Rejoice, you who united the faithful of the Lord, - the Mother of God glorifies the Church, placing all her trust in Her as the Mediator of our salvation and union with God, the mysterious betrothal to the Heavenly Bridegroom. And how many holy souls have already united with Christ under the gracious, all-powerful protection of the Mother of God, entered the heavenly chamber and are now blissful and rejoicing in the heavenly abodes! There are no number of them, these chosen ones of the Mother of God.

They placed all their hope in the Queen of Heaven, ran to Her at all times with their prayers and supplications, and She justified them and saved them. With Her they crossed the sea of ​​temptations and reached a quiet haven in the eternal heavenly roofs. The events we remember, which happened with individual Christians and with individual countries and cities, accomplished through the intercession of the Mother of God, are very comforting for everyone and always. They clearly assure us that our whole life passes under the beneficial and saving care of Divine Providence and that the Most Pure Lady takes a very active part in our destiny, saving us from great troubles and evils and sending us heavenly blessings and help. No one, flowing to You, comes from You in shame, Most Pure Virgin Mary, but asks for grace and accepts the gift of useful petition, says the Holy Church.

But in order for this inexhaustible source of all spiritual and physical blessings to always be open to us, so that we can always be worthy of being under the protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, we must try in every possible way to preserve and, as far as possible, strengthen internal communication with Her. The closer the spiritual communication between us and the Most Holy Theotokos, the stronger our internal connection with Her, the more and more often we will enjoy Her protection and receive great mercies from Her. To strengthen this inner connection between us and the Queen of Heaven, frequent prayerful appeals to Her and reverent contemplation of Her greatness, with which She rises above all earthly and heavenly beings, are necessary. We must also try to imitate Her in Her Divine virtues - humility, patience, in Her constant striving for God, constant detachment from the earth and complete devotion to the will of God. We know from the history of the Church that many holy ascetics, through unceasing prayer and likening the Most Pure One in their spiritual dispositions, managed to place themselves in a filial relationship with Her, so close that they were rewarded with visible visits and appearances from Her. We will talk about these appearances of the Mother of God today.

The pages of Church history are filled with wondrous evidence of the extreme closeness of the Mother of God to believers in Christ. Over the twenty centuries of the existence of the Christian Church on earth, Church historical science has recorded many cases of the appearance of the Mother of God to devotees of piety - in reality or in dreams. The appearances of the Mother of God to Christians were intended to inspire them to deeds of piety, to console them in sorrows and to teach them the right paths of salvation. The appearance of the Mother of God, who appeared in reality, was so radiant that the blessed light emanating from Her turned out to be unbearable for many ascetics, and they lost the ability to see and understand Her. Only touching them restored this ability. In some visions, the Queen of Heaven appeared dressed in a royal scarlet robe with golden crosses, Her head was crowned with a golden crown with a cross at the top. Sometimes She appeared in a blue robe over a tunic. Less often, the monastic mantle served as the attire of the Mother of God; in such cases She held the abbot's staff in her hands. Her companions during the apparitions were various saints: John the Baptist, the Apostle John the Theologian, the Supreme Apostle Peter, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the saints of the Kiev-Pechersk, Athos, Pskov, Novgorod, Solovetsky, Valaam, martyrs, martyrs and other righteous people, as well as hosts of Angels .

The hours and places of appearances of the Mother of God to the ascetics were also very diverse. She appeared to them during their prayer sessions - morning, noon, evening, midnight and after three o'clock in the morning. The places of apparitions were churches, monastery cells, forest dugouts, on which temples or monasteries later grew. Saint Andrew the Fool for Christ's sake, Saint Niphon of Cyprus, the Athos venerables Matthew and Cosmas openly contemplated the Mother of God in the temple, before their eyes She observed the behavior of those praying, distributed grace-filled gifts to them in the guise of various coins, and She herself tearfully prayed for the whole world.

Our Venerable Seraphim of Sarov was repeatedly rewarded with a clear vision of the Most Holy Theotokos throughout his many years of ascetic life. According to the story of his life, on November 25, 1825, he left the seclusion and went out into the Sarov Forest with the goal of visiting his distant desert. And so, on the bank of the Sarovka River, at the Bogoslovsky spring, the elder saw the Mother of God appearing to him and the apostles Peter and John the Theologian standing behind Her on a hillock. The Mother of God hit the ground with Her staff, and after this, a source of light water instantly flowed out of it like a fountain. The monk fell before the Mother of God and asked Her to give Her blessing to the waters of the source. And the Queen of Heaven mercifully promised to fulfill his request. At the same time, She gave detailed instructions regarding the structure of the Diveyevo monastery. She named eight sister-maidens from the former community of the original nun Alexandra by name, gave a special charter and ordered that only girls be accepted into the new community. She promised to always be the abbess of this monastery and called it Her “fourth universal lot on earth.”

In 1830, the Monk Seraphim was again honored with the appearance of the Mother of God. He himself told the Diveyevo priest Father Vasily Sadovsky about this: “Now,” he said, “the Queen of Heaven visited the poor Seraphim and covered him with inexplicable grace, saying to me: “My beloved! Ask from Me what you want." And I asked that all the orphans in the Seraphim Desert would be saved, and the Mother of God promised the poor Seraphim this indescribable joy."

After reading the canon of All Saints, a noise was suddenly heard, like the noise of a forest in a strong wind. Then singing was heard, the door opened by itself, and the cell was filled with fragrance and extraordinary heavenly light. The elder fell to his knees and, raising his hands to the sky, exclaimed: “Oh, Most Blessed, Most Pure Virgin, Lady Theotokos!” At this time, a procession of celestial beings appeared before the eyes of Father Seraphim and the Diveyevo sister. Two Angels walked ahead, each of them had in his hand a branch with blossoming flowers. They were followed by the Queen of Heaven herself and behind Her, in pairs, 12 holy virgins - martyrs and saints: Varvara, Catherine, Thekla, Marina, Irina, Eupraxia, Pelageya, Dorothea, Macrina, Justina, Juliania and Anisia. Behind them walked Saint John the Baptist and Apostle John the Theologian in white shiny robes. The Mother of God was wearing a shiny mantle, and under the mantle was a green chiton, girded with a high belt; over the mantle a kind of epitrachelion was visible. On Her head rested a wonderful crown, topped with crosses. The Queen of Heaven's hair, loose, lay on her shoulders. She seemed to be taller than all the maidens. The virgins, all the saints, wore crowns, also had their hair flowing, and were dressed in clothes of different colors. The Monk’s cramped cell seemed to become more spacious, and the light that illuminated it was somehow special, lighter and brighter than the light of the sun.

