托尔加圣母像

This icon of the Virgin and Child belongs to the tender type, where the mother presses her cheek against her son. Its story is tied to a single day. On the 8th of August 1314, according to tradition, Prochorus, the bishop of Rostov, was travelling near the Volga when he saw the image of the Mother of God standing in the air above the Tolga river, close to Yaroslavl. Where it appeared, the forest was cleared and a church raised, and a monastery grew on the spot that still carries the river's name and still keeps the icon. The painter is unknown, as almost all icon painters of that age are. The work was made to be prayed before rather than admired, and the Orthodox calendar still marks that August day as its feast.