Case file · Apparition / miracle
The footprint of the Virgin at Pochaiv
Tradition says that in 1240, as the Mongols ravaged Rus', monks and a shepherd saw the Virgin standing in fire on a rock at Pochaiv; she left a footprint in the stone, from which a spring of water still flows.
1240 CE · 50.01, 25.51 · status: legend
The account
The footprint is kept in the Dormition Cathedral of the Pochaiv Lavra in western Ukraine and is a major pilgrimage site. The monastery's icon of the Virgin is also credited with saving it from a Turkish siege in 1675, when witnesses said the Virgin and Saint Job appeared above the church and the attackers' arrows turned back.
The sceptical view
The 1240 date is traditional; the monastery's documented history begins in the 16th century.