The Diveyevo sister fell dead at the sight of the celestials, and she did not know how long the elder’s conversation with them lasted. Only then did she come to her senses when the Mother of God, turning to the Reverend, asked: “Who is this lying on the ground?” Father Seraphim answered Her with deep reverence: “This is the old woman for whom I asked You, Lady, to be her at Your appearance.” Then the Most Pure One approached Evdokia and, taking her right hand, said: “Get up, maiden, and do not be afraid of us. Virgins just like you came here with Me.” Evdokia stood up and the Mother of God said to her a second time: “Do not be afraid. We have come to visit you.” And she ordered the nun to approach the celestials and ask their names and what their lives were like. Having become encouraged, she approached and addressed these questions first to the Angels, and then to all the saints. And they all told her their names, their lives and their exploits.

Meanwhile, the Mother of God spoke with the Monk Seraphim and commanded him to impose obedience on the Diveyevo sisters, adding that if they correct this obedience, then “they will be with Me and with you, and if they lose wisdom, they will lose the fate of these holy virgins.” . Then the Queen of Heaven said to Father Seraphim: “Soon, My beloved, you will be with us” and blessed him. All the saints also said goodbye to the Elder. The Forerunner and Apostle John the Theologian blessed him, and the virgins kissed him priestly, hand in hand. The Diveyevo sister was told: “This vision was given to you for the sake of the prayers of the Sarov fathers: Seraphim, Mark, Nazarius and Pachomius,” and then in an instant the bright host of celestials disappeared from their eyes. This wonderful visit lasted, as the Reverend himself later said, for four hours. And at the same time he added: “This is the joy we have achieved! There is reason for us to have faith and hope in the Lord.”

Like St. Seraphim of Sarov, the appearance of the Mother of God was honored by Athanasius of Athos, the Greek architects of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, St. Sergius of Radonezh and many, many others.

Some ascetics who were not glorified by the Church as saints were also honored to see the Mother of God in reality, such as the schema-abbot of the Glinsk hermitage Filaret, the monk of the same hermitage Dosifei, the schema-monk Joseph of Optina and others - you can’t count them all.

The Altai missionary Archimandrite Macarius (Glukharev) personally heard from baptized foreigners there that even a year before his arrival in the Tomsk province, the Blessed Virgin appeared in reality to some Altai children. So, appearing to one boy, She prophetically said: “Child! A year will pass, and Macarius will come here. You will see him. He will teach you to pray to the God who created Altai.” The boy asked what it would be like. The Bright Woman - the Mother of God - led him to the Maima River and showed him to the surface of the water, on which the image of Archimandrite Macarius was inscribed. A year later, the aforementioned missionary actually arrived and, among the newly converted Altaians, baptized this pagan boy, who was honored to talk with the Mother of God. This is how close the Queen of Heaven is to the human race, and especially to the Christian race!

Let us also try to resort to prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary as often and as diligently as possible, so that we too can strengthen our inner connection with the Mother of God and be honored with a filial relationship towards Her.

Especially during these days of the Nativity Fast, we will try to remember this and pray more earnestly to the Mother of God, cleansing our souls of all impurity and dirt with fasting and repentance. For the uncleanness of the soul is the passions of the soul: malice, hatred, deceit, envy, slander, condemnation, gluttony, drunkenness, voluptuousness, obscenity, laziness, negligence and other human vices. By cleansing ourselves of these passions, we will thereby imitate the Mother of God in Her perfections and through this we will be honored by Her with even greater graces and attention; Let us be honored to meet with spiritual joy the great, bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ, for which you and I are now preparing. May our pious ancestors serve as an example for us in this good deed, who loved the Mother of God and kept the commandments of God with fear and reverence, spending fasts with zeal and spiritual benefit, through which they celebrated the Lord's feasts with true and great spiritual joy.

Let us place all our hope in the Queen of Heaven and let us pray to Her both at home and in church warmly and sincerely, always asking for Her help and intercession, strengthening us in all our good intentions and undertakings, in order to do what is pleasing to the Lord and be honored with a good end to our fleeting, temporary life. To whom shall I cry, O Lady, to whom shall I resort in my sorrow, if not to You, the Queen of Heaven? Who will accept my cry and my sighing, if not You, Most Immaculate... For we are your servants, let us not be ashamed!

There is hardly a single person in the world who has not heard of the Virgin Mary. From the first days after her dormition to this day, the Blessed Virgin Mary helps Christians. According to the Holy Scriptures, the Mother of God, appearing to the apostles on the third day after Her Dormition, told them: “Rejoice, I will be with you all the days.”

It is noted that the appearances of the Mother of God most often coincide with some future catastrophes, wars and other large-scale disasters.

The Virgin Mary supposedly warns people of danger. Most often She appears in the form of a light female silhouette, as if woven from a haze. According to church scriptures, Jesus crucified on the cross entrusted His Mother to the care of John the Evangelist, his beloved disciple, and all humanity to the Most Holy Theotokos.

There is an opinion that the Mother of God does not appear to everyone, but only to those who deeply believe and listen to her advice. Of course, this Divine miracle, like all other miracles, is subject to criticism and disbelief by skeptics. But be that as it may, there are known cases when Divine help contributed to the salvation of people.

In Latin America, the most revered shrine is the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe. She is considered the patroness of both Americas and is called: “Our Lady Guadalupe.” It all started in December 1531, when 17-year-old Indian Juan Diego, walking to morning mass past Tepeyac Hill, heard someone singing from above.

Climbing the hill, the young man saw a young woman who looked more like his fellow tribesmen than a Spanish woman. The woman seemed to be inside a shining cloud. She introduced herself as the Mother of God. For four days in a row, the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego, turning to the young man with a request that a church be built on this hill, where everyone could honor her Son, Jesus Christ.

However, the priests decided that the young man was simply fantasizing, because the Indians, as the Spaniards then believed, had no soul, which means that the Virgin Mary could not appear to them.

Then the Virgin Mary ordered the Indian to collect flowers on a rocky hill. The young man obeyed meekly, even though he knew very well that nothing grew there. And suddenly he saw a rose bush growing right on the stone. “Here is My sign,” said the Virgin Mary. - Take these roses, wrap them in your cloak and take them to the bishop. This time he will believe you."

When Juan Diego unrolled his cloak in front of the bishop, everyone present fell to their knees: the image of the Blessed Virgin was imprinted on the fabric of the cloak. After this, six million Indians converted to Christianity. Thus the baptism of Latin America took place.

"I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPT"

The small city of Lourdes, located in southwestern France, became widely famous in 1858 thanks to the 14-year-old girl Bernadette Soubirous. It was she who was honored to witness as many as 18(!) apparitions of the Virgin Mary. In the cold February of 1858, Bernadette and other children were collecting branches for kindling in the grove.

To get to the deposits of branches, they had to ford a stream. When Bernadette came to the other side, she heard a noise similar to the sound of the wind, and near the grotto that opened to her gaze she saw a lady in a white dress, at whose feet yellow roses were scattered. Surprisingly, no one else saw anything.

