A touching photograph of a Ukrainian woman breastfeeding her baby amid the ongoing war with Russia has inspired a new icon of the Madonna and Child. The icon seats the mother before a map of the Ukrainian metro system, which subsequently forms the halo around the subject’s head.
The icon was posted from the Facebook page of Tubik Agency, a Ukrainian graphic design company. In the post, they wrote:
“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children,” William Makepeace Thackeray once wrote, and now facing war in Ukraine, with thousands of civilians living in horror and not knowing if they have tomorrow, we also see thousands of expressions of mother’s love.
“This artwork is one of them, and it is inspired by the real photo of the real mother hiding with her baby in the Kyiv subway while the city was under shelling. Sadly, that’s the look of Kyivan Madonna in 2022.” The post added, “Please, stop the war. Stand with Ukraine. Children shouldn’t suffer.”
Consecration of Russia
This Marian icon came just days before Pope Francis consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on March 25. After praying the Act of Consecration in unity with all the bishops of the world, the pontiff commented:
“This is no magic formula but a spiritual act. It is an act of complete trust on the part of children who, amid the tribulation of this cruel and senseless war that threatens our world, turn to their Mother, reposing all their fears and pain in her heart and abandoning themselves to her.”
Pope Francis added:
“May she now take our own journey into her hands. May she guide our steps through the steep and arduous paths of fraternity and dialogue, along the way of peace.”
And today we celebrate...