There are many venerable miraculous icons of the Virgin. One of those is the Tolga image of the Mother of God, which is located in a monastery near Yaroslavl. The celebration of this icon was established by the Russian Orthodox Church on August 21.
The image of the Most Holy Theotokos Tolgskaya received this name due to its appearance on the Tolga River, which took place in 1314. This event was preceded by the following story.
The bishop of Rostov and Yaroslavl Prokhor, on one of his trips to keep the diocese entrusted to him, stopped for the night seven miles from Yaroslavl on the right bank of the Volga. At night at midnight, the Bishop of Rostov saw on the opposite bank of the river a pillar of fire and a bridge of fire leading across the Volga to the other bank, where a dense forest was located. The bishop made a prayer and, taking his archpastoral rod with him, went along the wonderful bridge, consisting of water condensed with supernatural power, to the other side.
There, the bishop approached the pillar of fire and saw in the air an icon of the Mother of God with the baby Jesus Christ. Vladyka Prokhor began to pray long and hard before the icon. After the prayer, the bishop returned back, having forgotten his rod at the place of the appearance of the icon.
In the morning, when they began to look for the rod, the bishop remembered where he had left him. Vladyka spoke about the night event and sent his novices to take a rod. When the novices came to the place, they saw a holy icon between the trees. Then the saint himself hurried to the other side of the river and recognized the icon he had seen at night.
Immediately after the miraculous appearance of the image of the Virgin, it was decided to build a temple. The inhabitants of Yaroslavl, having heard about such a wonderful phenomenon of the Mother of God, with great enthusiasm provided assistance in the construction. Subsequently, a monastery was founded on the site of the appearance of the Tolga Icon of the Virgin, in which the holy image is still located.
The icon of the Mother of God Tolgskaya is miraculous. Believers from her received and are receiving various healings in illnesses, as well as assistance in everyday needs and sorrows.
