CHICAGO, IL -- On Wednesday, November 9, 2016 at 9:00am, His Grace, Bishop PAUL, and His Grace, Bishop MSTISLAV will concelebrate the Akathist to Our Lady of Tikhvin following a procession of a faithful reproduction of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God to the Cathedral.

Anticipated Schedule:

8:30am        Arrival of Hierarchs;  Bishop Mstislav will prepare the Icon in the Parish Hall.

9:00am        Procession of the Icon to the Cathedral where she will be met by Bishops Paul and Mstislav

9:05am        Singing the Akathist: His Grace, Bishop PAUL; His Grace, Bishop MSTISLAV

9:45am        Light refreshments at the Parish Hall.

All times are approximate.

As is widely known, the original icon was ascribed to the hand of the Evangelist Luke and was enshrined in Jerusalem and later Constantinople before it appeared in northern Russia in the late 14th century.  Enshrined in Tikhvin's Dormition Monastery, where it remained until its closure and subsequent destruction by the Soviet authorities in the 1920s, the icon was taken to Latvia in the face of Nazi advances during World War II.  In 1949, His Grace, Bishop John [Garklavs] of Riga -- later Archbishop of Chicago -- brought the icon with him to the US, where for many years it was enshrined in Chicago’s Holy Trinity Cathedral.  After Archbishop John’s death in 1982, his adopted son, Father Sergei Garklavs, was the icon’s guardian until it was returned to the Tikhvin Monastery in 2004.  See related story. 

Through the prayers of our Most Holy Lady Theotokos, may our Lord Jesus Christ bless and strengthen us with this most wonderful and spiritual gift!