Icons
The Kazan Icon of the Theotokos: history
The appearance of 1579, the militia of 1612 and the fate of the original.
The appearance
According to the account of Metropolitan Hermogenes (then a priest in Kazan), the icon was found in 1579 on the site of a fire in Kazan at the direction of a girl named Matrona.
1612
A copy of the icon accompanied the militia of Minin and Pozharsky; the liberation of Moscow from the Polish garrison on 22 October (Old Style) 1612 began the feast, made nationwide in 1649.
The original
The icon that appeared was kept in the Theotokos convent in Kazan and was stolen in 1904; its fate is unknown. The many venerated copies have their own histories, which should not be identified with that of the original.