Icon of the Mother of God of White Lake

Commemorated on June 8

This holy icon belonged to St Cyril of White Lake (June 9), and he kept it in his cell.

St Cyril was living at the Simonov Monastery, but his soul yearned for solitude, and he asked the Mother of God to show him a place conducive for salvation. One night he was reading an Akathist in his cell before the Hodigitria icon of the Mother of God, and had just reached the eighth Kontakion, “Seeing the strange Nativity, let us become strangers to the world and transport our minds to heaven.” Then he heard a voice say, “Go to White Lake (Belozersk), where I have prepared a place for you.”

He left the Simonov Monastery and at the desolate and sparsely populated White Lake, he found the place which he had seen in the vision. St Cyril and his companion St Therapon of White Lake and Mozhaisk (May 27), set up a cross and dug a cell in the ground near Mount Myaura at Siversk Lake.

The White Lake Icon is also commemorated on July 28.

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2014(with 2013's link here also and further:, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, and even 2008!):