Russian Orthodox patriarch says prayers make Kazan icon valuable

Published: 2004-08-27

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow said the Marian icon Pope John Paul II was sending back to Russia has value "because of the prayers it has received." The patriarch, who in recent weeks described the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan as "one of many copies," spoke about the importance of its return in an Aug. 27 interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. A Vatican delegation, led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was to present the icon to the patriarch during an Aug. 28 liturgy in Moscow marking the feast of the Dormition of Mary, the Byzantine equivalent of the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Patriarch Alexy told the Italian newspaper that although the icon is an 18th-century copy of the 16th-century original "this image has value because of the prayers it has received."

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