The Journey of An Icon
I want to tell you two fictional stories which I made about two Russian icons that have influenced both the Catholic protagonists of my story. I have an icon of Our Lady of Kazan which I keep. I dedicate the stories to Fr. Alexander Kryssov
-Ryan
Pierre's story:
My name is Pierre from France, I am a Catholic and enlisted in Napoleon's army (Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte) during the Crimean War. On September 8, 1855, the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, I fought at the Battle of Malakoff in which it was a decisive French victory against the Russian Empire. My favorite war trophy was a Russian icon of Our Lady of Kazan which I took from the headquarters of the Russian generals.
I took the icon back home to my family chapel, where my confessor, Abbe Joachim (Abbe is a title for priests in France) said the mass in front of the icon. In his sermon, he said that it was good for an icon made by schismatics to finally fall into Catholic hands. I was promoted to General by Napoleon III himself, and after the Franco-Prussian War, I retired from military service. The icon is still in my family chapel.
James's story:
My name is James Diego from Leyte, Philippines. As you know, Leyte is famous for when Douglas MacArthur landed, and for the first (Traditional Latin) mass in our country in Limasawa. I am a former Novus Ordo, who stumbled upon Traditionalist Catholicism during a pilgrimage. It all started when my family went to a vacation to Tubabao Island in Samar, where according to the tour guide, was the place where Russian emigres settled after communism took over their land. Among the emigres was a Russian Orthodox Bishop venerated in the Russian Church, John of Shanghai and San Francisco. It so happened when my family was strolling, I came across an abandoned house. Upon searching closely, I saw a Russian icon in the room. I immediately picked it up and showed it to my parents. I later told them that it was from one of the Russian emigre families there. Later that night, my mom had a dream about the icon. In the dream, it was stated that it was made by a Russian iconographer who commissioned it for a Russian family in the late 1800s. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Russian family fled to China with the icon. When the communists took over China, the family fled to Tubabao with the icon, where it was kept in their altar. When the family left Tubabao, they forgot the icon with them, and so the icon was forgotten. Around some time, after the dream, I discovered Pre-Vatican II Catholicism suddenly through a website called Daily Catholic. After what I read online, my mom told me her dream, then I told her about Pre-Vatican II Catholicism which made her even more proud, since she told the story of my late grandma who attended the Latin Mass with the Spanish priests in her area. I looked for groups that celebrated the Latin Mass in my country, and finally found the Chapel of the Most Holy Trinity in Las Pinas. After saving money, we went to Las Pinas and attended the Latin Mass there. After that, we told the priest who was from the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen about the icon and showed it to him. We also asked if he can come to our town to celebrate the Traditional Mass for us. Eventually, he came to our town and celebrated the mass for us.
