Kozelshchina Monastery Miraculous Icon
Present-day Kozelshchina district centre was established as a settlement by P. Kozelsky, Acting Cossack Sotnia Leader of Kobeliaky, in the first quarter of 18th century. In the second quarter of 19th century, his descedant P. I. Kozelsky, marshal of the Kobeliaky district nobility, made a donation of his estate to the countess Sofia Mykhaylivna Kapnist (daughter of the prominent Mathematics Scholar M. Ostrogradsky) while having no children. Her husband was V. I. Kapnist, grandson of the well-known poet and public figure V. V. Kapnist. The Kapnists inherited the Kozelskys family Orthodox icon, the Mother of God, together with the estate and land.
It came into the Cossack family of Kozelsky with one of the brides around the middle of the 18th century. Experts state that the portrait of Madonna made by an Italian master. The painting is notable for art of execution
and profound psychology in portraying the images of the Mother of God and Jesus.
The count and countess Kapnist had five children. Two older daughters were studying at the Poltava Institute for Noble Maidens in the late 1870s. One of the sisters, Mary, became ill with paralysis of her legs in January 1880. Soon she also felt no longer her arms.
Seeking medical attention at doctors in Poltava, Kharkov, and undergoing a treatment in the Caucasus did not give the desired results. A severe diagnosis was defined: the spinal cord paralysis and innate dislocations of the bones. Undergoing the treatment at several Moscow doctors also turned out to be unsuccessful.
There was only hope for consulting the famous French physician Charcot. On February 21, 1881 she was to leave Kozelschina for Moscow to see the famous doctor.
Before her leaving Maria passionately prayed in front of the family icon of the Mother of God. And the miracle happened: she began to feel her arms and then her legs, as well. The kin was astounded with speedy Maria’s recovery.
Having become well the girl with her parents met the most prominent medical scientists in Moscow. There were Professor Sklifosovsky (our fellow countryman) and Professor Charcot himself among them. None of the doctors could not explain the sudden recovery seriously ill Mary.
Reporting that extraordinary event went on over Moscow. Muscovites being sensitive to the religious beliefs and confessions came to the apartment of the Kapnists to worship the holy image. A rumor of a few other healings at the Kozelschina icon in Moscow spread. After half a month, the Kapnists with the God’s Mother returned home. And the press quickly spread throughout Russia the unusual sensational news about the healing. Thousands of pilgrims flocked to Kozelschina to see, pray, ask for health and happiness from the icon that gained aura of the miraculous one.
On April 23, 1882 the Kozelschina icon of the Mother of God was set in a small chapel built by the count Kapnist. And in September of the same year, the Saint God’s Mother Church was built. The people flow to the icon increased.
1885 the Kozelschina female religious community started, which was reorganized into the Kozelschina Christmas and God’s Mother nunnery in 1890. But the small church built in 1882 did not meet the needs of a large number of people who went to the miraculous icon.
Therefore a place for the new temple was consecrated in 1900 and its construction was completed in July 1906.
The Christmas and God’s Mother temple was considered to be one of the best in Ukraine and throughout the Russian Empire. It was built and designed strictly in Byzantine style there was almost 40 meters up to the 
highest point of the cross on the central dome.
The iconostasis consisting of five parts was a pride and decoration of the cathedral. It was made of white marble. The Kozelschina God’s Mother Icon was in the left part of the iconostasis.
Dozens, hundreds of pilgrims visited the famous temple. In 1909 the tsar Nicholas II came to the miraculous icon and asked it for giving health to her daughter. It was described nearly 50 cases of healing at the famous icon only between 1881 and 1888.
Different winds swept over the Kozelshchina Monastery and its miraculous icon for more than century-old history. There were ups and downs; years of revival and glory were followed by ominous ones of destruction and desolation. The miraculous icon of the Mother of God was not on its ancient site for almost fifty years up to 1990. The nuns retained it at their relatives’ places in Kiev region after shutting down the nunnery in 1949.
In 1930s a writer Oles Honchar worked for the editorial of Kozelshchina district newspaper near the cathedral. He could not help but admire majesty of the cathedral, its dramatic history. So the fate of the Kozelshchina shrine can be later recognized in the main character of his novel "Sobor" (The Cathedral). The image of the Kozelshchina cathedral was also used in the novel "Tvoia Zoria" (Your star) by O. Honchar.
It’s been 10 years since the Kozelshchina God’s Mother Icon has again gathered thousands of pilgrims around itself. The monastery has been restored; the cathedral is being rebuilt… Convinced believers worship the miraculous icon, which the 21st day of February in the Orthodox calendar is dedicated to.
Non-believers treat this extraordinary relic differently. Some do with skepticism, while others refer to mysticism. Anyway, how can be explained the numerous amazingly stunning cases of beneficial effects of the icon on the improvement of human physical condition?
Science explains these cases with power of suggestion, of both mass suggestion and individual self-suggestion. Unusual features of the human nervous system are described, its capability to mobilize reserves in order to overcome severe diseases. Current mass fascination of people with extrasensoric abilities as well as sensational recovery of even incurables does confirm the unsolved features of the human body and unrevealed pages of the life sciences.
Anyhow, the Kozelschina God’s Mother Icon excites admiration and deserves attention and respect as a fascinating symbol for assertion of the good and health regardless of religious or atheistic attitude.
