Moscow, August 5, 2026
Photo: monasterium.ru
The wonderworking Donskoy Icon of the Mother of God was transferred on August 3 from Christ the Savior Cathedral to the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow.
The icon had been kept at Christ the Savior Cathedral since April, when it was transferred along with the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God from the State Tretyakov Gallery to the Russian Orthodox Church for free use for 49 years, pending completion of restoration work at Donskoy Monastery.
The icon was received in the monastery’s Small Cathedral by Donskoy abbot His Eminence Metropolitan Theognost of Kashira, together with His Grace Bishop Alexei of Ramenskoye, a vicar of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, and clergy from the monastery and Moscow, reports the Synodal Department for Monasteries and Monasticism.
Following the icon's arrival, the Akathist to the Donskoy Icon of the Mother of God was read.
The icon has been placed for veneration in the monastery’s Small Cathedral, where the Divine Liturgy and evening services are celebrated daily. Moleben services with the Akathist to the Donskoy Icon are also served daily before the icon from 11 AM to 4:30 PM.
Photo: monasterium.ru
The monastery’s brethren invite clergy and laypeople to visit Donskoy Monastery and venerate the wonderworking image of the Donskoy Icon of the Mother of God.
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The Donskoy Icon of the Mother of God entered the Tretyakov Gallery in 1930 from the State Historical Museum, to which it had been transferred by the Commission for the Uncovering and Preservation of Ancient Russian Painting. The commission carried out restoration of the icon, which had been removed from the local tier of the iconostasis of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin in 1919.
Researchers believe the icon was painted for the Dormition Cathedral of Kolomna, where it remained in the iconostasis until the mid-16th century, when, by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, it was transferred to Moscow. The icon gained widespread veneration at the end of that same century: during the invasion of Kazy-Girey, Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich prayed before it in a field church, on the site of which the Donskoy Monastery was subsequently founded in memory of the Theotokos’ intercession and the withdrawal of the Crimean forces.
As recorded in the monastery’s inventory, in 1593 a copy was made from the ancient icon—which remained in the local tier of the Kremlin’s Annunciation Cathedral—and subsequently placed to the right of the Royal Doors in the cathedral of the Donskoy Monastery, where it remains today.
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