Theotokos of Tikhvin

The Theotokos of Tikhvin in the golden riza.

The Theotokos of Tikhvin (Russian: Тихвинская икона Божией Матери) is one of the most celebrated Orthodox Christian icons. It is said to be one of the icons painted by St. Luke the Evangelist. According to tradition, in the 5th century, the icon was transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople, where a church was built specially for it. These are the same traditions as accrue to the Hodegetria icon, suggesting the stories have become conflated; in terms of composition the Tikhvin icon is of the Hodegetria type. Some art historians prefer a date of about 1300, and a Russian artist. This matches a further tradition that the icon miraculously appeared, hovering over a lake, in Russia near Tikhvin in 1383.

The Theotokos of Tikhvin

Since the 14th century, the icon was held in Tikhvin, where eventually Tikhvin Assumption Monastery was founded to host the icon. In 1941, during World War II, for a month Tikhvin was occupied by German troops, who looted the monastery and, in particular, took the icon to Pskov, and in 1944 transferred it to Riga. The icon eventually was taken to the United States for safety by the former Latvian Orthodox Church Bishop of Riga - John Garklāvs. Between 1949 and 2004, the icon remained at Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago, Illinois.

In August 1978, the Theotokos of Tikhvin was brought by Archbishop John, who had become the Orthodox Church in America's Archbishop of Chicago and Minneapolis for veneration to St Mary's Russian Orthodox Church in Holdingford, Minnesota.

It was returned to Tikhvin, Russia in 2004 by his adopted son, Fr. Sergei Garklavs of Chicago. In return, Bishop Mstislav of Tikhvin gave the cathedral an exact reproduction of the Tikhvin Icon, complete with a bejeweled riza, in 2016. The icon is kept at the Tikhvin Assumption Monastery, where it was kept prior to 1917. Most of the icon, except the exposed skin of Jesus and Mary (the two faces and necks, both sets of hands, and the feet of Jesus), is normally covered by a chased frame of precious metals and jewels (riza).