The wonderworking Slovenka Icon of the Mother of God manifested itself on May 15, 1628 at the village of Slovenka in the Kostroma district, to the peasant Titus Gavrilov from the village of Sherstnevo in the Galich district, who suffered from paralysis and blindness.
The Mother of God appeared to Titus in a dream and told him to go to the Slovenka river where there was a a dilapidated, abandoned church, under a tree growing through the destroyed roof of the temple, in which he would find her holy icon. Having regained consciousness, Titus was completely healed, and without hesitation, together with the local priest Evdokim, he set off on the path indicated in the dream by the Mother of God.
In one of the villages he met on the way, Doronino, there lived and hunted a hunter named Iakinf. It was he who led the wanderers to the old church, which had been desolate for more than six decades. Behind the altar of the decrepit temple stood a beautiful image of the Mother of God, emitting a dazzling light. Titus Gavrilov considered the miraculous acquisition of the wonderworking icon to be a sign for himself, and, deciding not to return home, he remained at the place of the appearance of the icon, and later he accepted tonsure as a monastic. From that time, numerous miracles began to flow from the image of the Mother of God.
After studying the miracles of the Slovenka icon of the Mother of God, at the command of Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov and with the blessing of Patriarch Philaret, a monastery was founded in 1635 on the site of the miraculous appearance of the holy icon, which lasted until 1764. After the abolition of the monastery, the wonderworking icon was transferred to a rural wooden church (now the village of Slovenka, in the Antropovsky district, of the Kostroma region).
In 1806, near the wooden church, a stone church was erected in honor of the wonderworking Slovenka Icon of the Mother of God, rebuilt in 1892 into a new one, with three altars consecrated in honor of the Slovenka Icon of the Mother of God, in the name of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John, and in the name Venerable Zosimas and Sabbatius who were wonderworkers from Slovenka.
Today, the wonderworking Slovenka Icon resides since 2008 in the Epiphany Monastery of Saint Anastasia in the city of Kostroma, giving comfort and merciful intercession to all believers who turn with fervent prayers to the Queen of Heaven.
