AllatRa by Anastasia Novykh 2 www.allatra.org

AllatRa by Anastasia Novykh
Rigden: That did happen. Simply, this event took place in the days of the Great Lent. It
was in a way a bit inconvenient for them to celebrate because of the fast. So they
adjusted it to November, 27th to suit the name-day of the Novgorod governor of that
time. In any case, nothing has changed in power. But most important is that people feel
the truth. Although in fairness I must say that this icon did a lot of spiritual miracles in
Kievan Rus’ since the 11th century. Even later many covert and overt miracles happened
thanks to this icon. It became so popular in the entire Orthodox ecumene that people
started to depict it not only on the wall paintings in temples. The sign became accessible
for people. It was popularised through the copper casting of amulets, quadrifolium icons,
encolpions (relics that were hung on the chest, which was called “lono” or “persi” in the
old days), minting of small icons and so on.
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Figure 79. Images of “Oranta”:
1) a bronze inserted icon with an image of “Oranta” (the 12th-13th centuries; Brest,
Belarus);
2) zmeyevik (front and back sides) with an image of “Oranta” and the divine Baby Jesus
on the front (the 14th century; archaeological finding near the city of Brest, Belarus).
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