This icon of our Saviour belonged to the Orphanage of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk. The Orphanage was founded by St John the Wonderworker when he was Bishop in Shanghai. After the Communists rose to power in 1949, the icon was brought out of China along with the orphans when St John evacuated the orphanage to the Phillipines and finally to its current location at 598 15th Avenue in San Francisco where St Tikhon of Zadonsk Church now shares the building with the diocean office. A photographic copy of the icon is currently located in the Holy Virgin Cathedral Bookstore, but the whereabouts of the original was unknown until January 12, 2009, when Zoya Gradov, a parishioner of St Tikhon of Zadonsk Church, confirmed the location of the original icon up to the present time still to be in her church. Mitrophan Chin was graciously allowed to enter into the premise of St Tikhon's on Monday, December 28, 2009 by Archpriest Peter Perekrestov to take pictures of the original icon hanging on the wall of the overflow room adjacent to the church.
The Chinese inscriptions on the icon is in classical Chinese and is written vertically. On the upper right and left corners are the Chinese characters for the Russian pronunciation of Jesus Christ. The passage in the Gospel Book held in our Saviour's hand are His words as recorded in Mt 11:28, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." This online copy is scanned from a wallet-size icon print graciously provided by Fr Mark Gomez of San Francisco.
original icon on the wall of overflow room at St Tikhon's Church, San Francisco, December 28, 2009
framed copy of the icon at the Holy Virgin Cathedral Bookstore, November 22, 2008