awaiting transportation back into Russia through the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima.

There are 13 sections to this hymn to be used at various times.

Conversions

The first is “a hymn of gratitude for the revelation of Thy Miraculous Icon, O Theotokos,” ending in Her special title at the conclusion of all the hymns: “O Zealous Protectress of the Christian Brethren.” (”Theo means “Mother of God”).

In the second stanza, Our Lady is praised because of the “newly converted city.” And this refers to the fact that Kazan was the Capital of the Mongol Empire when it was conquered by the Russians in 1552. The first Bishop, St. Guri, in nine years converted thousands of Moslems in the area shortly before the Icon was miraculously discovered. This is commemorated in the same Hymn in thanking Our Lady for Her triple vision to a young girl to reveal the location of the Icon, which was then taken to the Church of St. Nicholas and afterwards to the Cathedral of the Annunciation where it continued to be distinguished because of many miracles. In 1579, when the Icon was found, a copy was sent to Czar Ivan the Terrible and he had a cloister built on the spot. The girl to whom Our Lady had revealed the location of the Icon, together with her mother, ioined this cloistered community. These facts are commemorated in the third section of the hymn with such words of praise as:

“Rejoice O Thou Who dispells the darkness of evil with the revelation of your Icon;
Rejoice O Thou Who enlightens all with the rays of miracles;
Rejoice O Glory of Orthodoxy;
Rejoice O Mother of Chastity!”

And the usual ending:
“Rejoice O Zealous Protectress of the Christian Brethren.”

Source of Victory

One of the most interesting aspects of the history of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Kazan is celebrated in the fourth hymn praising Blessed Ermogen: “The narrator of the miracles of Thy Icon, O Theotokos, trying to cease the storm of troubles and treason started in the Russian land by the enemy.” And the hymn continues to bless Our Lady because Blessed Ermogen confided the Icon to the Orthodox Army as a shield and assurance of victory and remained firm in his faith of this victory until the time that he died as a martyr singing to God “Alleluia”.

Blessed Ermogen was the Patriarch of all Russia. He had been a parist priest in the St. Nicholas Church of Kazan when the Icon was discovered there and for this reason he was able to cause all the Russian people to look upon Our Lady of Kazan as their special Protectress and Patroness. He was captured by the enemy in 1612, and starved to death.

One of the great saints of the Russian Church is St. Sergei who built the Holy Trinity Monastery in Zagorsk. He died in 1392, a hundred and fifty years before the Icon of Our Lady was discovered. And during the great battle upon which the freedom of Russia depended in 1612, St. Sergei appeared to Bishop Arseni and assured him that through the intercession of Our Lady of Kazan-which at this time had been brought from Kazan to be used at the head of the troops trying to free Moscow-the troops would be victorious. And on November 27th, 1612, the Kremlin was liberated. This victory is commemorated with a special celebration to .the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan on October 22nd (November 4th in the Gregorian calendar).

The next hymn commemorates the carrying of the Icon by Czar Peter in a great victory which decided the Czar to found a new Capital called St. Petersburg. Peter then installed the Icon of Kazan in the new city. However in 1811. the original was returned to Moscow by popular acclamation, and a copy was installed in the great Basilica of St. Petersburg. And it was this latter church which the Communists changed into an atheist museum after they took over Russia in 1917. From this church, of Our Lady of Kazan, now an atheist museum, the official atheistic magazine “Science and Religion” is published today.

Moscow Freed from Napoleon

The 6th hymn sings:

“Standing before Thy Most Holy Icon the hierarchy of Bishops, Kings and Princes of all peoples-monks and laity-confess, O Lady Theoto Thy great mercy, for Thou art protecting cities, sheltering convents, defending villages.”

After 1811, when the Icon of Kazan was returned from St. Petersburg to Moscow to be placed in the special Basilica built for it on Red Square, it remained there permanently until the revolution. According to the notes in the actual book of the Liturgy of the Icon, in the year 1900 the value of the adornment of the Icon was estimated at about 35,450 rubles.

Unmasker of Atheism

The seventh hymn commemorates the great gift given by Blessed Alexander the First, Czar of Russia, to adorn the Basilica of Our Lady in Moscow “for the deliverance of his kingdom”. Some of the exclamations to Our Lady in this hymn are:

“Rejoice O Protection of the Russian land, O Defence and Bulwark of Orthodoxy in Russia; O Invulnerable Armour of the Confessors, O Unmasker of A theism …. !”

The hymns become more intimate as the liturgy nears its end. The eighth hymn begins:

“It is strange and doubtful for unbelievers to hear how the springs of grace and the savor of Thy living Presence come from Thy Icon; but we, the faithful, believing the words spoken by Thee, O Sovereign Lady, through the first painted Icon (”With Thee shall be My Grace and Power”) do hope that Thy Grace abides in this Icon also. Piously standing before it, we kiss it, for the adoration of the Icon is transmitted to you its prototype, and Thy Grace works tokens and miracles through this Icon to all those who come with faith and sing to God: Alleluia.” And the exclamations to Our Lady become more and more beautiful. Some in this hymn are:

“Rejoice, O Container of the Measureless One, Bearer of the Deity and all Its Fullness, Thou who savest the world from soul destroying starvation, because Thy prayer is powerful before Thy Son and God, O Thou who hast adopted us at the cross of Thy Son, O Mediatrix of obtaining the Eternal goods…”

“Of All in Need”

Indeed, of the 144 different salutations to Our Lady in this Liturgy, plus the one repeated in each hymn (”O Zealous Protectress of the Christian Brethren”) one could hardly imagine a richer and more beautiful litany to Our Lady.

