Photo: azbyka.ru In the early 20th Century, Countess Balashova had another wooden, church erected. Although the Holy Baibuzy Icon was moved into that church, it did not remain there very long: in 1933, the church was destroyed and replaced by a school, which later burned down during World War II. Locals hid the Icon in various homes, and sometimes even in haystacks. When war broke out, it was carried in procession around the village, and the village suffered significantly less damage from German aggression than did neighboring villages....
The earliest instance of grace-filled help from this Icon of the Mother of God and Her Son was the documented healing of a five year old girl in 1832. The poor child could not walk, but after spending two hours near the Icon, she suddenly felt her legs grow strong, and without any outside assistance, ran to her mother. After that miraculous healing, people began to revere the Icon as miraculous, and named it the Baibuzy Icon. It was taken to the Kiev-Caves Lavra for confirmation of its grace-filled power. As it lingered there for a long time, Fedot Maksimovitch, starosta of the Baibuzy Church, who was related to Kievan nobility, lobbied for its return. Sometime later, he succeeded in having it returned to Baibuzy. At the time, the area was experiencing a record-breaking severe heat wave and drought. As the Icon was being carried by hand in festal procession to the village, a miracle occurred: as soon as the peasants brought the revered Icon to the village, powerful rains began to fall.
Photo: azbyka.ru For the past 30 years, the Icon was kept in the home of a pious villager named Sophia Yefimovna Nastenko. It was from her house that the Icon was brought to the new church built through the efforts of so many people.
The Very Most Reverend Sophrony, Archbishop of Cherkassy and Kanev, sent Priest Georgi to Baizbuzy, where the batiushka dedicated his efforts to bringing the Light of Christ to the villagers. As Fr. Georgi writes, recently the Holy Icon has once again manifested its miraculous power: A certain girl from Cherkassy who was suffering from thyroid cancer heard of the grace-filled Icon and began to come to Baibuzy to pray in the church. The child’s parents also tearfully implored the Mother of God that she be healed, and just before the Glorious Feast of the Resurrection of Christ, the Most-immaculate Sovereign Lady Theotokos worked a new miracle, putting an end to the child’s suffering, Now the parents and the child come to Baibuzy to thank the Queen of Heaven, the Ever-Virgin Mary, for the mercy shown to them.
Parish Life, January 2019
Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
Washington, DC
