About icon "Addition of mind".
The icon "Addition of Mind" appears to be quite unusual among Orthodox icons of the Mother of God. The peculiarity of this rare iconography is that the Virgin Mary and Christ are depicted diapered with a liturgical vestment - phelonion. The iconography of "Addition of Mind" is complex and somewhat unusual. As unusual is the history of this icon.
In the early 20th century the Russian researcher Andrei Alexandrovich Titov found that the prototype of the icon of the Mother of God "Addition of Mind" was the statue of the Mother of God of Loreto town in Italy:
"The Holy House or the Holy Hut is located in Loreto, where the icon of the Mother of God is placed.
This icon is made completely of cedar wood, covered entirely with diamond rivieres and pearl threads. The icon of the Mother of God, in general, is similar to our icon "Addition of Mind", which is of Western origin, but converted to the "Moscow style".
Tradition ascribes the authorship of the Loreto statue to the saint apostle and evangelist Luke, however, experts have come to the conclusion that it was sculptured by the Umbro-Marchegian sculptor in the XIII-XIV centuries. This ancient statue was destroyed by fire that broke out in the Holy House in 1921. The following year it was replaced by the new one, which was cut from Lebanese cedar tree by Leopoldo Celani on the model by Enrico Quattrini. The new statue was artificially blackened to give it more resemblance to the lost one, darkened by time and smoke. Celani, possibly by mistake, made the black color too saturated, while the image of the ancient statue was not so dark.
It is believed that the first images of the Mother of God from Loreto appeared in Russia after the visit of the Holy House by Russian pilgrims in the XVI century. In May 1524 Pope Clement VII entered into correspondence with the Grand Prince Vasily III, offering friendship and alliance. Vasily Ivanovich sent Dmitry Gerasimov and Jeremiah Trusov to the Pope for negotiations. The Pope encouraged the Moscow ambassadors to visit Loreto, to see the ancient temple. After this journey there was left a written testimony titled "The Story of the temple of the Mother of God, where She was born of Joachim and Anna". This story has spread across Russia in numerous copies. Shortly after this, the testimony about Loreto icon of the Mother of God was embodied not only in word but also in colors. According to the study by A.A. Titov, after a great fire of Moscow in 1574, the Loreto image of the Mother of God was copied to the icon in the “Moscow style”, - among other new icons by icon painters from Pskov and Novgorod, called to Moscow by the order of Ivan the Terrible, the son of Vasily III .
There was a tradition that the icon titled "Addition of Mind" was written by an icon painter after vision of the Mother of God, according to Her instruction, in the XVII century. This wonder-working image was described in detail in the study by A.A. Titov. The old story of the ancient wonder-working icon was written by him basing on the words of the dean of the Holy Cross Elevation Cathedral of Romanov, the archpriest Vladimir Miroslavsky:
"In the nearest time after Patriarch Nikon, a pious man lived in Moscow. He had read a lot of the church books of the Patriarch Joseph’s time, and then began to read books that were fixed by Patriarch Nikon ... He began to think too much and reflect whether he would be right before God, and what books he needed to follow to achieve salvation; he was thinking for a long time, but did not solve the problem and went mad. When consciousness returned to him, he prayed to the Mother of God to return him the mind...
Then, the vision of the Mother of God followed. She commanded him to write the icon in the image in which She appeared to him and to pray before it, and promised that if he performed it, he would be healthy. The man was an icon painter. After the vision, when he was returning to consciousness and his mind was clearing, he started to paint the image of the Mother of God. But as the vision was short, he was forgetting how to write the icon. Then he prayed again to the Mother of God and continued to paint as God inspired him. So he painted the icon and named it "Addition of Mind of the Mother of God".
Apparently, the Loreto icon of the Mother of God painted by Russian masters incorporated features of the icon that appeared in Russia, and borrowed its name "Addition of Mind." The singularity of the vestment of the Mother of God with the Child at the Moscow icon becomes clear – this is a dalmatic of Loreto statue. The architectural details in the form of lamps and arches at the top of the image can be explained – this is a depiction of the ornate niche in which a sculptural image of the Mother of God from Loreto is placed. In Russia the remembrance of the prototype is preserved in veneration of the icon of the Mother of God with the name "Loretskaya". Revered copy of the Loreto icon is located in the village Pesochin, near Kharkov.
The wonder-working icon of the Mother of God "Addition of Mind", written on the canvas, is in the Intercession Church of Romanov-Borisoglebsk (now - Tutaev). In the literature of the XIX century there was mentioned an icon of the same name, placed in Rybinsk in the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral.
The icon "Addition of Mind" has the grace of giving the wisdom, intelligence and good knowledge and helps in educating children, in healing the feebleness and disorder of mind. Another wonder-working icon of the Blessed Virgin "Addition of Mind" has been kept in Tikhvin church in Alexeyevskoe, in Moscow, from the beginning of the XVIII century. The commemoration of the icon is the day of the Assumption, August 15/28.
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