This time the girl did not dare talk to the stranger; she decided that it was the ghost of a recently deceased village resident. Despite her fear, she was drawn to the grotto, and she came there again and again. Now the girl understood that the Virgin Mary was appearing before her, asking her to pray for sinners. During one of her apparitions, the Mother of God gave Bernadette an instruction: “Go to the priests and say: I want a chapel to be built here.”

But the priests took the stories as empty fiction, and the girl as completely crazy. Only her confessor asked to know the woman’s name. And Our Lady answered: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” When the girl conveyed these words to him, the priest was amazed to the core.

Bernadette could not know that shortly before the events described, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And the ministers themselves had previously used the expression “Sinless Conception.” And this meant that the girl really communicates with the Virgin Mary.

The Mother of God also showed Bernadette a miraculous source, to which millions of people subsequently began to flock. In the first year alone, five officially certified healings took place at this source. Bernadette later became a nun under the name Maria Bernarda and died at the age of 35. Already in 1933 she was canonized by the Catholic Church.

Before recognizing her as a saint, representatives of the Catholic Church opened the grave three times. Witnesses to the exhumation were not only priests, but also doctors and other respected members of society. And each time they were all convinced: the body of Bernadette Soubirous was not touched by decomposition. A temple was built at the site of the appearance of the Virgin Mary, and Lourdes is now visited by about five million pilgrims a year.

FATIMA MIRACLE

Perhaps the most significant and famous series of apparitions of the Mother of God began in May 1917 in the Portuguese city of Fatima.

First, the Virgin Mary appeared to three children: Lucie, Jacinta and Francisco, who were playing in a field not far from their house. She asked if they were ready to become the chosen ones of the Lord in order to atone for the insults and blasphemies inflicted on the Mother of God. They enthusiastically agreed.

When leaving, she ordered the children to pray daily for peace and the salvation of sinners and ordered them to come to the meeting place on the thirteenth day of each month. The boys told their parents about everything, and they, in turn, told their neighbors. And already on the 13th of the next month, about 60 people accompanied the children.

It must be said that no one saw the appearance of the Mother of God except these three guys, nevertheless, every month there were more and more people on the field.

Pilgrims began to flock to Fatima from all over the world. Two days before October 13, all the roads leading to the city were clogged with carts and pedestrians. Waiting for the appearance of the Virgin Mary, people, and there were about 70 thousand of them, slept on the ground, despite the cold October rain that had been falling for three days.

Everyone was soaked to the skin. At noon, everyone present knelt down, despite the mud and puddles. Lucia, seeing the Mother of God, exclaimed: “Here she is!”, and everyone saw how the children were enveloped in a light white cloud. It rose up three times and fell again on the children.

Then eyewitnesses said that the rain suddenly stopped, the sun came out, but its appearance was strange: a disk surrounded by a shining crown, which you could look at without squinting.

In front of everyone’s eyes, the sun first spun like a huge fiery wheel, scattering multi-colored bright flashes in all directions, then it seemed to separate from the sky and began to spiral downwards, radiating heat. This dance of the sun lasted at least ten minutes and was visible many kilometers from Fatima.

When it was all over, people were surprised to find that their clothes were suddenly dry. This was the last appearance of the Mother of God to children.

The Virgin Mary left them three predictions, the last of which was revealed only recently. The first and second were made public by permission of Pope Pius XII in 1942. One spoke of an impending war that would claim millions of lives (apparently, the Second World War was meant). The second prophecy concerned Russia, which must devote its heart to the Virgin Mary so that peace and tranquility will replace the chaos in the country.

But the third message remained a sealed secret for a long time. Only in 2000 did Pope John Paul II lift the veil: it concerned an attempt on his life. Indeed, in 1981, John Paul II was shot by a Turkish terrorist.

But that's not all: presumably, the third message also contains information about the further tragic fate of the Catholic Church. It seems that church hierarchs prefer to hide it so as not to cause unrest among believers.

ON THE ROAD OF WAR

Immediately after the invasion of Hitler’s troops into the territory of the USSR, Patriarch Alexander III of Antioch took seclusion and retired to the dungeon in which the icon of the Mother of God was kept. Without food, water or sleep, he prayed for help for Russia.

Three days later, the Virgin Mary appeared to him and said: “Temples, monasteries, theological academies and seminaries should be opened throughout the country. Priests must be returned from the fronts and released from prisons. They must start serving. There is no way to surrender Leningrad! Let them take out the miraculous icon of the Kazan Mother of God and carry it in a religious procession around the city, then not a single enemy will set foot on its holy land. Before the Kazan Icon, a prayer service must be performed in Moscow, then it must arrive in Stalingrad. The Kazan icon must go with the troops to the borders of Russia.”

Surprisingly, Stalin heeded these words. He promised Metropolitans Alexy and Sergius all assistance. The Icon of the Kazan Mother of God was taken out of the Vladimir Cathedral, it was carried in a religious procession around Leningrad, and the city survived.

According to some reports, the plane, controlled by Stalin’s personal pilot, flew around the defended Moscow with the miraculous Kazan image on board. Few people know that the Battle of Stalingrad began with a prayer service. Then the icon stood among our troops on the right bank of the Volga, and the Germans were unable to cross the river, no matter how hard they tried.

PHENOMENON IN CHERNOBYL

The rector of the St. Elias Church, Nikolai Yakushin, says: “On a rainy spring evening in the sky over Chernobyl, many townspeople saw in an extraordinary radiance a female silhouette descending from the rain clouds. For a certain time, the rain completely subsided and there was an extraordinary silence. Witnesses of the phenomenon realized with fear that something especially important was happening concerning the city itself.

From the unclear silhouette, an image similar to the image of the Virgin Mary in the form of Oranta gradually became clearly visible.

The townspeople saw in the hands of the Mother of God a bunch of dry grass, which she dropped; the grass fell and scattered across the wet ground. In May, when everything everywhere begins to turn green, bloom and bloom, dried grass is practically not found.

And here on the ground there were large quantities of dry stems of grass called Chernobyl. At one time, the radiance moved to the St. Elias Church, and the Holy Virgin blessed God’s temple with both hands. The vision left as suddenly as it appeared.”

Then the appearance of the Virgin Mary was interpreted in its own way: supposedly the Mother of God blessed the temple, and dry grass most likely meant a lean year. Only 20 years later the meaning of the miraculous appearance of the Mother of God became clear. She warned of impending danger, because it was no coincidence that she dropped a bunch of dry grass, called Chernobyl, or wormwood, on the city of the same name.

“The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a lamp, and fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of this star is “wormwood,” and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many of the people died from the waters, because they became bitter” (Revelation of St. John the Theologian 8:10-11).

The life of Saint Andrew describes the vision that opened to him: he was shown the beauties of paradise, but, not seeing the Mother of God anywhere, he asked his mysterious companion: “Where is She?” In response I heard: “She walks the earth and collects the tears of those who cry.” This is how the Blessed Virgin Mary walks to this hour and will always walk the earth, collecting the tears of the suffering.

