A Prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos, "She Who Healeth"
most blessed and omnipotent Lady and Mistress, O Virgin Theotokos, accept these prayers, offered to thee with tears by us, thine unworthy servants, who with compunction send up hymnody before thy healing image, as to thee who art here present and dost hearken to our supplication. For thou dost fulfill the petition of each, dost ease sorrows, curest to the sick, healest the paralyzed and infirm, drivest the demons away from the possessed, cleansest lepers and hast mercy on children; and what is more, O Lady, Mistress and Theotokos, thou grantest release from bonds and prison and dost cure all the multifarious passions: for all things are possible through thy mediation before thy Son, Christ our God. O most hymned Mother, all-holy Theotokos, never cease to pray for us, thine unworthy servants, who glorify and honor thee, and who bow down with compunction before thine all-pure image, and have sure hope and undoubting faith in thee, the all-glorious and immaculate Ever-virgin, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The icon of the Mother of God, “She Who Healeth,” is one of the most ancient, dating from the 6th century. Another icon with the same name was glorified by miracles in the 18th century. St. Dimitri of Rostov’s book, The Fleece Bedewed, contains the following account of a miraculous sign wrought by the Mother of God. It was the pious habit of Vincent Vul’vinensky, a clergyman of the church in Navarninsk, on entering and leaving church, to bow down before the image of the Mother of God and to utter the short prayer “Rejoice, O thou who art full of grace! The Lord is with thee. Blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, which bore Christ, and the breasts which nourished our Lord, God and Savior.”
One day, this pious clergyman fell ill of a grave malady: his tongue became gangrenous, and the pain from this was so great that he went insane. When he recovered his senses, the sick man consciously recited his usual prayer to the Theotokos, and straightway beheld a most comely youth standing at the head of his bed. This was his guardian angel. Gazing at the ailing man with sympathy, the angel called upon the all-holy Theotokos, addressing to her a prayer for the recovery of his charge. Suddenly, the Mother of God herself appeared and in her ineffable mercy provided a sign. The sick man sensed that he had completely recovered his health; went to church, and stood in the choir with the chanters.
Icon from Saint Elisabeth Convent, Minsk, Belarus (catalog.obitel-minsk.com)