The Virgin of Vladímir and the withdrawal of Tamerlán
Vladímir · Moscú, Rusia · 1395
The conqueror who came to the gates of Moscow
In the summer of 1395, Timur - the conqueror known in the West as Tamerlán - was moving towards Moscow at the head of an army that had thrown everything in its way: Persia, the Caucasus, the Golden Horde. No one had stopped him. The Great Principality of Moscow was its next objective, and Russian forces could not offer military resistance of any kind. The people lived in a state of collective terror.
Prince Vasili I and the Moscow boyars then made a decision that revealed their last hope: they ordered to transfer from the city of Vladímir to Moscow the most sacred icon of Russia, the image of the Virgin of Vladímir.
The sacred icon arrives in Moscow
The Virgin of Vladímir - attributed by tradition to St Luke the Evangelist, although modern experts date it in the 12th century in Byzantium - had been the protective icon of Russia for centuries. He represented the Virgin and the Child in a gesture of extraordinary tenderness: the Child supports his cheek on his Mother's cheek, and he wraps it with a look that mixes the love and the presence of future pain.
On August 26, 1395, the procession with the icon reached the doors of Moscow. According to the chronicles, he was received throughout the city on his knees, with the people praying and the monks singing. The icon was installed in the Cathedral of the Kremlin Sleep.
La retirada inexplicable
What happened next challenged all military logic. Tamerlán, at the time his explorers were already advancing over the territory of Moscow, ordered to stop the march. He was in camp for two weeks. And then, without combat, without negotiation, without apparent cause, he ordered the withdrawal to the south. Moscow had survived.
Las crónicas rusas recogen un relato según el cual el propio Tamerlán habría tenido en sueños una visión de una mujer luminosa rodeada de guerreros celestiales, que le ordenó retirarse. Sea cual sea la explicación histórica, el hecho es que el mayor conquistador de su época se retiró de Moscú sin atacarla, y que ese mismo día el icono llegaba a la ciudad.
An icon that defines a nation
La Virgen de Vladímir fue invocada en todos los momentos críticos de la historia rusa durante los siglos siguientes: la invasión mongola, la guerra con Polonia, la batalla de Borodino. El icono original se conserva hoy en la Galería Tretiakov de Moscú, donde los fieles siguen acudiendo a venerar ante él. La festividad del 26 de agosto, instituida en memoria de la salvación de 1395, se celebra hasta hoy en la Iglesia Ortodoxa Rusa.
intercede por quienes hoy sufren guerras en esas mismas tierras
donde tu icono fue llevado en procesión hace seis siglos. Amén.