One of the soldiers who took part in the assault on Koenigsberg in 1944 said: “When the front commander arrived, there were priests with him with an icon of the Mother of God. After serving the prayer service, they calmly walked towards the front line. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the shooting from the German side stopped, and our troops began their assault.

The incredible happened: the Germans died in the thousands and thousands surrendered! The captured Germans later said in one voice: “Before the Russian assault began, Madonna appeared in the sky, which was visible to the entire German army. At this time, absolutely everyone’s weapon failed - they could not fire a single shot.”

Everyone remembers the tragedy in Budennovsk in 1995, when Basayev’s gang captured the staff and patients of the central city hospital. During those terrible days, local residents several times saw in the sky the image of a grieving woman, dressed in dark clothes and standing at a cross formed by clouds.

Apparitions of the Virgin Mary occurred both before the terrorist attack itself and after the militants left the city. Many are still convinced that some of the terrorists were demoralized by Her appearance and this was the decisive moment for the release of the hostages.

FICTION OR REALITY?

There is still no consensus about the apparitions of the Virgin Mary. People react differently to such rumors. Those who were lucky enough to witness this miracle indignantly reject the idea of ​​a hoax. Skeptics shrug their shoulders.

It must be said that scientists have not yet managed to solve this mystery. Some of them explain this by reasons more familiar to the modern world. For example, the French-American scientist Jacques Vallee is sure that aliens are actually involved in the Fatima miracle.

“The famous visions at Fatima are a striking historical example of the religious overtones of UFO encounters. The factual side of events is quite well known, but I am willing to bet that few people know the true essence of what happened in 1917 near this small Portuguese town.

Even fewer people, I believe, know that the series of sightings of a creature believed to be the Virgin Mary began two years earlier with a series of classic UFO sightings,” wrote Valle in the book “Parallel World.”

Russian scientist V. Mezentsev explains that the sun dance, which was observed by 70 thousand pilgrims who came to Fatima on October 13, 1917, together with their children, was an optical illusion, a trick of light. Be that as it may, the Roman Catholic Church officially recognized the Fatima miracle and many other apparitions of the Virgin Mary.

Today, when the world is continually shaken by catastrophes, tragedies, confrontations, intolerance and wars, perhaps we should not break spears in meaningless disputes, but simply heed these warnings and hear the main call of the Most Holy Theotokos: “People, stop in your madness!”

And then there will be more goodness and less sorrow in the world.

History does not know many cases when the Blessed Virgin appeared to ordinary people. Apparitions of the Mother of God also occurred in the 20th century. Some of them were even captured on film or video camera. We have selected three of the most impressive stories that will not leave anyone indifferent.

History of the Painted Image on Mount Athos

September 3 in the Orthodox calendar is marked by the feast of the unusual image of the Mother of God, called the Light-Painted. On it the Blessed Virgin is depicted with a loaf of bread in her hands. The name “Painting with Light” is no coincidence: “painting with light” is a literal translation from the Greek word “photography.” And it is with photography that his story is connected.

The events that we will talk about took place in 1903 on Holy Mount Athos and are considered, perhaps, one of the most famous apparitions of the Mother of God of our time. The monks of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery then had a tradition - every week they distributed alms to the nomadic monks on Athos, called Siromakhs, and others in need. The necessary provisions for these purposes were brought to them from the Russian farmsteads of the monastery.

However, this year the Holy Kinot, the main governing body on Mount Athos, decided to stop the distribution of alms, since it corrupts those asking. It was on this day, September 3, 1903, that the monks decided to distribute the last alms, after which they read out the resolution of Kinot.

At the time of the distribution of alms, a certain monk named Gabriel took a photograph with beggars who received alms in the form of flatbread - chereks. However, no one expected that during the development of the negative, the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary would appear in the photograph, standing with the poor and receiving alms. It is clear that after this, charity in the Russian monastery on Athos, pleasing to God and His Most Pure Mother, continued.

At the site of the described event in 2011, a chapel was built and a source was drawn to it, and a temple was erected in honor of the Icon of Light. For a long time, the original negative of the photograph itself was lost due to many events that befell the monastery. And only last year it was found again in the archives of the monastery.

The longest apparition of the Mother of God in Zeitoun

Unfortunately, very little is known about this phenomenon in our country. The reason for this is that it happened in Soviet times, when atheistic propaganda tried to hush up such news. At the same time, the phenomenon in Zeitoun is the longest and most documented miracle, which, in addition, was witnessed by the maximum number of people.

The first phenomenon occurred on April 2, 1968 in the city of Zeitoun, which is considered a suburb of the Egyptian capital Cairo. That evening, two car park workers noticed a translucent luminous figure of a Woman on the dome of a temple belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church.

At first, one of the workers thought that she had decided to commit suicide and began to shout, persuading Her not to do this. Soon they called the priest of this church and realized that this was not an ordinary woman, but the Most Holy Theotokos. She prayed in front of the cross on the dome, which also glowed.

The phenomenon in Zeitoun repeated a week later, and then occurred at varying intervals until May 29, 1971. It lasted for different periods of time: from several minutes to two hours. During this time, crowds of thousands of people of different faiths and even non-believers gathered to see the miracle. Many of them subsequently converted to Christianity.

Also, this appearance of the Mother of God was marked by various miracles and healings. The first of these happened to the same car park worker who first noticed Virgo. The next day, his finger was supposed to be amputated, but the doctor stated that this was no longer necessary, since the finger was healthy.

How the Blessed Virgin looked and behaved was captured on many video and photo cameras. She was wearing long clothes with a covering on her head. A halo shone around the head, behind which it was impossible to distinguish facial features. Sometimes She was seen holding the baby Jesus in her arms. Sometimes She held an olive branch in her hands.

Glowing doves often appeared around the Most Holy Theotokos; it happened that they formed a cross, and then gathered together and seemed to melt into the air. Often the Mother of God turned and blessed people. Moreover, no projectors or lighting devices that could simulate this miracle were found.

However, one must understand that this miracle could also be a phenomenon of a different, opposite nature, as Professor A.I. Osipov, for example, treats it with caution.

The Blessed Virgin resurrected a Muslim in Damascus

The next story is very different from the previous two, as well as from everything you can imagine. Any novelist or screenwriter could envy her plot. But the most amazing thing in the story, perhaps, is that all this really happened. And although the appearance of the Mother of God was witnessed by one person, himself a participant in the events, the incredible consequences of the miracle were confirmed by many, including medical staff.

This incident is best known as the “miracle in Syria.” It was publicized by some media in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Palestine in 2004, first on television, then on radio, through newspapers and magazines. Its participant and protagonist of the events is a certain sheikh from Saudi Arabia. Sometimes sources mention his name: Shahid D.

