Icon painters often made copies of the most revered icons. Because of that, many churches and private collections may have house icons with the same name, for example, “The Kazan Icon of the Mother of God”. Some copies are just as important as the original icons and are also believed to be miracle-working.

The beautiful frame from the museum’s collection was created for the miracle-working copy of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. The Kargopol icon became famous in 1714, when tears started streaming from the eyes of Mary in an icon at the house of a widow Marfa Ponomaryova during Lent. The icon was placed in the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and reports of the icon’s healing properties started to appear. Such cases were recorded in a special book.

Kargopol people sent the icon to Novgorod for Job, Metropolitan of Novgorod and Velikie Luki, to witness the miracles. After that, the icon returned and was given to the town’s Nativity of Christ Cathedral. It was placed on the left middle pillar of the upper summer temple, and in cold weather it was moved to the winter church.

Some time later, a frame was made for the icon, which now belongs to the museum’s collection. There is a small opening in the center of the frame where the image was placed.

Individual border scenes are depicted in rectangular frames around the center. Each of them refers to specific quotes from the “Akathist to the Theotokos” — the hymn dedicated to the Mother of God. Its text consists of special components: oikoi and kontakions. A kontakion is a short prelude introducing a biblical theme, and the longer oikos elaborates on the topic. Unlike the kontakion, the oikos contains a refrain with the word “Rejoice!”

The Akathist to the Theotokos contains only 13 kontakions with 12 oikos between them. Each of them corresponds to a specific image on this picturesque frame. However, there is an exception: two pairs of texts (oikos 1 and kontakion 2, as well as oikos 2 and kontakion 3) are combined in the border scenes. That is why the frame features 23 scenes instead of 25.

The border scenes depict episodes from the earthly life of Jesus Christ and the Mother of God. The icon painter depicted two scenes of the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ, and three scenes with the Magi: “The Journey of the Magi and the Star”, “The Gifts of the Magi to the Baby Jesus”, “The Return Journey of the Magi”.

Some kontakions and oikos are not directly related to the life of the Mother of God but rather illustrate certain quotes from the Akathist. For example, oikos 10 “A bulwark art Thou to virgins…” is illustrated by a scene where Mary is in the clouds with virgins standing in front of her. Oikos 11 “We behold the holy Virgin, a shining lamp…” is illustrated by a scene where Mary stands with a candle and a staff with figures kneeling in front of her on both sides.

Unfortunately, the miracle-working icon from the center of the frame was lost, along with many other icons during the USSR anti-religious campaign.