On May 1, 2006, a crime took place in Kursk, which struck all the inhabitants of the region. A shrine was stolen, or rather a list of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God "The Sign". According to legend, in 1295, on the day of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, she was found on the root of a tree not far from Kursk, burnt by the Tatars, so she received the name Kursk Root. Many miracles are attributed to the icon. She saved Kursk from hunger in the early 17th century and healed thousands of sick people. One of them was the youth Prokhor Moshnin, who later became the greatest Russian saint Seraphim of Sarov. The shrine survived several assassination attempts, it was chopped down with an ax, burned, and blown up. But she survived! In 1920, the "Sign" icon was taken out of the country by the troops of Baron Wrangel. Today it is located in New York and is considered the main shrine of the Russian Church Abroad. And the list remaining in Kursk is the center of attraction for believers and pilgrims all over Russia. For 400 years, twice a year, in June and September, the icon "The Sign", and then its list, are transferred by the procession from the Root Hermitage to the Znamensky Monastery of Kursk and back. Due to the theft of the shrine, for the first time in hundreds of years, the summer religious procession could not take place. Did the thief understand what he was aiming at? All the police forces of the Kursk region were sent in search of the relic. And after 40 days she was found in Moscow. The tradition was not broken, and the believers regained their shrine.