Church tradition says that the image of the Mother of God, later called Virgin Hodegetria or Our Lady of the Way, was painted by Luke the Evangelist before 45 AD, that is, during the earthly life of the Blessed Virgin. When She saw the image, She blessed it with the words, “Let the grace of Him Who was born of Me and My mercy be with these Icons.”
St. Demetrius of Rostov believed that the icon was commissioned by the ruler of Antioch Theophilus, and at first it was kept in that country, then it was brought to Jerusalem. From there, Empress Eudocia took the shrine to Constantinople, where it was placed in the Blachernae Cathedral.
In the Constantinople period, the icon was called Hodegetria or Our Lady of the Way, as it accompanied the Byzantine emperors on their journeys and in military campaigns. Another explanation for the name is provided in the legend of two blind men: the Mother of God showed them the way to the cathedral to worship Her image, after which both regained their sight.
In 1046, with this holy image, Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos blessed his daughter for marriage to Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich. Thus, the icon came to Russian soil. After the death of his father, Vladimir Monomakh ordered the icon to be sent to Smolensk, to the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin. Subsequently, it became known as the Smolensk Hodegetria.
The original image and its copies (including those kept in Moscow, in the Annunciation Cathedral and in the Novodevichy Convent) were recognized as miracle-working. The Smolensk icon is especially revered as the defender of the western borders of Russia. People pray to it for health and peace.
In 1997, the presented icon was given to the museum by a resident of the village of Oktyabrskoye of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Tatiana Ivanovna Filatova. She discovered the image by accident in the pantry of her house. She asked the former owners about it, but they were unable to provide any information.
Experts approximately dated the artifact to the 19th century. The image is painted on four pine boards with oil paints. It was in a deplorable state and needed to be restored. In 2010, the icon entered the Moscow Art Institute named after Vasily Ivanovich Surikov, where it was kept for four years.
The restorers had to remove dirt from the reverse side, strengthen some areas (where gesso and paint layer cracked) and boards along the edges, and fix the support. The experts thinned the darkened upper layer, added restoration gesso where it was needed, and leveled the melted gesso and the paint layer. The icon was covered with a protective layer of varnish and losses were tinted.
