The Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God (Russian: Феодоровская икона Божией Матери), also known as Our Lady of Saint Theodore and the Black Virgin Mary of Russia, is the patron icon of the Romanov family. It is one of the most venerated icons in the Upper Volga region. Her feast days are March 14 (27) and August 29.


Since the Feodorovskaya follows the same Byzantine Eleusa (Tender Mercy) type as the Theotokos of Vladimir, pious legends declared it a copy of that famous image, purportedly created by Saint Luke. In Greek, Theotokos means "God-bearer". It is believed that, before the Mongol invasion of Rus, the icon was kept in a monastery near the town of Gorodets-on-the-Volga. After the Mongols sacked and burnt the town, the icon disappeared and was given up for lost.


Several months later, on 16 August 1239, Prince Vasily of Kostroma wandered while hunting in a forest. While trying to find his way out of a thicket, he saw an icon concealed among fir branches. When he reached out to touch it, the icon mysteriously rose up in the air. The awestruck prince informed the citizens of Kostroma about the miracle he had witnessed and returned with a crowd of people to the forest. They fell prostrate before the icon and prayed to the Theotokos. They carried the icon to the city and placed it in the Assumption Cathedral. A conflagration destroyed the cathedral and most of its icons soon thereafter, but the Feodorovskaya was found intact on the third day after the fire.


The people of Gorodets, at a distance to the east from Kostroma, learned about the miracle of the survival of the icon in the fire. They recognized the newly found icon as the one that used to be in their church. Church legends differ as to why the icon was named after Saint Theodore Stratelates (Russian: Феодор Стратилат, Feodor Stratilat), not to be confused with Theodore Tyro). One explanation is that, during Vasily's absence in the forest, several residents of Kostroma claimed to have seen an apparition of Saint Theodore come up to the city with an icon in his hands.


Since the icon was overpainted several times during its history, by the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the image had nearly disappeared. Art historians disagree about when and where the icon was created. Some propose an early 11th-century date; others date it as late as the turn of the 14th century. On the reverse side of the Feodorovskaya is an image representing Saint Paraskeva, a saint whose veneration started in the Novgorod Republic at the turn of the 13th century.


Scholars believe that the image of Saint Paraskeva is contemporaneous with the image of the Theotokos on the other side. This dating seems to confirm the Novgorodian origin of the icon, as it was only in the 15th century that the veneration of Saint Paraskeva spread to other parts of the country. The saint's noble dress may indicate that the icon was intended as a wedding gift to a princess whose patron saint was Saint Paraskeva. According to Vasily Tatishchev, the only such princess known in the Rurikid family was Alexandra of Polotsk, the wife of Saint Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod.

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