On January 12, 2023, Georgian-language Facebook users (1, 2) published a photo, which, according to their claim, shows the icon of the meeting of Joseph Stalin and Saint Matrona of Moscow placed in the Orthodox Church in Greece.
The users disseminate the photo with a false description. In fact, the icon does not depict the meeting between Stalin and Saint Matrona of Moscow and is related to the legend that Matrona Nikonova predicted a fire in the policeman’s house.
Matrona Nikonova, or Saint Matrona of Moscow, moved from Tula province to Moscow in 1925. The name of Saint Matrona is associated with healing, helping, and performing miracles for many people. One such story is related to the period of Matrona Nikonova’s stay in Moscow. According to the story (1;2), Saint Matrona did not have the right to reside in Moscow, which was necessary at that time; besides, where Matrona lived temporarily, queues of people who came to the Saint would gather, which was not liked by the locals. For that reason, she changed more than 10 residences. Matrona Nikonova always changed her residence before the arrival of the police, except for one case – in 1937, a local policeman came to her to arrest her, although the woman told him to immediately go home because an accident was taking place, and that she herself would not go anywhere, because she was blind and could not move. Arriving at the house, the policeman saw that the building was on fire and that his wife had received burns. By arriving in time, the man saved his wife, and then refused to arrest St. Matrona and returned to her to apologize.
St. Matrona’s prediction of the fire was reflected in the icon – therefore, the photo shows not Stalin, but a policeman. In addition, we can see on the icon that the St. Matrona of Moscow is pointing to the window, in which flames can be seen coming out of the house, which is another proof that the image is based on the mentioned story. The image is accompanied by a Greek inscription, according to which “Holy Matrona prophesies that the policeman’s house is burning.”
On January 6, 2024, it was reported that Stalin was depicted on the icon of St. Matrona of Moscow in the Holy Trinity Cathedral. The icon is written according to the myth that in 1941, after Adolf Hitler declared war on the Soviet Union, Stalin visited Matrona and asked her for advice. The saint advised him to stay in Moscow and carry the icon of the Mother of God around the city. Actually, the claim that Stalin met Matrona is not true, the story is just a legend and is not historically proven. After the protest, the Patriarchate of Georgia called on the donors of the icon (members of the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia) to make changes to the icon due to insufficient evidence of the meeting, or they would do it themselves. You can read more about the icon and legend in the “Myth Detector” article:
About the Sources
Ermile Nemsadze is a former military and a former member of the far-right group “Georgian March”. He is infamous for his homophobia, hate speech, and anti-Western messages. The disinformation spread by Ermile Nemsadze on various topics was verified by “Myth Detector” several times in the past (1, 2, 3)
The Facebook account Fantina Fantina, along with her other accounts (1,2), has spread disinformation many times in the past. “Myth Detector” has debunked the false information spread by the user many times in the past (1, 2, 3).
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