The seventh hymn which acknowledges the mercies of Our Lady and the deliverance “from the Gauls and the twelve nations” refers to the victory over Napoleon which was attributed directly to the use of the Image of Our Lady of Kazan.

The concluding prayer of this Liturgy begins as follows:

“O Most Holy Sovereign Lady, Theotokos Queen of Heaven and Earth, more exalted than angels and archangels, the purest of all creation Immaculate Virgin Mary, the good helper of all the world, the bulwark of all mankind, and the salvation of all those in need.”

“Soften The Hearts…”

Having thus saluted Our Lady before the Icon of Kazan, the hymn begs that Our Lady will “soften the hearts of evil rnen who have risen up against its and warm them with the love of Christ”.

As we review the tremendous devotion of the people of Russia to Our Lady through this very ancient and miraculous picture perhaps no “miracle” in its history can seem more remarkable than that the Icon should have survived intact after the Basilica built to enshrine it on Red Square was destroyed to prove “that God does not exist”.

There is now a green plot of grass on red square in front of Lenin’s tomb where the Basilica of Our Lady of Kazan had stood as the national Marian Shrine of Russia. When it was destroyed, the atheists notified all the people of Russia to come and see that there was no God. As great sledges and rams knocked down the church, loud speakers blared: “You see, there is no God! We destroy the church of the so-called protectress of Russia, and nothing happens!”

“Russia Will Be Converted”

Most extraordinary, at least to us, is that the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, with no dues among its members and virtually no organization to speak of anywhere in the world, should have acquired the icon to offer it back as a free gift to the people of Russia.

The blue Army counts millions of members around the world, but they are “members” only in the sense that they have promised to do the three essential things Our Lady asked at Fatima… AT THE VERY TIME OF THE COMMUNIST REVOLUTION… to bring about the conversion of Russia and world peace.

The late Father Pio, whose cause for beautification has been officially initiated, once said: “Russia will be converted when there is a Blue Army member for every Communist.”

And through this completely spiritual army… which does not have a single “paid” officer in the entire world… the fabulously valuable Icon of the LIBERATRIX AND PROTECTRESS OF RUSSIA is on its way back to the Russian people.

Frank Dorland 1963

(1) Major credit for getting the Icon of Kazan to Fatima is due to an art conservator in San Francisco and to the Blue Army Chaplain there, the Rev. Karl Patzelt S.J. The latter knew the value of the Icon and when approached by Art Conservator, Frank Dorland, he persuaded the National Center of the Blue Army of Our Lady in the United States to take action.

In May of 1971, Mr. Dorland said: “As an Art Conservator, I considered it my obligation to see that this Icon went to a place where it would be properly honored. Furthermore. I felt that I should accept no financial return for my services in conjunction with the Icon, but only remuneration for expenses during the years that it was in my care.” Mr. Dorland. who is not a Catholic and not Russian, said that the longer the Icon remained in his custody in San Francisco, even though it was usually in the vault of the Bank of America, he felt that there was something “supernatural” about it.

(2) Many anti-Communists outside of Russia think of the Russian Church as a “tool” of atheistic Communism. They cannot believe that the present Orthodox priests of Russia could have avoided being subverted and made tools of the atheistic faith during the past fifty years. And this is indeed what the Communists would want everyone to think, if only to prevent those outside of Russia from dealing with the Russian Church.

However, it becomes increasingly evident that agents within the Church are usually known to the sincere churchmen who have withstood persecution and who have preserved the Sacraments in Russia. The Unity Secretariat in Rome, working closely with Pope Paul VI, is convinced that the core of the Russian Orthodox Church has not only withstood the fifty years of atheistic persecution, but is now showing a new purity and strength. The persecution continues actively, but this year the Komsomol, which was previously allowed to disrupt Easter services inside the churches, could demonstrate and harass the priests and faithful only from the outside. The Soviet police “contained” the demonstrations.

Where, in Moscow, Would No Atheist Building Stand?

By John M. Haffert

You get an amazing reaction in Moscow if you ask the simple question: “Where is the Basilica of Our Lady of Kazan-The National Marian Shrine of Russia?”

One official guide went into shocked silence.

“But there must be such a Basilica,” we insisted. “That is a fact of history!”

“I know of no such Basilica in Moscow,” the Intourist guide answered nervously..

“Is it not in the Kremlin?” we asked.

The guide answered hesitantly: “Could you mean the Church of Our Lady’s Intercession in front of the Kremlin?”

Guide Didn’t Know!

A University student of about twenty years of age whom we met in Red Square the night before had said: “I think it is in the Kremlin”. But the guide didn’t know.

Our Lady of Kazan is the “Liberatrix and Protectress of Russia” and a special Basilica had been built for Her in Moscow. So where could it be? Was it possible that it had simply disappeared? We had also heard before coming to Russia that this same Basilica had been turned into an atheist museum, as in the case of a Basilica of the same title in Leningrad.

Could all this information have been false?

Kazan Not There

The next day we again asked the guide who had meanwhile promised to make inquiries for us. By now both she and the answer were selfcomposed:

“Yes, you must mean the Basilica of the Intercession of Our Lady, built by Ivan the Terrible after the victory of Kazan over the Tartars. And that is the church with the seven towers on Red Square in front of the Kremlin.”

At the earliest opportunity we visited this church (now a museum) but there was no sign anywhere of Moscow Cathedral, a Mockery to the Atheists?

