Up to an advanced age the parents of the Virgin Mary – Anne and Joachim – were childless. The tradition holds that St. Anne prayed and promised that if she had a child she would dedicate the child to the Lord’s service. She gave birth to Mary, and three years later Mary’s parents brought her to the Temple. She was received there by the high priest with Zechariah. He took the Virgin Mary to the Holy of Holies of the ancient temple, where out of all people entered the high priest only once a year with lustral sacrificial blood. The Virgin Mary lived in the Temple for 12 years until she was betrothed to her future husband, Joseph.

The Archimandrite Photius was a proponent of supervision over icon painting with the purpose of finding unskillfully painted icons; probably that was why he commissioned Palekh masters to execute the sacred image as they had a reputation for precise painting, skilful gilding and the craft they showed in decorating their work with ornamental patterns.

The faces of the saints are painted with tempera paints. Such paints were made from powdered pigments and fresh raw egg yolk. The background was covered with gold leaves applied to polyment, a special adhesive solution.