The Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign" was found in a forest near Kursk, which was burned by the Tatars, on the day of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in 1295. A spring gushed forth at the site of its discovery. During the Russian Civil War, the relic was taken abroad and now resides in the Cathedral of the Sign in New York, serving as the patroness of all Russians who found themselves in foreign lands—the Hodegetria of the Russian Diaspora.
