Madden Mischief

Here’s the story I found fascinating about a sacred piece of art I purchased one day while touring Bari in southern Italy.  I’m sharing it on the eve when the nativity of Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, is celebrated–Sept. 8.

It’s a picture of the blessed mother with her hands beneath her garments and her head tilting gently toward Him.  Her expression is poignant, yet solemn, tender but deeply sorrowful, perhaps reflecting a quiet awareness of Christ’s future.

While her look never changes, the meanings it instills can run the gamut depending on the kind of day you’re having.

The infant Jesus is standing upright beside her facing forward, raising His right hand in a gesture of blessing.

I found her or maybe she found me that day when I was visiting the prominent Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas in Bari.

Bari is a city famous for being the final resting place of the physical relics of Saint Nicholas of Myra brought there in 1087, which draws continuous Russian Orthodox and Catholic pilgrimage.

There I bought this copy of Kazan Mother of God after theiconic image had reached out having a mystical effect on me.  The art had come from a place called Kazan, now part of Moscow where once I also visited to give a lecture on a subject current Russian leaders had better brush up on, public relations.

Now I’m learning there’s a St. Nicholas Church near the Kremlin which ironically, I had apparently walked by unknowing it had inside this celebrated art icon.   

And wouldn’t you know, this iconic irony has its roots even deeper. The first school I ever attended was a part of St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church in Atlantic City, NJ., where I grew up not far from the famous boardwalk.

There my dad, Bill Madden, played his violin at the Traymore Hotel and led a quartet in the dining room where I was a busy busboy.  He would nervously watch me carrying trays full of dirty dishes, a few I’d occasionally drop clumsily while enroute to the kitchen!  Sorry, dad.

So, there’s a three-way St. Nicholas connection that brought a copy of this icon to a wall in my bedroom at our oceanfront condo apartment in Boca Raton, FL.

Sacred background

The Mother of God of Kazan icon originated in Russia, where miraculously it was uncovered in the city of Kazan in 1579.  This happened after a devastating fire when a 10-year-old girl named Matrona was said to be having repeated visions of the Virgin Mary directing her to unearth the hidden icon buried beneath ashes of a burned house.

As the legend goes, the icon was found wrapped in a cloth, remarkably undamaged and bright as new, which became one of the most sacred protective symbols of Russia, replicated widely across the Orthodox world.

The Kazan Mother of God is highly revered and hailed as a holy protectress for centuries which has a special place in people’s lives. Couples felt blessed with it before marriage, then having it hung on their children’s cribs and in places of honor in their homes that she protected.

Over the years, I’ve developed a close relationship with this work of art, physically and spiritually, which has led me to now tell you this story. And it comes with this message from on high: let’s not look down but ever upward for solutions to our most vexing problems. 

There will forever be a Kazan Mother of God to enlighten, enliven and inspire us just as it did the little gal in Russia who rescued the Blessed Mother from the ashes.  So moved by this picture, I was inspired one day to write this poem:

Pray faith never falls into recession,
Know God always rescues from depression.

Assure all sufferers He’ll do the same.
Uplift us all to an infinitely higher terrain.

For what hath life meant everyone to do,
Just kneel empty-headed in some pew?

No, our mission is to be kind to others,
Treat everyone like mothers and brothers.

Make “love” a meaningful expression
And allegiance to the Lord our obsession!

Tom Madden is more an author and publicist than a preacher, but this story brought to life the preacher inside him for a message he feels is timely.  He’s praying Russia and Ukraine can find and unwrap a peace treaty as that little girl unwrapped an icon.  When he’s not writing articles, books and blogs, Madden is managing TransMedia Group, along with his talented and resourceful daughter Adrienne Mazzone, the firm’s preeminent president.