(Author’s Note: Several asked if I were not afraid to go to Russia for the crowning of Our Lady of Fatima there last May 13th because I had written the best-selling book “Russia Will Be Converted” and had been described ill the official Soviet magazine “Science and Religion” as a leader of the cold war. Although I may have had reason to be concerned, I cannot adequately express the satisfaction in having seen with my own eyes the green miracle on Red Square, and the public homage in Moscow’s Cathedral to Our Lady of Kazan.)

Our Lady of Kazan… not in any picture on the dozens covering the several iconostases in the various chapels.

Completely perplexed, we asked the Chaplain of the American Embassy who had been in Moscow for the past several years. To our great amazement, he, too, had never seen the Basilica of Our Lady of Kazan!

He did know, of course, about the Icon and its importance. But he felt sure THERE WAS NO BASILICA OF OUR LADY OF KAZAN IN MOSCOW!

The Unbelievable Answer

Through discreet inquiries, we discovered the unbelievable explanation.

The Basilica of Kazan had stood at the entrance to Red Square, diagonal to the spot where Lenin’s tomb now stands.

After the 1917 Revolution, the atheistic government invited the people of Russia to Red Square for a demonstration that “God does not exist”.

Thousands (most of them organized) were there, and a battering-ram… in the presence of a vast crowd… knocked down the Basilica of Our Lady of Kazan, “Liberatrix and Protectress of Russia”.

Loud speakers blared.

“You see there is no God! We publicly destroy the Church of Russia’s ‘Protectress’, and nothing happens… because God does not exist!”

But Something Did.

Everything precious had been previously removed from the destroyed basilica, including the original miraculous Icon which had been carried in major battles for hundreds of years and was then (and is now) revered throughout Russia as the Country’s Liberator and Protector.

Why the atheists did not destroy the Icon, we may never know. They now claim priests removed it. Others say that it was sold with other church articles to raise money for the revolution because it is decorated with over one-thousand precious jewels. But if this were so, why were not the stones simply removed, as in the case of the Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir? Stripped of the rizza and jewels, Our Lady of Vladimir is now in an art museum while the rizza all its jewels apparently intact -is in the Kremlin Museum.

In any event, a few years later the Icon of Kazan emerged intact (rizza and all) in a mid-European sale of “stuff” out of Russia. It was bought by a South African millionaire, and then went to Farleigh Castle in England where by chance the Grand Duchess Zenia recognized it as the original Icon of Kazan. Priests who had actually handled the Icon in Moscow verified this identification. One of them was the Patriarch Leonty. Experts then subjected the Icon to all manner of tests. There could be no doubt: the original miraculous Icon of Kazan, “Liberatrix and Protectress of Russia”, was now decorating the walls of an English castle!

“Come Down From the Cross”

What the atheists did on Red Square in 1918, when before a crowd they destroyed the church of Russia’s Patroness to prove there was no God, is reminiscent of the shouts of the non-believers at the foot of .the Cross:

“If Ye be the Son of God, come down from the cross!”

And what happened afterwards in Moscow was as quiet, and in an analogical sense, almost as imperceptibly effective during the first few decades of the atheist “victory” as the Resurrection.

First, the Communists did not succeed in building anything on the spot where they had destroyed the Kazan Basilica! Today there is a plot of grass-nothing else!… on that valuable ground opposite the Satanic Shrine of the Tomb of Lenin!

Is is any wonder that an Intourist guide gets nervous when you ask: “Where is the Basilica of Our Lady of Kazan?!”

Stalin decided to build a skyscraper for the Komsomol in the heart of Moscow, at the foot of his great university, in place of Russia’s biggest church: a Church of the Holy Saviour.

There, too, no walls would stand after the Church was destroyed!

After repeated efforts, which resulted in whispers throughout the country that the atheist walls would not stand where walls honoring God had been destroyed, Stalin had a heated swimming pool built on that spot. It was the largest outdoor heated pool in the world, filling the area of what had once been Moscow’s largest church.

During most of the year, mist hanging over this vast pool, like a cloud of smoke, gives it the appearance of something infernal.

Now At Fatima

Most amazing, of course, is what happened to the Icon of Kazan, the original miraculous Icon which personified the faith and hope of millions of Russians in the intercession of the Mother of the Saviour for their freedom and protection.

The owner of Farleigh Castle in England was a Protestant who had an adopted, Catholic daughter. When her foster father died, she agreed to sell the Icon to the Orthodox Archbishop of San Francisco. The Russian Church in America carried on a nation-wide campaign to raise one-million dollars for this purpose. But they failed to raise the money and the Icon was on the verge of being sold to a museum because thousands of dollars had been spent in its protection, with armed guards accompanying it on the journeys through America in the effort to raise a million dollars to redeem it.

The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, which was founded to carry out the conditions of Our Lady for the conversion of Russia, learned about the danger of the Icon of Kazan becoming a museum piece.”‘ Without hesitation, the leaders of the Blue Army signed a contract to redeem .the Icon. It is now at Fatima at the very spot where, in 1917, at the very time of the Atheist Revolution in Russia Our Lady appeared with a message for all the world:

“If my requests are not heard, error will spread from an atheist Russia throughout the entire world, formenting further wars, the good will be persecuted, and the Holy Father will suffer much. However, if my requests are heard, Russia will be converted and an era of peace will be granted to the world.”

