VIDEO Pope Francis Blesses a Beautiful New Icon of the Miraculous Mother of the Great Steppe and Prays a Consecration to the Heart of Mary in Kazakhstan

On September 15th, 2022, in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the Pope blessed a unique painted icon of the Virgin Mary with Kazakh features. It is a prayerful image for the intercession of the Miraculous “Mother of the Great Steppe.”

   

The "Mother of the Great Steppe" is remembered for her miraculous help in saving Soviet deportees from dying of hunger and thirst when Kazakhstan became the regime's deportation destination. On his last day in Kazakhstan the pope, visited the new icon of “Mother of the Great Steppe” by Kazakh artist Dosbol Kasymov. 

 The icon will be placed in a new prayer chapel in Kazakhstan’s only Marian shrine, the National Shrine of Mary Queen of Peace in Ozernoe, near the capital city of Nur-Sultan. Pope Francis also concluded his address with a special consecration to the Heart of Mary Most Holy, venerated as Queen of Peace in Kazakhstan. As a “tender and loving” mother, she gave comfort to the people of the country during a moment of great hardship, of starvation and deportation in the midst of an extremely harsh cold. According to the tradition, the snow melted and revealed a lake full of fish, feeding scores of famished people. “May Our Lady similarly melt cold hearts, fill our communities with a renewed fraternal warmth, and grant us new hope and enthusiasm for the Gospel.” (Sources: Vatican News and Romereports)