Battle of the Novgorodians with the Suzdalians

According to a later legend (first written down almost three centuries after the battle),during the siege, Archbishop Ilya of Novgorod, ordered that the Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign (ru: Bogomater Znamenie or Богоматер Знамение) be brought from the Church of the Transfiguration on Ilin Street on the eastern edge of the city, across the great bridge spanning the Volkhov River, and into the Detinets to be venerated in the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom and displayed from the Detinets walls give the Novgorodians courage.

[1] The legend surrounding Ilya and the Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign probably survived in oral form for some time.

It appears to have been first committed to writing during the archiepiscopate of Evfimy II (1429–1458), when he patronized the composition of the tale by Pachomius the Serb, a famous hagiographer of the period in the employ both of the Novgoodian archbishops but also of the grand princes and metropolitans in Moscow.

)[3] In addition to the tales surrounding the event, Evfimii II also patronized the painting of an icon which shows three scenes from the episode: Ilya taking the icon from the Church of the Transfiguration, processing over the bridge with it, and displaying it on the city walls as the Novgorodians sallied out (led by military saints) to drive off the Suzdalians.

[citation needed] The Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign which Ilya brought to the Detinets in 1169, was long kept in the Church of the Transfiguration on Ilin Street.