The copy of the miracle working icon of Theotokos of Valaam returned to its home monastery at the Ladozhskoye lake. According to the press secretary of the Valaam monastery Mikhail Shishkov, the revered icon was met at the main cathedral on the island, where it would be kept from now on.

Oil-painted copy of the miracle working Valaam icon was delivered to the space station with the blessing of the great Northern monastery in September 2005. It was carried by a freight spaceship Progress M54, and, according to the astronauts, has purified the space station. Accompanying Sergey Krikalev and John Phillips it flew around the Earth more than a thousand times.

The original version of the Theotokos of Valaam was created at the end of the nineteenth century by the monk of the Valaam monastery Alipy (Konstantinov). The Mother of God is pictured full height, walking on clouds with Her Son in Her arms. The space station’s copy was painted by the brothers of the Valaam monastery. Visitors from the orbital space center arrived at the monastery last summer, and Bishop Pankraty (Zherdev) of Troitsk offered them the shrine to forward to the space station.

Alexandr

Wow, that is so neat!
Who says Orthodoxy is behind the times?! Have any other sacred items transversed the heavens?

Peace,
Indigo

What significance will come from this event?

Is the whole world going to be blessed by this "procession?"

Is not the Theotokos more spacious than the heavens?

[font:Comic Sans MS][size:17pt]
Dear Eric the Catholic,

Now, wasn't it the procession around the walls of Constantinople by an icon of our Mother of God, that once saved the city? Well, now that her icon circled the earth, maybe we'll be saved...hopefully!

Of course it really has to do with the extent of our faith. Well, at least we know we've been blessed.

Zenovia[/color][/font]

[quote] Is not the Theotokos more spacious than the heavens?[/quote

[font:Comic Sans MS][size:17pt]Dear Ebed,

How beautifully put! Our Theotokos is so spacious, that nothing can contain her, for she alone contained the creator of all the heavens.

Zenovia[/color][/font]

That is the icon that I use on here

YES!

I have the one mentioned above, Dr Eric, and Alexander also have avatars/icons.

For whatever reason, we can't all see them. I wanted to add an avatar, but when I tried, I had problems with the signature. According to the softare, I am allowed only 0 (zero) characters in my signature, which I added before the software update. Now I can't change it; I can only delete it altogether.