On the eve of the battle of Borodino, the clash in 1812 that would seal the fate of Napoleon’s doomed invasion, Russian generals and soldiers prayed in front of the Smolensk Icon of the Virgin Mary.
And on Saturday the icon was taken back to the battlefield for only the second time in its history as Patriarch Kirill led a memorial service to mark the 200th anniversary of the bloody struggle.
The only other time the icon has been paraded around the battlefield was in 1912, when Tsar Nicholas II led celebrations for the 100th anniversary. According to tradition, the holy image was brought from Jerusalem, via Byzantium, to the fledgling Russian state in the early 12th century.
Addressing about 3,000 worshippers, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said that only a love for one’s country and a love for one’s people could explain how, “here, on this field, the Russian army withstood an army of 20 languages commanded by Napoleon”.
President Vladimir Putin evoked the battle of Borodino as a symbol of Russian unity during his election campaign for a third term earlier this year and last weekend he watched a large re-enactment of the battle by 3,000 actors and laid a wreath in remembrance of the fallen.
Kirill also led a service in the presence of the Smolensk Icon in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral, built to commemorate the battle on Sunday. The prayer vigil was attended by about 17,000 people, state news agency RIA-Novosti reported.