Icon “Kazanskaya Mother of God” created at the beginning of the XIX^th century is located in the center of the Red Corner of the krestovaya room (the room for worshipping).

One of the most widely spread types of depiction of the Mother of God with the Child Jesus Christ is Hodegetria; translated from Greek it means Indicating the Way; Guide. The Mother of God is holding the Child Jesus Christ at her side while pointing to him as the source of salvation for humankind. In Russia the following icons are Hodegetria: “Vlahernskaya icon”, “Hodegetria Voroninskaya”, “Hodegetria Khistophorova”, Smolenskaya, Tihvinskaya and Kazanskaya icons of the Mother of God.

The idea of the name Hodegetria has a strong sense.

The Mother of God is our Guide to Christ. On the one hand, She is the Mother of God, Christ is flesh of her flesh. Thereby, She sends down divine grace from heaven to us and intercedes for us with the God. On the other hand, the Mother of God is a human being and She leads us to Christ.

Icon “Kazanskaya Mother of God” is considered to be miracle-working.

Icon “Mother of God” appeared in Kazan' in 1579.

There are two Patron Saint’s days when icon “Kazanskaya Mother of God” is especially worshipped — the 21st of July and the 4th of November.

There are seven spiskov of icon “Kazanskaya Mother of God”. Spisok is a copy of miracle-working portrayal of the worshipped icon. Sometimes the copy can be very precise, it is impossible to distinguish it from the original, but sometimes it can be different.

Russian Orthodox Church revered two miracle-working spiska (copies) of icon “Kazanskaya Mother of God” especially: Moskovskiy and Sankt-Peterburgskiy, because the icons were patrons of Russian army and helped in the battles against foreign troops.

Most likely, stylistically, the icon exhibited in the exposition “The Red Chamber” is assigned to Moskovskaya icon “Kazanskaya Mother of God”.

For the first time, Gorokhovets was called Grad (town) of Mother of God in the XIII^th century in Lavrent’evskaya manuscript.

There are many churches devoted to the Mother of God in the town. At the beginning of the XVIII^th century a church of icon Kazanskaya Mother of God was built on Gorokhovets merchant Shiryaev’s money in the village Krasnoe. Nowadays the village Krasnoe is located within the precincts of the town of Gorokhovets. The bell tower was built at the same time as the church. There is an inscription on one of the bells, that it was donated by P. Shiryaev, congregation and the local inhabitants of Gorokhovets: “with grazhdani and prikhozhani” in 1745.

Icons “The Mother of God” were in all the houses without fail. Young people who were getting married were often blessed with the icon.