The composition ‘The Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth’ of the Akathist to the Blessed Virgin Mary (Ikos 3) is presented on the fresco and it starts with the words: ‘Having received God into Her womb, the Virgin hastened to Elizabeth whose unborn babe at once recognized Her embrace, rejoiced, and with leaps of joy as songs, cried to the Theotokos’.  Greeting each other, Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, the wife of the priest Zechariah and the future mother of the prophet John the Baptist, are depicted on the background of architectural chambers.

General information:
The Akathist Hymn is one of the most well-loved services of devotion in the Orthodox Church. The Akathist to the Holy Virgin is a praise hymn in Her honor, composed in Byzantium between the 5th and 7th centuries. In the Russian tradition of authorship is attributed to Venerable Roman the Melodist (6th century). The cycle of illustrations of Akathist is traditionally included in the decoration system of the Virgin temples and temples dedicated to other people and events. In ancient Russian monumental painting of the 16th–17th centuries, it is often adjacent to the cycle of the Protoevangelium of James.

Full title: Akathist to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Ikos 3
Time of creation: 1641
Technique: Fresco, tempera
Location: East arch cheek between the south-west pillar and the south wall