Icon of the Mother of God, the “Multiplier of Wheat”, the Convent of St. Ambrose and the Kazan Icon in Shamordino, 1996 The miraculous help from the Queen of Heaven, which comes through prayers in front of Her icon, the “Multiplier of Wheat”, has not grown scarce in our time. And the real evidence of this, an obvious miracle, is the farm of the revived Optina Monastery.
The monastery was at it prime just prior to being closed after the Revolution. And now, newly organized, it pleases the eye of every person who treats his native land as a householder treats his household. It surprises both scientists from Kaluga and contemporary peasants. The harvest from the monastery fields are always thirty percent richer than the surrounding ones. After the collective farm that was neglected in the Soviet era, it is especially gratifying to see a monastic and well-maintained farm, with a cowshed, a stable, and a huge, clean poultry house. And there is the fragrance of flower beds is all around. The extraordinary riot of colors in the garden is a phenomenon that seems to defy the physical laws of nature. It begins when there is still snow, and ends when snow covers the ground once more. We can say about the mill, the greenhouses, the complex system of ponds with their fish for monastic meals, and the brethren’s agricultural machinery, which they share with the neighboring collective farms—that all this is preserved and multiplied by the grace of God and the labors of monastic hands. The harvest is always enough for the brethren themselves, for numerous pilgrims who get together in the monastery on the great feasts (up to 1,000 in number), and for the frail elderly parishioners.
A church in honor of the holy Icon, the “Multiplier of Wheat”, was built on the territory of the farm not long ago. The monks who labor on the farm offer up prayers for help to the Mother of God, and it comes right away. During a drought, the brethren get together for a prayer service for rain. Once they celebrate it, clouds appear and, according to eyewitnesses, it rains “in a neat rectangle” exactly over the monastery field. And when heavy showers hit Kaluga and the neighboring regions, the brethren enjoy a friendly sun shining over their lands, and they calmly harvest potatoes. One novice related how once, no sooner had the last bag of potatoes been harvested and loaded into the car and the brethren driven away from the field, than the heavens opened and a downpour began. The brethren never forget to thank and praise the Invisible Helper and Patroness of monks and all those who entrust themselves to the All-merciful Providence of Her Divine Son.
On June 24, 1999, a significant event took place: A pictorial copy of early “Multiplier of Wheat” icons of the Queen of Heaven appeared in the monastery. This icon was donated to Optina by Alexander Kurochkin from Rostov-on-Don, who had bought this icon and kept it for seven years. A professional icon restorer, he discovered the inscription on the back of the icon, hidden under a layer of paint:
“Rejoice, O Gracious One,
The Lord is with thee.
Grant even to us unworthy ones the dew of thy grace
And show Your Mercy.
Celebrated on the 15th of October.”
And below: “The icon of the Elder
Of the Optina Monastery,
Hieroschemamonk Ambrose.”
The name of the icon on the obverse, the “Multiplier of Wheat”, is written in the same handwriting as the inscription on the reverse.1
This private copy of St. Ambrose’s icon differs from the contemporary iconography we are used to. In it, the Mother of God looks up at Heaven with deep sorrow, like a Mother Who has lost Her children. She prays to the Lord and seems to want to say: “God, seek out My children. They have gone astray, become impoverished and eat with pigs, while in My mansion the granaries are full of bread. My children, My children, come back!” She spreads out Her arms to embrace and press Her lost sons and daughters to Her chest. The whole icon glows with the gold of ripened sheaves of wheat, with piercing-bright blue cornflowers twining around them. Over time, copies of this icon reflected a different meaning: We see the Queen of Heaven as the Hospitable Sovereign Lady of the Russian land, sitting over a field full of sheaves of wheat, and reminding people that God has plenty of everything. Turn to Him!
Through the holy prayers of the Optina brethren, the Queen of Heaven returned to Her monastery the precious copy of the glorified icon. It is now where it was before its disappearance: in the holy Elder Ambrose’s cell.
Over twenty years have passed. On January 7, 2023, on the feast of the Nativity of Christ and on the eve of the Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos, another significant event happened in the history of the Optina Monastery of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple: an ancient Icon, the “Multiplier of Wheat”, painted during St. Ambrose of Optina’s lifetime, was transferred to the monastery.
The Icon of the Mother of God, the “Multiplier of Wheat”, at the Cathedral of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple at the Optina Monastery Veronika Sergeyevna Smirnova, a parishioner of the monastery, recounts the story of the icon’s acquisition, thanks to which it returned to the monastery:
“For many years I have been a parishioner of the Optina Monastery, so I noticed an online ad for the sale of an Icon of the Mother of God, the “Multiplier of Wheat”. The icon, dated October 1890, had belonged to a Moscow antique dealer, who had put it up for sale. After the icon’s authenticity had been verified by the restorer I. K. Medvedeva, it was decided to purchase it. I asked the professional artists and icon-painters from the town of Kozelsk, I. V. Yatsenko and his wife, N. F. Braterskaya, to purchase the icon. When a detailed inspection revealed traces of the icon’s restoration, we asked the owner to describe its history in more detail. It turned out that the icon had been bought in the village of Nizhny Alopovo in the Peremyshl district of the Kaluga region close to the Shamordino Convent, founded by St. Ambrose of Optina. The icon used to be in the possession of descendants of a reposed religious old woman who had kept it in her house during the Soviet era. In the 1990s, the icon was acquired by a Kaluga collector and soon restored by V. P. Sedov, who providentially turned out to be Braterskaya’s uncle. Sedov, a well-known Moscow restorer, a recognized specialist in the ‘discovery’ of old icons, discovered another image underneath the Icon, the ‘Multiplier of Wheat’—figures of two saints who could not be identified—and informed the owner. During the study of the icon with infrared and ultraviolet radiation the presence of the figures of two saints was confirmed. The photographs were taken by the professional photographer V. A. Nesterenko. After the icon had been acquired in 2019, it was kept in the house of I. V. Yatsenko in Kozelsk. The akathist to the Annunciation was constantly read in front of it with the refrain composed by St. Ambrose.”
The Optina brethren, to the ringing of bells, ceremonially greeted the icon at the monastery’s holy gate and transferred it to the Church of the Kazan Icon. Over time, the icon will find its due place in the Cathedral of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple at St. Ambrose’s relics.
People pray in front of the Icon, the “Multiplier of Wheat”, for the multiplication of the fruits of the earth and Heaven, asking for Her blessings for work. The akathist to this icon reads: “Desiring to reap salvation, like a sweet field thou didst show thyself, O Sovereign Lady, and, eating from it, we have eternal and incorruptible food. So we, who live on earth, beseech thee, O Most Pure Virgin, to show thy power in the harvest of our fields, when their time comes, and may every cereal abound for the comfort of us who sing to God: Alleluia” (Kontakion 7).