Copies in Moscow Cathedral

The Communists now suggest that the Icon at Fatima is not the original one. But it would be impossible to be mistaken if one had ever seen the Icon before. No copy is like it. And the rizza, with its configuration of jewels, is positive identification. There is the diadem of emeralds given by Ivan the Terrible, and the crown of diamonds given by Catherine the Great. And there is a “presence” which can best be likened in our experience only to the “presence” of the Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is something no copies ever have.

Today, in the Cathedral of Moscow, the most prominent Icons are copies of this original picture of Our Lady of Kazan, now at Fatima.

One enormous copy (about 3 feet high) dominates the center of the right wall as you enter the Moscow Cathedral.”‘ A very old and impressive copy is enshrined right against the iconostasis on what would be our “gospel side” in the exact same location held on the other side by the Tomb of St. Sergei, who in an apparition spoke of the Icon of Kazan and of its use in the Liberation of Russia.

So in addition to the mockery of the empty green plot on Red Square, the main devotion today in the Moscow Cathedral is to Our Lady of Kazan, although there are at least 50 other icons of Our Lady ( all representing different titles as in our Litany of Loreto) elsewhere in the Cathedral.

And when will the original Icon of Our Lady of Kazan go back to Moscow?

This question was asked of the Blue Army by a member of Cardinal Willebrand’s Unity Secretariat in Rome who suggested that the Icon should go back to Russia now. The Blue Army then asked, and obtained permission, that the Icon will go back to Moscow when the Basilica from which ii was taken is restored.

“Sooner Than Most Think”

Some who have a sense of history may recall that after the East-West schism, the Amalfitani raided Constantinople and Greece and among other treasures stole the body of Saint Andrew. 1n the time of Michelangelo, the head of the saint was placed next to the tomb of his brother, St. Peter, under Michelangelo’s great dome in Rome.

1t was this same official of the Unity Secretariat who recently succeeded in having the head of Saint Andrew given back to the Greek Church. And concerning the restoration of the Icon of Kazan… when that green plot opposite Lenin’s tomb is again covered by the “national basilica of Russia’s Liberatrix and Protectress”, he said:

“It may happen sooner than most people would think.”

Meanwhile a copy of Our Lady of Kazan, in blatant response to the atheist challenge, is honored at the centre of all icons in the Moscow Cathedral. It must be obvious to all that the militant atheists who still control Russia do not dare remove this copy of the Icon from the Cathedral because of .the Russian people. It is a constant, public reminder of the green miracle on Red Square. It recalls that favorite Russian mystery of Christ which ultimately defeated those who had taunted him to “Come down from the Cross!”: The Resurrection.

Tags: Blue Army | Mitchell-Hedges | Our Lady of Fatima | Virgin of Kazan

“I give my blessing to you and to all your members.”
Pope Paul Vl

June 18, 1970

Dear Reader of SOUL,

Do you recall the almost insulting reminder we made this past year for the Christmas cards?

Normally, we send cards once a year… and if there is no return we just ignore it. We do what we can with what we receive.

But this year there was a special reason to be urgent… and unfortunately we were not at liberty to tell you what it was. It was, and had to be, a secret. So we presumed to use the “Secret” envelope for this letter.

Even as I write this, the news has not been announced. We are awaiting the announcement momentarily from Rome where the Icon of Kazan, LIBERATOR AND PROTECTRESS OF RUSSIA, has been taken by private messenger.

For us it was a daring, difficult decision. We have only the readers of SOUL to help us… and unfortunately this comes down to a very, very small percentage who are sufficiently interested in Our Lady’s promise to convert Russia and bring peace to the world.

If you are wearing the Scapular and saying the Rosary daily, to sanctify your day in reparation for the sins which are the cause of the world’s sad state, what more could we ask? That, and that alone, will bring about the conversion Our Lady promised.

But as a RESULT of the millions now fulfilling Our lady’s Requests… we see things happening. We see the MIRACULOUS ICON of Russia, officially known for centuries as the LIBERATOR AND PROTECTRESS OF RUSSIA, appearing for redemption and we, of the Blue Army, given the chance to redeem to Fatima, where Our Lady PROMISED TO LIBERATE RUSSIA, and then ultimately return it to its Basilica in Moscow which the Soviet made into a museum of atheism.

I do not like writing this letter, but I do not hesitate to do so. It is a joy to find ourselves on the road with Our Lady BACK TO RUSSIA… the road of victory.

Please use the enclosed coupon even if you cannot help financially. The prayers will be JUST AS MUCH appreciated as an offering.

Yours in the Sacred Hearts,

(sgn) J.Haffert Lay Delegate
&
By Rev.Msgr.H.V.Colgan. founder

Icon revered as “Savior and patron Saint Russia” to deliver Russia from all her enemies is to be restored to the Russian people through Fatima apostolate

Twenty million Russians died for their faith during the past half century. Most died in Siberia. Over three million died right on their own farms in the Ukraine “No century in history has witnessed the blood of so many martyrs… coursing with the blood of wars which Our Lady said are “Caused by sin.

In the land of those twenty million martyrs there had been an Icon, or holy picture (like the one of Guadalupe, in Mexico which was the centre of these martyrs devotion. It was called the icon of Kazan (the city 500 miles east of Moscow where the miracles began centuries ago) and which had been enshrined in Moscow in a Basilica which took their forefathers more than a quarter of a century to build. The Icon bore the title: LIBERATOR AND PROTECTRESS OF Russia.

But the Soviets had removed the Icon and turned the Basilica into an Atheist Museum. A similar Basilica in St. Petersburg, also in honor of Our Lady of Kazan, was made the centre of militant atheistic propaganda for the entire world.

