Not a Scratch!
Hapless extremists try to wipe out a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary.
1898
Russian Empire 1721-1917
Hapless extremists try to wipe out a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary.
1898
Russian Empire 1721-1917
This is far from the only tale of its kind concerning the ‘Kursk Root’ icon, named after its discovery in the 13th century among the shrubs of a forest near the ruins of Kursk in Russia. The icon, which escaped both the USSR and the Nazis, is kept today in New York, and last visited England in 2012.
IN 1898, Russian anarchists planted a bomb in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign in Kursk. It was timed to go off during the evening service for maximum casualties, and designed to destroy the miraculous icon of Mary kept there in a glass case. A shared belief in the icon’s miraculous powers drew peasant and Tsar closer together, which did not suit the anarchists at all.
However, the bomb did not explode until two in the morning, with a shivering bang. The monks of the monastery leapt out of bed and raced into the deserted cathedral, to find the icon’s heavy marble pedestal jolted and cracked. A weighty silver candlestick had been blown off it, right across the church; an iron door beside it had been wrenched off its hinges; the golden canopy above had crashed onto the floor, and window-glass was everywhere underfoot.
Amidst this devastation the icon itself was serene, its glass case — like its reputation for miracles — perfectly intact.
See a picture of the Kursk Root icon without its protective metal cover.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
When was the bomb supposed to go off?
During the time of the evening service.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Many people came to see the Kursk icon. They believed it worked miracles. The Tsars were among them.