19C Russian Antique Icon Our Lady of Kazan w Enamel Silver Oklad ^Sale

St. Petersburg ca 1890. Hand painting on wood, hand chased and engraved silver; enamel crowns.
Size app.: 13.3 x 11,2 cm (5,2 x 4,4 in). Very Good. Wear, damages and tiny losses to enamel crowns. Please study good resolution images for overall cosmetic condition. In person actual item may appear darker or brighter than in our pictures, strictly depending on sufficient light in your environment. Weight of app. 160 gram is going to measure some 1 kg volume weight packed for shipment.
Also called Mother-of-God of Kazan (Russian: ‘Kazanskaya Bogomater '), was a holy icon of the highest stature within the Russian Orthodox Church, representing the Virgin Mary as the protector and patroness of the city of Kazan, and a palladium of all of Russia, known as the Holy Protectress of Russia. The icon was originally acquired from Constantinople, lost in 1438, and miraculously recovered in the pristine state over 140 years later in 1579. Two major cathedrals, the Kazan Cathedral, Moscow, and the Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg, are consecrated to Our Lady of Kazan, and they display copies of the icon, as do numerous churches throughout the land. The original icon in Kazan was stolen, and likely destroyed, in 1904. The "Fátima image" is a 16th-century copy of the icon, or possibly the 16th-century original, stolen from St. Petersburg in 1917 and purchased by Mitchell-Hedges in 1953. It was housed in Fátima, Portugal from 1970 to 1993, then in the study of Saint Pope John Paul II in the Vatican from 1993 to 2004, when it was returned to Kazan, where it is now kept in the Kazan Monastery of the Theotokos. Copies of the image are also venerated in the Catholic Church. Feast days of Our Lady of Kazan are 21 July, and 4 November (which is also the Russian Day of National Unity).