The image of Our Lady of Braslav will become the first crowned icon in the Vitebsk region and the seventh in Belarus

July 20, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The image of Our Lady of Braslav will be the first crowned icon in the Vitebsk region, the Vitebsk Catholic Diocese informed a BELTA correspondent. Prayer vigils on the occasion of the coronation of the image by the Pope of Rome, also known as the Mother of God, Mistress of the Lakes, will be held on August 21-22 in Braslav under the motto "Prayer Meeting of Cultures of the Queen of Lakes". In addition to traditional church events for such a significant occasion, festivals of Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Polish cultures are planned. The solemn Holy Mass with the coronation, scheduled for August 22, will be led by Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Metropolitan of Cologne. The icon of Our Lady of Braslav is located in the altar of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is only revealed during divine services. Its history dates back to a male monastery founded in the 15th century on the island of Lake Nespish, and it is considered the main Christian shrine of these places. The coronation of the icon is a recognition of its miraculous power by the Vatican, and the chronicles of the Roman Catholic Church from 1774 testify to the miraculous properties of the Braslav icon. Currently, the Braslav icon is undergoing restoration. The coronation of images of the Mother of God in the Catholic Church is associated with theological assertions that the Virgin Mary is the Queen of Heaven. Individual cases of the coronation of miraculous icons and sculptures of the Mother of God have been recorded since the 8th century. Since the 17th century, this custom has become an exclusive papal privilege. The first image to be crowned with a papal crown was the image of the Mother of God in the sacristy of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in 1631. In Belarus, six images of the Mother of God have been crowned with papal crowns: Our Lady of Brest in 1996, Our Lady of Budslau in 1998, the icon of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Minsk in 2005, Our Lady of Congregation in 2005, the image of Our Lady of Gudagay was crowned in 2007, and the Trakel icon of the Mother of God received confirmation of its miraculous power in 2009. -0-