June 18

Our Lady of Igor, Kiev, Ukraine

When Prince Igor Olegovich ascended the Kievan throne in 1146, an uprising quickly unseated him. The defeated prince became a monk of St. Theodore's in Kiev. In his cell he prayed before an icon of the Mother of God, a a small Virgin of Tenderness with the Child against her cheek as in the contemporaneous icon of Vladimir. After enemies seized, tortured, and martyred him in his cell on September 19, 1147, his icon began to be known for miracles; June 5, the date Prince Igor's remains were interred with honor in 1150, became Our Lady of Igor's feast day (June 18 in the modern calendar). Until recently, the original painting was in the the Dormition Cathedral at the Kiev Cave Monastery, but it is now known only in copies. (Information and image from www.orthodoxworld.ru.)  

Also commemorated this date:

bulletNotre-Dame-des-Miracles, Orléans, Loiret, Alliers, France. Fire from bombs stopped at chapel, 1940.
bulletMadonna di Perpetuo Soccorso (Our Lady of Perpetual Help), Catholic Church. Start of novena preceding feast June 27.
bulletMadonna della Sassella, Sondrio, Lombardy, Italy. Travelers saved from drowning, 1736; feast March 25.
bulletMatka Boża Cierpliwie Słuchająca, Rokitno, Lubartów, Lublin, Poland (Mother of God Listening Patiently). 1500s painting crowned, 1989.
bulletVirgen del Carmen, Garabandal, Cantabria, Spain
 

 

Where We Walked ~~~ Mary Ann Daly