in early 1655, was impressed by the reverence in which the icon was held. According to his account, the Blachernitissa appears as "if she had a bodily form" and "it stands out against the background so strongly", that the viewer is penetrated with awe. It was encased in a sumptuous chasuble glittering with gold and precious stones, so that only the hands and the face of the Theotokos were left visible. Paul proceeds to describe how the Tsar had it placed in front of his own seat in a sledge and took it with him on the Smolensk campaign. The 1650s were a time when the Russian Church, steered by Patriarch Nikon, began to place great store on renewing its ties with the older members of the Pentarchy. This emphasis dovetailed neatly with the prevailing Third Rome doctrine which saw Moscow as the successor to Constantinople. With this in mind, the metochion sent the newly recovered Byzantine relic to Moscow and was "handsomely remunerated" with 800 dinars from the Tsar's coffers. Study and restoration When placed in the Kremlin, the icon was in disrepair from old age and use, so that Simon Ushakov and Nikita Pavlovets had to be summoned for "repairs" in 1674. Nikodim Kondakov was unable to determine the icon's age due to this and later restorations, which involved some amount of overpainting, but felt reasonably certain that "the composition was of ancient date". The carved high relief icon has similarities to a set of 13th-century icons of St. George from the Crimea, Ohrid, and Castoria. An original Greek inscription recently discovered under the coat of wax paints has a parallel in a lead seal from a Trapezunt monastery, also datable to the 13th century. Thus the 13th century seems to be emerging as the most likely date for the icon. Replicas The Blachernitissa never rose to the height of veneration accorded by the Russian Orthodox Church to the Theotokos of Kazan or even to the Theotokos of the Iveron, an Athonite icon whose copy was commissioned by Patriarch Nikon. After Nikon's downfall and Alexis's death, the icon was neglected so much that it was not evacuated from the Kremlin during Napoleon's occupation and was put at risk during the Great Fire of 1812. See also Theotokos of Vladimir The Black Madonna of Czestochowa Our Lady of Kazan References External links Translation of the "Blachernae" Icon of the