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