Mary, the Queen of all and cancer patients

The feast of Mary "Vsetsaritsa" is celebrated at the end of August.  Miraculous healings of cancer patients and people infected with AIDS.  A prayer for doctors to "become an instrument of the Almighty Doctor, Christ our Savior".  The bishop-doctor Luka, who worked for many years in Soviet lagers, stated that without deep faith people indulge in depression.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - At the end of August the feast of the miraculous icon of Mary "Queen of all" (Vsetsaritsa) is celebrated in Russia, "she who soothes the wounds of the body".  In reality, prayers to this Marian image are incessant throughout the year, and the icon with this subject is found in the "prayer" corner in every Russian hospital, especially in the oncology wards.

The miraculous image was painted in the great monastery of Vatopedi at Mount Athos in the seventeenth century, but devotion towards it only spread in Russia  recently, starting from the mid-nineties of the last century.  It is attributed the special grace of the miraculous healing of cancer patients, those suffering from cancer and radiation, but also for people infected with AIDS.

Faith in Christ, doctor and healer of the soul and body, is one of the most striking contents of the entire Gospel, and this faith is widely reflected in the sacred icons, especially the Marian ones.  The oldest and most venerated icons of the Mother of God are traditionally attributed directly to St. Luke the "doctor" and evangelist.

In present-day Russia devotion  is spreading to one holy confessor from the times of the Soviet persecutions who chose the name of Luka in honor of the evangelist and was  the bishop Luka (Vojno-Jasenetskij). Before taking the vows he was medical examiner  and surgeon, so much so as to write a manual "Essay of infectious surgery", then associated with the spiritual treatise "Spirit, Soul and Body" which made him famous as the "holy doctor" of the tragic Russian twentieth century.

Bishop Luka toured European and Asian Russia, often by transferring from one camp to another, spreading his "physical and spiritual" medicine everywhere.  He is credited with the suggestion of praying to the icon of the "Queen of All", using the formula "Bless the mind and hands of those who give us care, so that they become the instrument of the Almighty Doctor, Christ our Savior".

In the subject represented by the icon, the solemn pose of Mary Queen is softened by an affectionate gesture of intercession, with her hand extended to ask the Son for salvation.  The believer who contemplates the icon is assumed in this circle of love, in which the Mother and the Son turn their gaze to those who contemplate them, according to the typical "reversed perspective" of the icons.

Prayer continues with the words of hope: "Where all hope disappears, you will be unshakable Hope;  to those who are oppressed by unbearable suffering, you will be the relief that gives strength to endure.  Where the darkness of despair creeps into the soul, you will make the ineffable light of the Gods shine! ".

The bishop-doctor Luka supported the importance of the psychic condition of the patient during the course of illness and healing.  Without profound faith the person abandons himself to depression;  "psychotherapy" is necessary, in which the doctor is called to offer spiritual assistance to the sick.  Perhaps turning his gaze to the "Queen of All", which is present today in every place of suffering in Russia.