What had the atheistic persecutors done with the miraculous Icon? All their diabolical hate was centred against it. To what depredations had they submitted it?

No one knows what happened. This is, and, probably will remain, a mystery of history like that of the assassination of the Czar and his family. The Soviets say priests stole it. An Orthodox Bishop in the Western World says that It was sold abroad as a work of art by the Soviets because of its great value (estimated as high as three million dollars).

In any event, an English millionaire bought it at a London auction without knowing it was THE Icon of Russia. (It was obviously important because it was decorated with over one thousand precious stones). After it was hung in Farley Castle, a guest recognized It as the original Icon of Kazan formerly honored in the Moscow Basilica. The Orthodox Archbishop of Paris, who had been in Moscow before the revolution was Invited to see it. He was hardly able to believe his eyes. With tears of joy he acknowledged that it was the “Liberator and Protectress of Russia.”

Another Archbishop, the Metropolitan Leonty of New York, had also celebrated the liturgy in Russia with the Icon of Kazan, and he too confirmed it. Then Archbishop Shahovskoy of San Francisco, who is the spiritual head of al! the Orthodox Catholics of the Western United States, undertook a campaign throughout the country to redeem the Icon and to build a Shrine for it in San Francisco.

Apparently Our Lady did not want a Shrine in San Francisco… Years passed and the Icon was about to be sold on the open market. Because of the publicity (the Icon had been shown at the World’s Fair) it seemed almost certain that the Soviets would buy it back. At this point Father Karl Pazelt director of the Byzantine Centre in San Francisco, begged the leaders of the Blue Army of Our Lady to intervene. They in turn sought the advice of Fatima and Rome.

Icon revered as “Savior and Patron of Russia” to deliver Russia from her Enemies” is to be restored to the Russian People through Fatima Apostolate

The icon is at least five centuries old. No one knows. But experts say it was painted in Constantinople, “Rome” of the East, about 1300. It was taken across the Black Sea and up the Don River to the Port of Kazan where it was apparently hidden in the walls of the Kazan Monastery. That city was sacked in 1209. All in the monastery perished. The icon could have been “lost” at that time. We first know of it as “miraculous” from July 8th, 1579

On that day, a young girl named Matrona saw the icon in a vision in the ruins of the monastery wall. The townspeople decided to investigate. When the icon was discovered, a blind person exclaimed at the beauty of the picture and gazing upon it, described it exactly.

Because of subsequent wonders, the icon became not only famous but it became a centre of Russian devotion to Our Lady and is believed to have been instrumental in several major victories.

The first was at the gates of Kazan itself, when the Icon was used in battle by the soldiers of Ivan the Terrible… victoriously. When Moscow was conquered from the West in 1612, Prince Pozharski fled to Kazan to obtain the Icon and soldiers joined him along the way as he carried the miraculous image ‘back to Moscow… where he expelled the invaders. This time a great Cathedral was built in the Russian Capital… known as the Kazan Cathedral… to enshrine the miraculous image, now “Patroness of Russia”.

The last and most famous use of the icon in battle was against Napoleon, on Sept. 14th 1812.

Marshal Koutesov took the Icon from the Cathedral and rallied his troops to cut off Napoleon’s supplies and harass his troops. The strategy succeeded not only in Napoleon’s retreat from Russia, but was as a major factor in the dictator’s ultimate defeat and exile

During the Bolshevik revolution, the Icon disappeared from the Cathedral… which was turned into an atheist museum. The militant atheists who took over in Russia, with the avowed purpose of taking over in the world, had to root out Russia’s devotion to Mary, They had to “deliver” Russia from her “Deliverer”.

At the very time the Bolshevik revolution was taking place, Our Lady appeared to three children at the opposite end of Europe… foretold what was happening in Russia and how the evils of Communism would spread “through the entire world, fomenting further wars.” But she asked for the consecration of Russia and the world to Her Immaculate Heart and promised that RUSSIA WILL BE CONVERTED AND AN ERA OF PEACE CONCEDED TO MANKIND if her requests are heard.

Some say that fleeing members of the Royal family took the icon and sold it, together with other treasures, to support themselves in exile. Since the principal members of the royal family never got out of Russia, but were murdered, it is more probable that the icon was sold to help pay for the Bolshevik Revolution… as is the opinion of art expert Mr. Frank Dorland, who was instrumental in having the icon visit the United States in 1962.

It is known that the icon passed through several hands, and that it has been appraise by jewelers here in the United States for almost one million dollars. It has been kept under constant guard whenever shown publicly, otherwise it has been reserved in a vault of the Bank of America.

The Byzantine Chapel at Fatima was the idea of the same Blue Army leader who was instrumental in obtaining the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan. He got the idea in 1950, the same year the Icon was bought by those now selling it to the Blue Army, and the same year the Pilgrim Virgin of Our Lady of Fatima entered Moscow to be enshrined in the chapel of the U.S. Embassy there. He thought:

“We ought to build a centre of our apostolate at Fatima, and have in it two chapels: One of the West, and one of the East. ”

In 1951, while arranging for a Byzantine Mass at Fatima on October 13th, closing of the Holy Year for all the world outside of Rome, he met John Mowatt, then a seminarian at the Russian College in Rome. And he suggested then that one day, after ordination, John Mowatt would return to Fatima as the Chaplain of this house with Russian and Roman Chapels…

Meanwhile, Eugene Cardinal Tisserant suggested a Russian priest who had formerly been a Captain in the Soviet air force and had defected to the west after the war in the hope of becoming a priest. He was ordained in Rome in 1950, and since he was both Russian and an engineer, the Cardinal recommended him for the Fatima project.

