Christian thinkers have spilled much ink trying to explain the problem of suffering. It is often explained as a consequence of sinful behaviour, as a result of the World being fallen since the original sin, as a test of faith, or as a tool of sanctification. But the Christian faith also has a strong focus on the alleviation of suffering, through acts of charity or the intercession of various holy figures. The most important alleviator of suffering is the Mother of God (theotokos), the Virgin Mary. The association between Mary and suffering is a very ancient one. During Mary’s life, there were seven dramatic, painful moments, which became known as the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin. Her perseverance through these Sorrows – the prophecy of Jesus’ death by Simeon, the flight to Egypt to escape the edict of Herod, the loss of the child Jesus in the temple, the encounter of Jesus and his mother as he carried his cross through Jerusalem, the crucifixion itself, the bringing down of Jesus’ body, and the burial of her firstborn son – was considered the ultimate example of Christian dignity in the face of sufferings, through turning inwards and developing one’s relationship with God. As the mother of Jesus, Mary is considered a kind of universal mother figure, who is able to reach out and extend the hand of compassion to all Christians. She is considered a wondrous helper, who hastens everywhere that the groan of human suffering is heard.

As a result of her compassion for those who suffer, the Virgin’s is the most popular image to appear on Orthodox icons, after her son Jesus Christ. Marian icons are considered protective of both individuals and whole cities – as in the cases of Marian icons of Novgorod, St Petersburg, and Ablakaya in Siberia – and were reproduced in large numbers to satiate the growing demand for devotional images among ordinary worshippers. While not unique to Russia, the concept of the icon took on special significance there, and it was common for even ordinary people to have visions or miraculous events which may inspire a new icon. Often these visions involved the Holy Mother, who, as in Catholicism, was associated with various healing and protective miracles.

This particular icon follows a format known as ‘Joy to All who Sorrow’ (vseh skorbjashih radost). Mary is depicted as the central figure. She wears blue, a colour associated with purity and calm, but also with the Byzantine monarchy, thus displaying Mary as some kind of holy empress. She stands beneath an image of her son, resplendent as King of Heaven. Around her are crowded various people The Virgin stands in a verdant field, surrounded by the mighty trees of heaven. Down both sides of the icon, framing the Mother of God, are grouped various suppliants desirous of her intercession. Her arms are spread wide, and her head is tilted, as though a mother listening attentively to her child. The suppliants are grouped according to the type of misfortune which has befallen them. The naked, the hungry, pilgrims, the afflicted, all vie for the Virgin’s attention. The scrolls accompanying each group may once have described what affliction they suffered, but are alas in too fragmentary a state to read. In the frame of the image are depicted angels , who are presented with similarly-designed scroll labels. Below the feet of the virgin is one final inscription, which gives the icon’s title: ‘Joy to All who Sorrow’. This particular type of icon began life in the Seventeenth Century AD. Myth has it that the Metropolitan Neophytus of Constantinople was travelling through Volhynia in Ukraine, where he was welcomed into the home of a pious woman named Anna Goyskaya. The neophytus gave this woman an icon of the Virgin, apparently the first of this design, which began to work miracles. It healed her blind brother, and was given to the monks of Pochaev near the Romanian border. When this city was besieged by the Turks in AD 1675, it was saved by the miraculous intervention of the Holy Mother.