Shortly before the events described, he successfully married. The marriage of a young wealthy family was marred by only one thing: they had no children. The parents even advised their son to marry another woman, since polygamy is permissible in Islam, and to give birth to an heir from her. Instead, Shahid went with his wife on a trip to Damascus, Syria, to relieve his grief.

There they hired a limousine with a driver-guide who took them to all the sights of the city. The guide sensed their sad mood and soon learned the reason for it. Then the guide advised us to visit the Seidnaya Orthodox monastery, famous for its miraculous icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There was an interesting tradition there: believers ate part of the wick from the lamp standing in front of the image of the Most Pure One, in front of which they prayed, and after that their useful petitions were fulfilled.

The sheikh and his wife, inspired by what they heard, immediately wanted to visit this place. At the same time, they promised that if their problem was resolved favorably, they would generously reward the driver with twenty thousand dollars and donate four times as much to the monastery itself.

And a miracle happened! Soon after returning from the monastery, the sheikh's wife became pregnant, and nine months later they had a son. But this was only the beginning of the benefits that the Most Holy Theotokos provided to the Gentile. Shahid did not forget about his promise and warned the driver that he would soon come to Damascus to thank him and make a donation to the monastery.

However, the guide decided to rob the generous Muslim and take all his money. To do this, he persuaded two more partners to meet the sheikh at the airport with him. On the way, Shahid tried to persuade the criminals, promised to pay each of them ten thousand, but, blinded by greed and anger, they took him to a wasteland and killed him, taking all the money and jewelry.

But the desperation of the attackers did not end there: they dismembered the corpse, cutting off the head, legs and arms. However, for some reason, they did not leave the body here, but put it in the trunk, intending to bury it in another deserted place. But then God’s providence unexpectedly intervened. On the way on the highway, the criminals' car broke down.

One driver passing by offered them his help, to which the attackers rudely refused. The driver was alarmed by their behavior. In addition, he accidentally noticed traces of blood pouring from the trunk. Therefore, soon the police were already at this place. After much argument, the criminals had to open the trunk...

But what was everyone’s surprise when a living sheikh came out of the trunk with the words: “The Most Holy Theotokos just gave me the last stitch here!” He pointed to his neck. The three attackers immediately lost their minds, which led them to admit that they had killed this man. They were placed in a prison for the insane.

Doctors confirmed an extraordinary incident: the stitches turned out to be completely fresh. Moreover, even the thinnest and most delicate vessels were connected, which was impossible to accomplish using conventional medical means. The sheikh, brought back to life, in gratitude for this, donated ten times more to the monastery than he had previously promised.

He himself said that he saw everything that happened to him, the appearance of the Mother of God and his healing, as if from the outside. After this incident, the Muslim sheikh and his entire family converted to Orthodoxy. The believer tries to talk about the miracle that happened to him in Syria as often as possible, although the Arab media try to hush up about it, fearing the conversion of even more Muslims to Christianity.

You will learn more about one of the described miracles from the video:

The first mentions of the Virgin Mary in Rus' date back to the writing by Apostle Luke of the first icon of the Mother of God, called the Vladimir Icon. The Apostle Luke, overshadowed from above, having received the gift of the first icon painter in the Church of Christ, depicted on the board the face of the Blessed Virgin, visible to him with his spiritual eyes.

The Mother of God, as the life of the holy evangelist Luke narrates, at the sight of the icon sang the Great: “From now on all generations will bless Me.” And she said: “May the grace of the one who was born of Me and Mine remain with this icon forever. My protection and grace-filled intercession will be found by all who call upon My help, praying before the icons with My image. The Lord will send them unspeakable mercies and bounties from His Kingdom.”

Having blessed the apostle, the Virgin Mary destined the fate of the icon and the miracles accompanying it in Jerusalem and Constantinople, Vyshgorod and Vladimir and all of Rus'. “I will come with this image to Holy Rus' and will show many miracles and signs of protection on this wondrous land, dedicated to Me from time immemorial,” said the Mother of God, revealing in detail to the holy apostle many secrets of the country, which She called Holy Russia.

Until the middle of the 5th century, the icon was in Jerusalem, in a temple erected in honor of the Mother of God. During the reign of Emperor Theodosius the Younger, the Virgin Mary appeared to one novice monk and asked to tell the patriarch that the icon be transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople. At the beginning of the 12th century, it was presented to Prince Yuri Dolgoruky and was located in the monastery of the city of Vyshgorod. The Virgin Mary was seen by dozens of priests and pilgrims. Our Lady of Vladimir appeared above the temple in a blaze of dazzling light.

Rumors of miracles in Vyshgorod reached Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, son of Yuri Dolgoruky. The prince visited a convent. During his pilgrimage, the radiance of the icon intensified so much that he, the prince, could see the image of the Virgin Mary, looking at him with love and seeming to say something. Andrei, as if in reality, heard: “Take this image of Mine and transfer it to the Suzdal land.”The miraculous icon was placedin a specially constructed cart drawn by horses. The ceremonial procession passed through Vladimir. 10 versts below the city along the river. Klyazma, the horses suddenly stopped dead in their tracks. The horses were replaced, but the new horses could not move. Prince Andrei got off his horse, kissed the Vladimir soil and raised his hands in prayer to the Mother of God. At this time, the Virgin Mary appeared to him with a scroll. She stood on a white cloud. Hosts of Russian saints, hermits, holy fools and apostles looked at the Most Pure One.

“What does this scroll mean?” - Andrei Bogolyubsky asked the Mother of God. With his inner ear, the prince heard the royal voice of the Virgin Mary: “This tablet is from the book of life. In it are the names of all the saints glorified in the church, the mystery of salvation, the names of those who love Me and resort to My intercession.”“Build a temple in this place in honor of My Immaculate Conception. I will provide My protection to all who confess Me as their Immaculate Mother.”

This place began to be called Bogolyubov and soon a church was erected there. The Virgin Mary revealed to Prince Andrey the secret of Holy Rus': “I am the Patroness of Holy Rus' from time immemorial,” said the Mother of God, “which was created in My image, the Eternal Virgin. As long as Russia worships the Most Holy Virgin, the Mother of Christ, Her ever-virgin beauty will repel all the arrows of the enemy: barbarians, disasters and all dishonor. As soon as the worship of Me as a new Creation, as the Conqueror of the devil, as a powerful Virgin, ceases, Russia will lose its strength and will be plunged into darkness.”

In 1174, Andrei Bogolyubsky was killed as a result of a boyar conspiracy. The conspirators' warriors immediately rushed to plunder the prince's property. A massacre began in the city. Then priest Nikolai, who arrived with Bogolyubsky from Vyshgorod, put on vestments, took the icon and walked with it through the streets of Vladimir. The rebellion subsided, the city remained intact.