The former Soviet flier felt that the plans of the Blue Army were too small to be worthy of such an important idea and he spent almost all the available funds just on improved architectural plans… for a building and for chapels to cost thirty times more than had been originally planned.

Monsignor Harold Colgan, founder of the Blue Army, decided to go ahead with the project which now seemed impossible for an “Army” which had no meetings and no dues and no resources whatever! … (It was an army formed merely by those who promised to fulfill the conditions of Our Lady of Fatima for Russia and peace.)

The impossible was accomplished, and without debt.

Now the Icon will be restored to the Russian people through a Russian at Fatima in 1970… when Monsignor John Mowatt, after a wait of twenty years, has officially assumed the position there as chaplain, both for East and West (Monsignor Mowatt is himself of Russian descent, celebrating Mass in both rites). To add to happy coincidences: 1970 marks the foundation of the Guild of Our Lady of Kazan at Fatima, and the fiftieth anniversary of Monsignor Colgan’s ordination… the year when he had planned to return to Fatima “for the last time”. (The 72 year old Monsignor resigned his parish two years ago because of poor health.) After the AMI Directors decided to purchase the Icon, one of them exclaimed to Monsignor Colgan:

“What a Golden Jubilee present for you! To be able to restore the holiest Icon of Russia to the Russian people through the Blue Army’s Byzantine Chapel at Fatima! What a glorious climax to your inspired apostolic of prayer for the deliverance of the Russian people!”

Actually the Byzantine Chapel at Fatima is a memorial Chapel of the SAUL Family of Washington, D.C., through the niece of the great “Park Builder” and beautifier of the Nation’s Capital, Mrs. Rose Saul Zalles… currently known as one of Washington’s most famous (and often most elusive) hostesses.

When the Blue Army first decided to go ahead with the grand ideas proposed by the former Soviet flier (Rev. Pavel Bliznetsov) it’s only thought of raising money was to ask people who had it. And of the few they did ask, Mrs. Zalles was the only one who volunteered. She offered to pay for the chapel.

Her offering was far more important. It made the beginning; of the entire project possible. And although the chapel finally cost four times more than had been anticipate, … it was a gift twice given. And Mrs. Zalles, was arranging to have icons painted on the inside of the dome: when the acquisition of the Miraculous Icon of Kazan became possible.

Mrs. Zalles could not be at once reached, but it is thought she will defer the icon on the dome… to help make possible the purchase of the Icon of Kazan. Any reference to this in any public statement must be withheld however until Mrs. Zalles confirms.

At one time the Russians built a great Shrine in Moscow for this Icon… centre of devotion for the Russian people.

Symbolically, the Communists turned that Shrine into a Godless, atheist museum… a place to show the youth and the world that there is no God, while Our Lady appeared at Fatima to prove them wrong.

Even more symbolically, a chapel was built at Fatima as a Saul memorial… and Mrs. Zalles specifically had in mind the conversion of SAUL to PAUL, and the promise of Our Lady to convert Russia and to bring peace to the world. And this chapel, now, in the Providence of God and in the loving tenderness of the Mother of all men, will become the Sanctuary of the Holy Image… the new Shrine, housing that precious symbol which Communists tried to replace with images signifying that God doesn’t exist.

Our Lady’s promise that Russia will be converted… comes closer and more evident with each passing day.For the past eight years, the Icon has been in the custody of Dorlands, of San Francisco, Conservators of Art. The transfer of the Icon to the Shrine of Fatima was effected through the zealous efforts of Mr. Frank Dorland and Rev. Karl Pazelt, director of the Russian Centre in San Francisco. Mr. Dorland has suggested that after the presentation of the Icon to the Centre at Fatima a world pilgrimage of the Icon, linked with prayer for the conversion of Russia, be organized by Byzantine Centres everywhere. It is also thought that the story of the Icon at this time would make a spectacular and topical motion picture, particularly if the actual Ikon itself were used in some of the famous battle scenes. The Blue Army directors are most sympathetic to these suggestions. To Venerate lcon Catholic, Orthodox Rites

The icon, set in a frame encrusted with precious stones, dates back from the early 17th Century.

CREDITED with inspiring the troops who liberated Moscow in 1612, it was venerated in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan there from 1630 until after the Bolshevik resolution.

Saturday Archbishop Joseph T. McGucken will lead a procession accompanying the icon into St. Boniface, where he will preside at 10 a.m. mass and preach the sermon.
The icon will remain there until 8 p.m. for personal veneration, then be taken to Holy Trinity Cathedral for enshrinement by Archbishop John, Russian Orthodox Archbishop of San Francisco and the Western States.

SUNDAY the icon will be re-enshrined in St. Boniface Church with mass at 10 a.m. to be followed by individual veneration throughout the day. Orthodox and Roman Catholic choirs will sing Marian hymns from 3 to 5 p.m.

Following veneration in San Francisco, the icon will he taken to the New York World Fair for enshrinement in a replica of the historic Fort Hoes Russia Orthodox Chapel.

Fort Ross was the chapel built by the Russians on their migration from Alaska to California

The “rizza”, or decorative cover of the icon, has 1,003 jewels: 663 diamonds, 158 rubies, 32 emeralds and 150 pearls.

