Today, on the feast of the Icon of the Mother of God “She Who Is Quick To Hear,” the Kutuzovsky skete held the patronal feast services.

On the eve of the feast, there was Vigil, followed by paraklesis with the water blessing prayer service and the Divine Liturgy on the next day. At the end of the liturgy, there was a procession with the cross around the church. The Bogoroditsky Kutuzovsky skete is located on the territory of a former Kutuzovsky women’s monastery eighty kilometers away from Diveyevo in the famous Murom woods. Its founder was Neonilla Zakharova who Venerable Seraphim of Sarov described as: “She will be the laughing stock of men to the glory of the Queen of Heaven.”

At the beginning of the 1930s, the monastery’s churches were closed and plundered, and the nuns were expelled. In the Soviet times, a local factory housed its production facilities on the monastery grounds.

On December 25, 1992, the territory of a former Kutuzovsky monastery was transferred to the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery for restoration.

The icon of the Mother of God “She Who Is Quick To Hear” is an ancient miracle-working icon located at the Holy Mount of Athos. According to the monastery tradition, Nilus the cook went to the kitchen with a lit torch when he heard a voice coming from the icon of the Mother of God warning him not to walk here and darken the icon with soot. The monk disregarded the warning and fell blind. In bitter repentance, Nilus prayed before the icon of the Mother of God and heard the wondrous voice saying that he was forgiven and his eyesight was going to be restored. The Most Holy Virgin commanded to announce to the brethren: “From now on, My icon shall be called “She Who Is Quick to Hear,”

 for I shall speedily show grace and fulfill the petitions of those who hasten to it.”

The Mother of God fulfilled before and does fulfill Her promise today, offering speedy help and consolation to those who come to Her with faith.

Every year on this feast, a procession with the cross goes to the Kutuzovsky skete from the St. Nicholas Church in Kulebaki of Nizhny Novgorod Region. Walking for almost thirty kilometers, the faithful from the church in Kulebaki came to venerate the holy icon of the Mother of God “She Who Is Quick to Hear.”  This year, due to the epidemiological situation, the procession was canceled.