After the death of Andrei Bogolyubsky, Vladimir was given into the possession of his nephews Yaropolk and Mstislav Rostislavich. They robbed the Assumption Church, took gold and silver and seized the lands that Andrei donated to the temple. Yaropolk gave the miraculous icon of the Mother of God to his nephew Gleb of Ryazan. This act outraged the residents of Vladimir. They rebelled, deciding to expel the Rostislavichs. The prince’s warriors, not accepting the fight, abandoned the banner and rushed to run, as they later said, “pursued by the wrath of God and the Holy Mother of God,” and the frightened Gleb hastened to return the icon to the city.

Since then, for almost two and a half centuries, the icon has been the patroness of Vladimir. In 1185, the cathedral church in the city burned down with everything in it, but the image survived. During the invasion of the Tatars under the leadership of Batu, he lost his precious salary, but he himself remained unharmed. With his help, Prince Dmitry Donskoy defeated Mamai in 1380.

1160 Erasmus, a monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, donated all his money to decorate the Pechersk Church, but then he really regretted it and fell ill from worries. For seven days he lay unconscious, but on the eighth he suddenly got up in bed and said that he had seen the Virgin Mary with her Son in her arms. She said: “Erasmus, since you have adorned My church with icons, I will adorn you in the church of My Son; Arise, repent, put on the image of an angel, and on the third day I will take you to Me as one who has loved the splendor of My house.” Erasmus fulfilled everything that the Virgin Mary commanded him, and on the third day he died.

1165 St. John, the future Archbishop of Novgorod, and his brother built a stone church, but the money ran out. Then they turned to the Virgin Mary in prayer. Appearing to the brothers in a dream, the Mother of God said: “Why do you fall into such sadness and indulge in lamentation that the construction of the temple has slowed down? I will not abandon your prayer, for I see your faith and love, soon you will have everything you need to build the temple and even have a surplus; just don’t give up a good deed and don’t grow cold in your faith.” The next day, the brothers, from an unknown source, were given gold coins, and they successfully completed the temple.

In 1212, the Virgin Mary appeared to Prince Mikhail Vsevolodovich of Chernigov and his wife. The princely couple had no children and they prayed to the Most Pure One to grant them offspring. One night the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared and said: “Be bold, be bold and pray; your prayer has been heard and here is a sign for you: take the fragrance and show it to your whole house.” After the words of the Mother of God, the amazed spouses saw a bundle of incense at the head of their bed. A few days later, the Virgin Mary appeared again and this time presented a dove, which foreshadowed the birth of a daughter.

The prince and princess went to Kyiv, to the Pechersky Monastery, where the third apparition of the Mother of God took place, accompanied by the Monk Anthony and Theodosius. The Virgin Mary announced that they would have a daughter and ordered her to be named Theodulia, predicting that she would become a nun.

After some time, the princess actually gave birth to a girl. When Feodulia turned 15 years old, she was betrothed to the Suzdal prince Mina. The girl prayed to the Mother of God to help her, because she wanted to become a nun. Then the Virgin Mary appeared to her and said: “Honor your father and mother and do not resist your parents. Do not be afraid: the filth of this world will not touch you, and your marriage will not exist...”

The princess never married. Her betrothed husband died, and she, with the name Euphrosyne, took monastic vows in the Suzdal monastery, where she later became abbess. Shortly before the death of Euphrosyne of Suzdal, the Mother of God appeared and predicted that a great earthquake would befall the city, a sign of God's wrath against its inhabitants and monks. The old woman informed the hierarchs about the vision and the impending disaster: “Because of our sins, great misfortune will come to Suzdal. And then do not try to seek the help of the saints and the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, if you do not repent and ask for God’s mercy.”

Euphrosyne's prophecy confused the Suzdal ministers of the Church. That same day, during prayer in the temple, the earth shook and cracked, and through the gaping cracks the cry of the monsters of hell and the cry of thousands of sinful souls were heard. Fear and horror gripped all the inhabitants of Suzdal. A giant gray cloud of dust clouded the sky and covered the city in darkness. Falling, in complete darkness, the inhabitants ran blindly, some to the temple, or wherever they looked, fleeing the disaster that had befallen the city. In the church, in the pitch darkness, someone’s pleading voices were heard: “Most Holy Theotokos, save us.” Finally, the prayer in the temple stopped, and an oppressive silence fell, as if the cathedral had fallen into the ground.

Only the Monk Euphrosyne maintained peace. She looked admiringly at the sky and repeated: “Repent, and the Lord will forgive. There were so many warnings about repentance that were not heeded. And so, disasters came.”

I see the sky open and in the non-evening light of the Son of God, and before Him the Most Pure Mother with the holy saints. “Let’s pray together that the Lord will have mercy on our city and the disaster will end,” she said. Suddenly the black cloud dissipated, and a wonderful temple appeared in the heavens, above which stood a Woman in the clothes of a Russian princess with a golden rod and the baby Jesus in her arms. The earthquake stopped immediately.

Several more times the Mother of God appeared to St. Euphrosyne of Suzdal. When widespread illnesses began in Rus', the saint turned to the Mother of God with prayer. She appeared to her and promised: “I will ask My Son, that He may grant you the power to save and heal all who through you call on Christ and Me, who gave birth to Him.”

In the 13th century, the Mother of God appeared to three ascetic monks in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The fiery cloud of divine light glowed like a burning bush. And the Virgin Mary appeared above the cloud in a dazzling light. She said, “I am the Mother of the poor and the orphans, longing for the ineffable riches of My Divine Son.” During her appearance, many miraculous phenomena and healings occurred. The Mother of God said to sick and suffering people: “I am the joy of all those who mourn on earth. I come to console the orphans in their hours of sorrow and to inform them of the unspeakable blessings prepared for them by My Divine Son.” “I come to show My maternal mercy and intercession to My children.”

To the question: “What destiny awaits us, Lady?” - “The Almighty will ask for sins, but His mercy is inexplicable, and My intercession largely determines the final destiny.”

On his deathbed, the monk Lazar of Murom (XIV century) spoke about the appearance of the Solar Woman on Pochaevskaya Mountain. The Monk Lazarus described how the Mother of God stood over Pochaev in fiery rays, and the holy men of the heavenly church approached Her for a blessing, bowed and listened to Her wise advice. At this place, the stone imprinted the footprint of Her right foot, which emitted water. And now on the Holy Hill in Pochaev, on a stone near the source, the imprint of the foot of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been preserved.

At the end of the 16th century, on the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the peasant Nikita Kuchkov, who lived near Khlynov, saw in a dream that he was in the city and saw the Queen of Heaven with heavenly powers and John the Baptist. The Mother of God said to the people gathered around: “You promised to build a monastery in My name, why have you now forgotten about your promise? You also have a builder given to you by God. He grieves and constantly asks the Lord about it. You despise him and do not carry out his orders. If you do not fulfill My command, then the wrath of God will befall you: fire, famine and pestilence.”

After which the Mother of God pointed with her hand to the place where the monastery should be built.