The jewels were the gifts of Russian people through the centuries in thanksgiving for miracles and favors. We can presume that many of the gems were purchased by the small gifts of thousands of poor Russian people. This was their way of saying “Thank you” to their Patroness, their Deliverer, their Mother.

The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, which is the official apostolate in the world for the conversion of Russia through fulfillment of the Fatima conditions, built a pure Russian Church at Fatima on the spot where Our Lady promised Russia’s conversion. It was dedicated by Eugene Cardinal Tisserant as personal Legate of Pope Pius XII on August 15th, 1958.

The Blue Army had its first “official contact” with the Icon on Sept. 13th, 1965, at the Vatican Pavilion of the New York World’s Fair. On this night, the Pavilion was filled with members of the Blue Army, led by the Bishop of Fatima himself, in the presence of the Icon and of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The entire night was spent in adoration and prayer for the conversion of Russia and world peace. Blue Army groups around the world, in many cities, held similar all night vigils on that same date for the same intention.

In January, 1970, the leaders of the Blue Army in the United States took the bold decision of restoring the icon to the Russian people through the Russian Chapel at Fatima. One of the leaders describes what happens:

“I was told that the Icon was about to be sold into private hands again, The thought immediately came to me that since it was so important to Russia… as a symbol of Our Lady’s love and protection for the entire Russian nation… that it might be God’s Will that the Icon go to Fatima where, at the very hour of the Bolshevik Revolution, Our Lady promised to turn that revolution back and one day both free Russia and bring peace to mankind.

NEW York – Official World’s Fairs Book 1964-65

“In order to KNOW whether this was an inspiration or not. I wrote to the director of the Byzantine Centre at Fatima and asked his opinion.

“To my amazement, not only did he reply that he thought it Providential, but that JUST BEFORE MY LETTER ARRIVED HE HAD PUBLISHED BULLETIN ANNOUNCING AT FATIMA THE FOUNDATION OF A GUILD OF OUR LADY OF KAZAN… as the guild to support the apostolate there for the Byzantine Church and Unity. He enclosed a copy of the bulletin.”

The above mentioned bulletin from Fatima reads in part:

“After a delay of one year (during which time however you were still remembered in the Holy Sacrifice once each month) I am again re-organizing the Guild of Our Lady of Kazan but with one difference… that it is here in Fatima, the Garden of Our Blessed Lady. February has been the traditional month of seeking membership and membership renewals and so it is with this purpose in mind that I now approach you. Many of you are long-standing members of the Guild and have assisted me for a number of years in Boston… others will be new friends to whom I make this appeal. I am also sending out this letter by air mail since the organizing of the Guild is urgent and your help is most m gently needed in the work which I am now engaged in.

As most of you know Our Lady of Kazan is the title of one of the most popular and loved icons of the Mother of God in Russia. Eventually we hope to set up here in the Chapel a special Shrine dedicated to Our Blessed Lady under this title. Your membership in the Guild will help to make this possibility a reality. Perhaps, if your response is great enough, the Shrine to Our Lady of Kazan in Fatima will be the “memorial” of all the members, the living and the deceased, of our little Guild.

In his letter, Monsignor John Mowatt, rector of the Byzantine Centre at Fatima, said:-

The Kazan Icon was in my church in Boston for 24 hours on December 8th. It is magnificent and is supposed to be one of the 3 originals. The large emeralds in it were given by people who had their sight restored and the Crown of diamonds was given by the Empress Catherine the Great. The 1st Icon in Kazan was lost or stolen and never recovered (this possibly could be it); the 2nd Icon was commissioned by the Tzar Ivan the Terrible for enthronement in Moscow (personally think that this is the icon now in California); the 3rd Icon was commissioned by the Tzar Peter the Great to be enshrined in his new capital, St. Petersburg (the Soviets claim that this is still in Leningrad, the Kazan Sanctuary is however the official God-less museum there). It is also a known fact that the Russian Orthodox Church in the USSR and also the Soviet Government tried to buy this Icon a few years ago but the English woman who owns it would not let it be sold to them.

To have this Icon here in Fatima! First of all it is an authentic Miraculous Icon (two famous images of Our Lady, East and West, of Kazan and of Fatima in one site would certainly be something unique). It would draw a, lot of pilgrims, tourists and the curious to see it (the commercial value is all of seven hundred thousand dollars). It might serve as a link with Eastern Orthodoxy. The chapel here is certainly cathedral-like and would be a fitting place to enshrine it.

It is strange… when that Icon was at our church in Boston I had a feeling that I was going to see it again. Several times recently (in the past few months) I have thought of it aid wondered where it was. And just as your letter arrived I had just completed mailing out 400 letters asking people to join - The Guild of OUR LADY OF KAZAN in Fatima. I planned this Guild to assist in the work of the Center and Chapel and decided to name it after Our Lady under this title.

signed MSGN Mowatt

The directors of Ave Maria Institute, National offices of the Blue Army of Our Lady in the United States, immediately took steps for the purchase of the Icon. Their decision to purchase it was immediate and unanimous. But when they made it, only one of them knew of Monsignor Mowatt’s premonition that he would see the Icon again, and that on the very day a letter was being sent to ask his advice the purchase of the Icon he was sending out four hundred bulletins, declaring that he had just established a guild at Fatima under the title of this very icon. He had even written in that bulletin:

“Perhaps… the Shrine of Our Lady of Kazan in Fatima will be a memorial…”

And he had not the remotest way of knowing that on the very day he wrote those worlds, the icon had been offered to the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, of whose chapet at Fatima he was rector.

