Tradition holds that the Vladimir Icon was written by St Luke the Evangelist. He wrote the Icon on a board from the table on which our Lord Jesus Christ, His Most Holy Mother and the Righteous Joseph ate their meals.In 450, the sacred Icon was taken from Jerusalem to Constantinople. At the beginning of the 12th Century the Icon was transferred from Constantinople to Kiev and installed in the womens monastery of Vyshgorod. Soon the Icon was glorified by producing great miracles.
Prince Andrew Iurievich Bogolubsky, during his travels, saw a miraculous vision of the Mother of God directing him to take her Icon from Kiev (Vyshgorod) to Vladimir. He fulfilled this task with great piety in 1160 and installed the holy Icon in the Church of the Holy Dormition in the city of Vladimir (northeast of Moscow).
From that time this icon became know as the Vladimir Icon and was to be the source of many new and great miracles.
The feast of the Icon is celebrated three times during the year: 21 May, the day on which the memory of the Theotokos Vladimir Icon helped to save Russia from the invading Crimean-Mogay Horde of Makhmet-Grey; 23 June, in memory of saving Russia by the miraculous protection of the Mother of God from the Golden Hordes of Khan Akhmet in 1480; and on 26 August, to commemorate the Meeting of the Wonder-working Vladimir Icon in 1395, during the invasion of Moscow by the Tatar forces of Tamarlane.