In 1484, the monk of the Valaam Monastery, Alexander, during a night prayer in a cave cell, saw the Mother of God, who showed him with a bright heavenly light the place of his future exploits.

- Alexandra! Get out of here and go to the place shown to you before, in it you can be saved.

The next day, Alexander left the monastery and settled on the shores of Lake Roshchinskoye, not far from the Svir River. He lived in complete solitude for seven years. Alexander became famous under the name of St. Alexander of Svirsky and laid the foundation of the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God.

Several years before Alexander's death, the Mother of God appeared again. One night Alexander prayed to the Mother of God for help to his monastery, then he said to his spiritual son Athanasius, who was next to him:

“Child, be sober and stay awake, because there will now be a wonderful and terrible visitation.”

- Behold, the Lord comes and She who gave birth to Him.

Coming out of the cell, they saw a bright light above the monastery. Above the foundation of the altar of the founded church, the Mother of God and the Child sat on a throne, surrounded by angels. The monks fell on their faces before Her.

“Rise up, chosen one of My Son and God,” they heard a voice. “I came to visit you, My beloved, to look at the foundation of My church, because I heard your prayer. And don’t worry about the rest.

Alexander saw many monks with stones and tools who were walking towards the church he had founded. And the Mother of God continued:

– My beloved, if anyone brings even one brick for My church, in the Name of Jesus Christ, My Son and God, he will not lose his reward.

When the vision ended, the monk raised Athanasius, who had been lying on the ground all this time. The monk, sobbing, said:

“Tell me, father, what was this wonderful and terrible vision, so that my spirit was almost separated from my body from this indescribable light?”

Currently, the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery is one of the greatest shrines in northwestern Russia.

Appearance of the Most Holy Theotokos to Abbess Taisia, abbess of the Leushinsky Monastery, November 27, 1886: “From the evening of the twenty-seventh, the day of the Sign of the Mother of God, I decided to go to Matins the next morning. Preoccupied with this thought, I woke up at the beginning of the fourth hour, and since we have Matins at 5 o’clock, I got dressed and completely prepared, lay down to lie down some more and fell asleep. During this short period before the bell rang for matins, I saw the following miraculous phenomenon.

We are all in our house church; They came to go from here in a procession of the cross to meet the Queen coming to us.

Everyone has lit candles in their hands, and in my hands, in addition to my lit candle, I also have a thick unburned wax candle, which I was ordered to light from my burning candle when the Queen comes and give it to Her.

We all went out in procession to the monastery square, where the temple is now, and stood waiting for the arrival of the Queen. She was gone for a long, long time, so that all we had left of the candles in our hands were small stubs.

Suddenly, in the distance, towards the holy gates, a sort of rising sun appeared on the horizon, while it was bright noon and the sun was shining overhead. We began to peer and saw that it did not rise, as the sun usually does, but, walking along the ground, moved towards us. When this solar ball came closer, it was clearly possible to see that it was oval, that is, oblong, and the core of light was in the very middle, in the center of it. When it came even closer to the holy gates, everyone clearly saw that it was the Queen of Heaven (in full height) coming towards us. She was the core of the sun’s light, and the circle that formed around Her were the rays. As soon as She entered the holy gates of the monastery, the invisible Forces sang “It is worthy to eat” above Her in the sky. The sisters who were waiting for Her also sang the same song, all the bells rang, and something unusual happened. Meanwhile, I was thinking: “So this is what kind of Queen has come, not an earthly one, as I expected, but a Heavenly Queen; So should I give Her the candle prepared for Her or not?”

This thought was answered by the following thought: “But the one who gave such an order (and I don’t know who it was), perhaps he knew what kind of Queen would come; and at the same time, “true obedience does not reason”; I was ordered to give, and I must.” Deciding in this way, I lit the prepared large candle from my burning cinder and, approaching the Queen, bowed low to Her, but not at Her feet, because both hands were busy, and silently, with fear and reverence, handed Her the lit candle. But, to my surprise, She, looking graciously at me, raised her hand and extended it not to the large candle given to Her, but to my cinder, which I held in my left hand, and at the same time told me: “I like the candle that burned in your labors for Me, and take this candle (pointing to the larger one) for yourself and work with it again until I come to that place again.” I, overwhelmed with awe, could not utter a word and silently bowed to Her, who took my cinder from my hand. Then I heard singing again (which either I had no longer heard during the conversation with the Queen, or whether it really stopped, I don’t know) and woke up, overwhelmed with reverent awe; from this I understood that the Queen of Heaven, as it were, blessed with Her visit the place designated for Her temple (the temple in honor of the Praise of the Mother of God), for She stood in this very place; She also blessed my labors, accepting the previous ones and pointing out the new, larger and more difficult ones that lay ahead of me in the work of building Her temple.”

The miracles of the Most Holy Theotokos today never cease to amaze and delight Christians, and her help comes to all Christians who pray near Her icons.

Help of the Mother of God

A simple girl, Maria, was one of the first women on the planet who gave her heart to God from childhood. Remaining a virgin, she was constantly in prayer, devoting her life to Jesus, the Savior of all people.

A world in which fornication, civil marriages, same-sex relationships have become the norm and are even protected by law will never understand the sacrificial feat of the practically little girl Mary, because she was only 14 years old at the time of her marriage. Not everyone can accommodate this (Matthew 19:1)

Blessed Virgin Mary

Having become the earthly Mother of Jesus, after His Ascension, the Virgin Mary continued to serve the love of Her Son, showing the followers of the King of Kings an example of such character qualities:

• humility;
• self-control;
• responsiveness;
• sacrifice;
• patience;
• unshakable faith.

The help of the Mother of God was granted both to the surviving apostles and to ordinary people who lived during the difficult time of Christian persecution. According to eyewitnesses, the miracles of the Most Holy Theotokos continue today, just as they have for 2000 years.

Icons of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

Feasts of the Virgin Mary associated with her miracles

The celebration of the Protection of the Mother of God (October 14) is one of the great venerations of the Mother of God, which is celebrated by Christians of many denominations. The Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God, which was located in the temple of the same name, was the protector of the people of that region for several centuries.

626 - Constantinople was besieged by the Avars, people in deep sadness constantly prayed and made religious processions around the temple led by Patriarch Sergius and Constantine the Third, carrying the icon of the Virgin Mary.

Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God

During one of these campaigns, the residents were surprised by the sudden flight of the Avars. It turned out that the leaders and ordinary warriors saw the image of a woman dressed in precious jewelry, standing on the city walls.

• 718 - The Mother of God saves the city from the siege of the Arabs.
• 864 The Russes besieged the city from the sea, Emperor Michael the Third, by whose order the Robe of the Mother of God was lowered into the sea with prayers and chants, watched as a sudden storm arose and caused a storm that scattered the enemy fleet like matchboxes.
• 910 - Saracens (Muslims) besieged Constantinople. Services in the church were conducted around the clock, and, as St. Andrew, at 4 o’clock in the morning all the people present in the temple saw the Mother of God, accompanied by John the Baptist and John the Theologian.