“I did not tell this to the other members of the Board, ” the one director who knew it relates, “because I wanted their decision to be objective. We do many things in the Blue Army because we feel that they are Providential, or have definite signs from Our Lady. But such signs merely guide us. They do not influence our ultimate judgments. We tell you this now only because this inexplicable coincidence seems but a surfacing of the great spiritual currents by which Our Lady… the Mother of Miracles and of Peace… draws her children together from West and East. She will be the Deliverer of us all.”

WELCOME, Russians !

The symbol of DOMUS PACIS is the Byzantine Dome.

If you go to the nearby castle of Ourem (which is one of the most worthwhile half-day trips you can take while here) you will see only two things as you look towards Fatima over the hills: The tower of the Basilica of Our Lady, and the Byzantine Dome of this house.

This is the symbol of Domus Pacis not only because it is a Fatima landmark but because Our Lady’s promise of peace is connected with the conversion of Russia. She said: “In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph, Russia will be converted and an era of peace will be conceded to all mankind.”

Our Byzantine chapel is the “Welcome” to the Russians whom OUR LADY invited here. She showed herself a Queen (in the miracle of the sun) when she came to Fatima, but even more she showed herself a mother . . . in all her words to her children, but especially in’ her words to Russia where as Pope Pius XII said, when he consecrated Russia to her Immaculate Heart: “Her icon lies hidden awaiting better days.”

Below, Blessing of Chapel with Cardinal Tisserant presiding.

HEARTBEAT FOR RUSSIA

Most important in Domus Pacis is not just the Byzantine Church, which was designed by a Russian captain who flew his plane out of Russia to become a priest, but even more it is the Byzantine Centre which is a heartbeat for Russia of a world that looks to the East Linked with this Byzantine Centre at Fatima are similar centres in several other nations. At the head of this centre is an Archpriest of the Byzantine Russian Rite: Monsignor John Mowatt.

You may be surprised to converse with Msgr. Mowatt in your own tongue. You may be more surprised to see him one day celebrate the Russian liturgy in its purest form, and another day celebrating a Latin Mass in the Latin chapel downstairs!

But as Domus Pacis symbolizes unity of east and west in its two chapels, one on top of the other, so it expresses this unity in the very person of its director, Monsignor Mowatt.

Would you like to be part of something so vital to Fatima and to world peace?

THIS PAGE IS A REPRINT FROM RECENT ISSUE OF OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE BLUE ARMY of which “Domus Pacis” is the International Centre.

Write for LOOKING EAST
Blue Army, Washington, N.J.

Tags: Blue Army | Lady of Fatima | Mitchell-Hedges

Vatican Returns the Holy Icon back to Russia

In 2003 I wrote these words: “Mine is the first cry… Yours can be a shout and eventually the misappropriation and injustice can become a rectified restoration of the freedom of the people’s right to view ‘THEIR HOLY ICON.”

I could not believe back in 2003 that a year later in 2004 on August 28th my dream came true. It was a very emotional day for me and I wish with all my heart I could have been present to see this wonderful event. My father would have been very proud… all through his life he acquired many wonderful treasures and it was his wish to have such treasures restored back to the rightful owners… this is but one of them.

This Icon represents to its people the restoration of hope and freedom… and all through my life I have advocated such notions that all people are born free and need from time to time to be able to see the very iconic symbols that enables them to feel that freedom of love.

And so with the Crystal Skull which my father called The Skull of Doom… I prefer to call it The Skull of Love and in its own way it has restored many people’s faith in themselves… I wish now that in the future that it is used for such purposes and the all those will marvel at it beauty and craftsmanship.

28th August 2004

The image is an 18th-Century copy of one of Russia’s most sacred images, the Virgin of Kazan, and was bought in the West by Roman Catholics in 1970.

Patriarch Alexy, the head of the Russian Church, thanked the Pope, who views the gift as a goodwill gesture. But he also appealed to Rome not to try to “compete” for Russian Christians.

The icon was handed over by Catholic Cardinal Walter Kasper in a ceremony at the Kremlin’s Cathedral of the Assumption after a service to mark the Orthodox Feast of the Assumption.

It is expected to be housed temporarily in a chapel at Patriarch Alexy’s residence until a decision is taken on its permanent home.

For his part, the Pope said in a message that despite the division between Moscow and Rome, the icon was a “symbol of the unity of the followers of the only-begotten son of God” This was not the way it was supposed to happen. John Paul II had a different plan in mind for the return of the Icon of Kazan to Russia “he wanted to deliver it personally to Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, as a sign of rapprochement between the two Churches divided since 1054.

Instead, on Wednesday the Pope said goodbye to the icon, at the Vatican, during an incense-filled Liturgy of the Word celebration in Paul VI Hall.

By handing the icon over to two emissaries, Cardinals Walter Kasper and Theodore McCarrick, who took it to Russia, the Holy Father has once again shown the world an example of humility in accepting that the most cherished of man’s plans are not always God’s plans.

“How many times have I prayed to the Mother of God of Kazan,” said John Paul II on Wednesday of the icon which has hung over his desk in the papal apartments for the past 10 years, “asking her to protect and guide the Russian people and to precipitate the moment in which all the disciples of her Son, recognizing themselves as brothers, will know how to reconstruct in fullness their compromised unity.”

Cardinal Walter Kasper who heads the Vatican delegation in Moscow to present the icon, believes that the icon is “a symbol of the new Europe and its formation, of which Russia is a part.”

Cardinal Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council f