The visit by Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ in October 2016 was the first visit to the United Kingdom by a Russian Patriarch. It provided an opportunity for the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church to meet Her Majesty The Queen, Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The icon presented by the Patriarch is a modern rendition of the image of the ‘Virgin Hodegetria’, in which the Virgin holds the Christ child and gestures towards him as the source of salvation, ‘the Way’, thus prefiguring the words of Christ, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’ (John 14:6). The form of the icon, which dates back to Byzantine times, was traditionally said to have been painted by St Luke; this example follows the tradition of icons of the Virgin of Tikhvin, an icon type venerated across Russia.

Text adapted from Russia: Art, Royalty & the Romamovs, London, 2018