Since that time, Orthodox Christians have honored the Feast of the Intercession of the Mother of God.

About other Mother of God holidays:

Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Portugal and Her Three Mysteries

From May to October 1917, every time on the 13th, three shepherd boys from the city of Fatima in Portugal not only saw a bright light, the Holy Face, but received a message from the Blessed Virgin, known in history as the “Three Mysteries”.

One of their children, Lucia Santos, became a Catholic nun and, at the behest of the Bishop of Lori, in 1941 she wrote down notes on the first Prophecies; she recorded the third message in 1943 with the condition of its opening 20 years later.

A commentary on the third secret was subsequently given by Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict the Sixteenth, which, along with a description of all three secrets, can be found on the Vatican website.

Secret prophecies

In the first vision, the Mother of God showed all the pictures of hell in the form of a huge fiery sea, where demons ruled. Human souls, represented by embers, screamed and moaned. Only the previous promise of the Most Pure One to take the children to Heaven gave them the strength to survive what they saw.

Fatima prophecies - the appearance of the Virgin Mary

The second secret was the prophecy about the Second World War, which might not have happened if the USSR had repented and accepted the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God.

The third message was transmitted through an Angel holding a fiery sword in his hand, from the tip of which tongues of fire erupted. The flame constantly rushed to the ground, but died out when it touched the palm of the Most Pure Mother.

The angel shouted for people to repent. Then the children saw a procession of the priesthood and many people led by the Holy Father, who prayed for the people, wept bitterly over the sick, and upon reaching the cross on the top of the mountain was killed.

In 1981, Pope John Paul II was stabbed while visiting Fatima and, according to the pontiff, was saved only by the Holy Virgin. At the request of the Pope, nun Lucia gave him the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God from the Fatima Church.

Egyptian miracle of the appearance of the Blessed Mary

Volumes can be written about the testimonies of people who have seen the image of the Holy Mother over two thousand years. Many Egyptians saw this miracle. The small village of Zeytun “stuck” to the huge Cairo, the capital of Egypt, and would have remained unknown to few people in the world if not for the appearance of the Mother of God.

In this village, the Church of Our Lady of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in 1925, although the Arabs are Monophysites who believe only in the Divine nature of Jesus.

One of the parishioners of the temple dreamed of Saint Mary and promised to appear in a few decades. It was 1968, half past eight in the evening on April 2, two Muslims were preparing their carts for a new day, when a wondrous light illuminated the dome of the temple and they saw a woman who at first was mistaken for a sleepwalker or a suicide.

Arabs came running to the light and saw how the woman bent over the cross, began to pray, and then hovered up and down around the temple. The people cried out in one voice: “Most Pure Virgin!”, some parishioners rushed to the priest’s home. Ayat Ibrahim was the rector of the temple at that time, and he was given the grace to see the Holy Face in a golden-blue glow through an open window.

Miracle in Zeitoun

Until August 1969, the Most Pure Virgin showed Her Face twice a week; there is evidence of this from more than 350 thousand people.

Everyone who saw this miracle received healing. Even photographs of this Divine gift from Heaven have been preserved.

Yugoslavia, Lviv and Egypt again

The mountain in Mejugorje, Yugoslavia, became the site of a real pilgrimage in the summer of 1981, when more than 10 thousand people simultaneously saw the shining image of the Mother of God, many received healing and answers to their prayers.

Visions of the Virgin Mary in Yugoslavia

After this, the Holy Virgin was seen only by young people to whom She left messages, their main meaning - Live in peace, repent, return to God in fasting and prayers! The once communist Yugoslavia has become a Christian country.

Easter 1985 became a historical event in the history of the Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Lviv. Metropolitan John held an Easter service, attended by thousands of people, during which suddenly one of the windows was illuminated by a bright shining light, which gradually emerged into the image of the Virgin.

Frightened and at the same time delighted, the Christians began to loudly offer prayers and hymns to the Mother of God. The same Face was visible from the outside. The news of the miracle instantly spread throughout the city, people began to flock to the temple, which the police tried to disperse.

The beautiful vision was accompanied by messages from the Virgin Mary for more than 20 days, during which time everyone present in that place received healing from illness.

The miracles and help of the Blessed Virgin today are confirmed by witnesses to the events of early September 2000, which occurred again in Egypt.

The dome of the Church of St. Mark, located in the city of Lycopolis, was illuminated every night by the Face of the Holy Virgin in the radiance of a flock of doves. A bright light flooded nearby streets and houses, which confused city authorities, who saw the miracle as machinations of the Orthodox Church. After the city was cut off from electricity, God's light continued to illuminate everything around, giving healing to sick people and cripples.

Miracles in the modern world

In 1988, France was shocked by the miracles of the outpouring of olive oil at every prayer of Basham Afache, an employee of one of the French entrepreneurs. During preparation for the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, Basham cleaned his home church, constantly praying. Suddenly the worker heard a voice saying that he had been given grace and a gift, and at the same time oil flowed down his hands.

The Parisian Church of St. Stephen witnessed an outpouring of oil that lasted for an hour.

At the request of the abbot, the liquid was examined by scientists. In conclusion, they wrote that the oil does not have an external source, and there is no scientific or logical explanation for this.

Many Orthodox believers testify to the healings bestowed by the Mother of God through prayers near Her Holy Faces:

• a woman, after praying at the “Unquenchable Candle” icon, safely gave birth to a child;
• another parishioner, Zhenya Sidyakova, left her stick near the same icon and went home on healthy legs;

• Galya Marchenko and Nina Shchedavina, residents of Moscow, testify to the strengthening of faith during the enlightenment of the “Goalkeeper” icon.

It is impossible in one article to list all the miracles and help provided by Saint Mary to those asking near Her icons at the present time. People thank for such miracles:

• healing;
• gaining faith;
• return of a missing person;
• getting rid of cancer;
• liberation from all types of addictions;
• creating a family;
• relief from infertility and much more.

In almost every corner of the globe, at different times, the Most Pure Virgin appeared to people.

The name of the Holy Faces of the Mother of God means the place of her appearance, Pochaevskaya, Iverskaya, Kazanskaya, Vladimirskaya, Georgianskaya, Jerusalemskaya, Ilyinsko-Chernigovskaya and many others.

The icons were named after the miracles given to the world: Bogolyubskaya, Search for the Lost, All-Tsaritsa, Worthy There are others, and each of them gave a spiritual miracle in its own way. To this day, the Bright Face of the Mother of God comes to the aid of all those who ask with a pure heart and faith in the soul.

True faith, life according to the laws of God work miracles, then in the most difficult moments of life God, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Mother of God help.

Miracle of faith - the appearance of the Virgin Mary