From Beliefnet: Ancient ‘Miracle’ Icon to Be Returned to Russia. [Update: article no longer available.]
Posted on March 11, 2004 06:56 AM. Filed under: religion.An ancient Russian Orthodox icon purportedly painted by St. Luke will be returned to Russia after it was spirited to the United States for safekeeping during the communist era of the Soviet Union.
The so-called Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God will be shown for the last time at New York's St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral on Friday and Saturday. It will return to a monastery in Tikhvin, Russia, in July.
The icon was taken out of Russia during World War II by its guardian, Bishop John of Riga, who claimed it was a valueless reproduction. After stopovers in Latvia and Bavaria, it arrived in Chicago in 1949.
According to tradition, the jewel-encrusted golden icon featuring the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist and taken from Jerusalem to Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) in the fifth century.
In 1383, fishermen on Lake Ladoga in northern Russia witnessed the icon hovering above the waters and soon afterward it was discovered in several nearby towns. In 1560, Russian Czar Ivan the Terrible ordered a monastery built near Tikhvin to house the icon. [continue]