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Blessed Virgin's Icon "Help in childbirth"
The history of apparition of Blessed Virgin's wonder-working icon "Help in childbirth"
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In 1993 during the Lent I was giving Communion to an old woman. When she learned that I was serving at a newly opened parish, she asked her grand-daughter to bring a Blessed Virgin's icon from the attic and gave it to me. Dark, all in cobweb and many-years dust, with blacken riza; it resembled one of those thousand icons, being kept at attics during the years of atheism. The icon was known to me, but only when I cleared the riza and the picture, I gasped involuntarily — it was the icon, named "Help in childbirth".
I remembered my wife's first childbirth: waters, coming off at night, the ambulance and bustling stimulation of the childbirth by doctors only in 24 hours, sepsis that was applicable to our maternity home and the death of the child. In some years came the second childbirth: my wife in reanimation and me alone at home with a baby for half a year. And the prayer, unskillful, with own words, but hot and daring — I was asking God to save two lives: wife's and daughter's. I wasn't giving any promises, as I hoped, that God is carrying out our entreaties not according to our promises, but only by His charity and love for us. When my words to God became not asking, but thanking, I found that I had an everyday need to communicate with God, i.e. to pray and perceive.
That was my turning to the Church. And the time of my imposing practically agreed with my daughter's first form. She began to learn reading and writing, and I — serving God.
Looking at Blessed Virgin's icon "Help in childbirth", I composed a true acathistus. Now, with the years passed, I'm really surprised that I have managed to do it only in two evenings. Once a crying woman came to me; her daughter was to be operated that moment. Doctors told her, that for saving her life they were to kill the child inside; besides, the woman was late in pregnancy. We read the acathistus to the holy icon. To my gladness, in the evening she came shining of happiness — it managed to save the mother and the baby. After this case I decided to show the acathistus to the ruling member of higher orders of clergy his Eminence Yuvenaliy, metropolitan Krutitsky and Kolomensky. Having made some remarks, he blessed the acathistus for serving in our church. From that day, every Saturday we serve a public prayer to this holy icon with reading an acathistus and consecrating water.
Unfortunately, we started writing some records about the results of the services only recently, but here are the two most remembered cases, happened to the families of my acquaintances.
Galina and Igor. Six miscarriages and the seventh pregnancy wasn't encouraging. Galina's mother, now the late, left for pension after the job of major nurse of abortion service — the section of the hospital, where legal child-killing is held. All the family confessed, took the Holy Communion, we were serving a prayer, and the left pregnancy term Galina was drinking holy water from Blessed Virgin. Now their daughter Ann is already five years old!
Svetlana and Vladimir. He came to the church on industrial matters (our church is being rebuilt) and was really sad about something that day. It appeared that Svetlana's inspection showed an irregular position of fetus — with the legs forward, and on Monday she was to go to hospital. I persuaded Vladimir to come on Saturday morning to the prayer with his wife. After Saturday's prayer I saw them happy. Svetlana was inspected in hospital and told to go home — the fetus turned to the regular position! I asked Vladimir Irsenovich Kim, the senior doctor of Serpukhov's maternity home about this case — he was only at a loss. Your deeds are wonderful, Lord!
Senior priest Vladimir Andreev
1998
Now Blessed Virgin's icon "Help in childbirth" is in White Nicola Cathedral, where the prayers with consecrating water are also held on Saturdays and the illustrations of never-ending Blessed Virgin's help to all coming to Her with faith.