There is a great Orthodox sacred object in the Odessa region of Ukraine – the Kasperovskaya Icon of the Mother of God. It is kept in a small village called Kizomys (Belozersky District, Odessa Region). This place used to be called Kasperovka.

We don’t know exactly where the icon was painted. According to the legend, it was brought to the Kherson Province by a Serb from Transylvania at the end of the 16^th century. He became a resident of the Olviopol County. The marvelous image remained in his family and passed from generation to generation.

 The Mother of God’s gaze is full of incredible beauty and sorrow. It is as if She were looking at her Son and seeing the very heart of the person who looks at the image at the same time. The Infant, who clings to his Mother’s cheek, holds the edge of her headscarf in his left hand and a scroll in his right hand.