"House of Mary"

An icon of Mary with bullet holes shot through it is at the center of an extraordinary exhibit was opened on the renewal of Christian faith in Russia since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Robert Moynihan, "The House of Mary" (Inside the Vatican, Newsflash, December 7, 2007), writes:

WASHINGTON, DC, December 7, 2007 -- Few who stand before the Russian Orthodox icon of Mary and the Child Jesus which went on display today in the Memorial Hall of the Roman Catholic Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception here can avoid a momentary shudder, an involuntary gasp of horror.

Why?

Because the icon, which depicts the Virgin Mary holding her son, Jesus, has 13 bullet holes in it. (The bullets are still there, imbedded in the thick wood of the 19th-century icon. The icon is a 19th-century copy of the famous 16th-century icon of Kazan which Pope John Paul II kept for many years in his apartment in Rome, and which was finally returned to Russia on August 28, 2004.)

The icon has been transported from Russia to be put on display this Advent in Washington as the centerpiece of an extraordinary exhibition on the revival of faith in Russia following the Soviet period which opened today in the lower hall of the Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Russia was sometimes referred to as the "House of Mary" prior to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 when there were more icons and churches dedicated to Mary in Russia than in any other country in the world, according to Father Victor Potapov, a Russian Orthodox priest, in his opening remarks at the exhibit.

[Hat tip to S.F.]