The most famous and revered in Russia is the icon of the Mother of God “What Name we Thee?” This image is believed to be a copy made in the 1680s from the original delivered to the Archangel Cathedral in Moscow Kremlin by order of Tsar Alexei Romanov. The icon received its new name from the opening lines of the prayer to the Mother of God, read during the 1st hour: “What name we thee, O thou who art full of grace? Heaven, for from thee hast dawned forth the Sun of Righteousness.” These lines are also written on the rays surrounding the face of the Holy Virgin on both sides.

The profound veneration of the image by Orthodox believers began under Metropolitan Philaret Drozdov. By his decree of 1853 information began to be collected about the icon from the iconostasis of the Archangel Cathedral leading to it being recognized as miraculous.

 

Healing. One Lutheran woman had been suffering from a serious illness for a long time when she saw the image of the Mother of God “Graced of Heaven” in a miraculous dream. Upon awakening, the woman sent her governess to order a prayer service for her health in front of this icon. The girl had been fulfilling the assignment for the following 6 weeks until the woman fully recovered and began to attend the church service herself.