Grodno, Grodno Province, Belarus, May 26, 2025
Photo: orthos.org
The Grodno Diocese of the Belarusian Orthodox Church celebrated its 125th anniversary yesterday with a procession with a wonderworking icon and a hierarchical Divine Liturgy.
In the morning, a procession was held with the Kolozha Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos from the 12th-century Church of Sts. Boris and Gleb (one of the oldest functioning churches in Belarus) to the Holy Protection Cathedral in Grodno, led by the local hierarch His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony, reports the Belarusian Church.
The occasion also marked the 500th anniversary of the icon.
At the gates of the cathedral, the Belarusian primate His Eminence Metropolitan Benjamin of Minsk greeted the procession. There, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated 11 hierarchs and priests and deacons.
The service was broadcast on the Belarusian Church’s YouTube page:
During the service, Met. Benjamin offered a prayer for the restoration of peace. After the dismissal, the hierarchs and clergy sang the glorification of the Kolozha Icon.
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Photo: orthos.org The Kolozha Icon of the Mother of God is a miraculous image that takes its name from the Church of Sts. Boris and Gleb in Grodno, also known as the Kolozha Church. First mentioned in 1661 when it was stolen during the Russo-Polish-Swedish War, the icon was already venerated as miraculous by that time, suggesting an earlier origin possibly connected to an iconography workshop from the first half of the 16th century.
According to tradition, a poor man carried the icon with him by vow, and before his death received a vision instructing him to place it in the Kolozha Church. The original icon was small (about a quarter of a sheet), painted on copper, set in a cypress frame with a silver-gilt cover decorated with 14 garnets and Old Testament images.
For over two centuries, the icon was famous for numerous miracles and healings. During World War I, when German forces approached Grodno, Archbishop Michael rode around the city’s fortifications with the icon, after which the German advance mysteriously stopped. Royal Martyr Nicholas II and his family prayed before the icon during their 1914 visit to Grodno.
In 1915, the icon was evacuated to Moscow along with other church treasures and disappeared after the 1917 Revolution. Its fate remains unknown. However, in 2018, a copy was discovered and purchased at an antique auction in Germany. After authentication and restoration, it was solemnly returned to the Kolozha Church in 2019, possibly being the very copy given to Tsar Nicholas II in 1914. The icon is now celebrated annually on May 1 and is considered the patroness and protector of the Grodno Province.
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