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The '''Softener of Evil Hearts''' [[icon ]] is also called the '''Prophecy of Simon''' (or ''Simons Prophecy''). The [[Theotokos]] is depicted in this icon with her heart pierced by seven swords; a symbolic number possibly indicating the the fullness and boundless sorrow, pain and "sickness of heart" that would have been experienced by the Mother of God at His crucifiction. This is icon is very similar to the [[Seven Swords]] icon and they differ only in the arrangement of the swords. <ref>On the [[Seven Swords]] icon there are three swords on the right and four on the left. This icon is commemorated [[August 13]] with the Old Calendar. </ref> This icon is commemorated [[February 2]] / [[ February 15]].
== Prophecy of Simon ==
== History ==
This icon appears to have its origins in the southwestern Russia, however, no supporting documentation exists for its origins and where it first appeared.
== Stories ==
During World War II, in the southern part of Voronezh Province, in a place known as Belogorye ("White Hill"a reference to the chalk cliffs on the right bank of the Don near the town of Pavlovsk), there was a detachment of Italian mountain artillery men, allies of the Nazis. During the second half of December 1942, soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Giuseppe Pereigo found a "Softener of Evil Hearts" Icon in a bombed-out house. They gave it to their military chaplain, Fr. Policarpo, who was from Valdania. According to the locals, the Icon had come from the Belogorye Cave Monastery of the Resurrection near Pavlovsk. The Italians called the Icon the "La Madonna del Don," the Madonna of the Donnot to be confused with the Donskoy Icon of the Mother of God. After the Ostrog-Rossoshansk campaign by Soviet forces in January 1943, the remnants of the decimated Italian contingent left Russia. Chaplain Policarpo took the "Madonna of the Don" with him to Italy, where in Mestra, a part of Venice, a chapel was built to house it. It remains a center of mass pilgrimages by friends and relatives of the Italian soldiers who perished in Russia.
Finally, there is another miraculous icon of the same type in the cathedral in the town of Zhizdra, near Bryansk, in southwestern Kaluga Province. It was known as the "Strastnaya" (i.e., Passion) Icon or, as it was described in the Cathedral inventory, the "And a sword shall pierce through thy soul also" Icon. It is also commemorated on August 13, the same day as the "Seven Swords" Icon and the far better known "Passion" Icon, which is of an entirely different appearance (the original miracle-working icon is in the Monastery of the Passion in Moscow. On it, near the "Hodigitria" image are two Angels and the implements of the Lord's Passionthe Cross, the sponge, and the spear. Unlike in other "Passion" icons, in the Zhizdra Icon the Immaculate One is depicted in an attitude of prayer. With one hand she supports the Infant lying at her feet; with the other hand she guards her breast against the seven swords pointed toward it.
==Notes==
<small><referneces/></small>
[[Category:Icons of the Theotokos]]
[[Category:Theotokonymia]]