Mada Mairam Women`s Sanctuary

The women’s Sanctuary of Mada Mairam is located in the depths of the Kurtatinsky gorge, where all settlements end and the road begins to climb the Kurtatinsky pass, inaccessible to cars. In the Women`s Sanctuary there is a Christian chapel of the Iver-Mozdok Icon of the Virgin Mary, and a place for rituals dedicated to the ancient deities of the Alans. 

The women`s Sanctuary is located on the right slope of the Kurtatinsky gorge on a small hill. The largest village in the Kurtatinsky Gorge, Upper Fiagdon, is 7 kilometers from the Women`s Sanctuary, and the Alan Monastery in the village of Hidikus is 4 kilometers away. Usually, pilgrims who come to the Alan monastery also visit the Female Sanctuary of Mada Mairam.  

Mady Mairam was a female fertility deity of the ancient Alans, the progenitors of the Ossetian people. Women asked her for a happy marriage and the birth of children, especially those who for some reason could not have children. The Alans adopted Christianity in the 10th century, but some folk traditions, especially those related to the birth of children, have been preserved.

The Women`s Sanctuary in Fiagdon is connected not only with the worship of the Alan ancient deity Mada Mairam. On the territory of the sanctuary there is a small Christian chapel, where the Icon of the Iver-Mozdok of the Virgin Mary was previously kept. This icon is written about in the work of the Ossetian historian Taimuraz Pliev. He said that the Georgian Queen Tamara in the 12th century was interested in strengthening Christianity in Alanya. She asked her iconographer to make a copy of the Athos Iveron Icon of the Virgin Mary.  

In those years, the lands of the Alans were located on both sides of the Caucasian Ridge (now it is North and South Ossetia). They decided to take the icon through all the lands of the Alans and wherever Tamara`s church servants stayed overnight, later chapels were built. The Women`s sanctuary of Mada Mairam is located in the Kurtatinsky gorge at the pass from North Ossetia to South Ossetia, so the Iveron Icon was decided to be placed here in the chapel for permanent storage.  In the 18th century, the Iveron Icon of the Virgin Mary was moved to the Assumption Cathedral of Mozdok, where it disappeared during the Soviet years. The icon was then called the Iver-Mozdok Icon of the Virgin Mary.  

In the 1990s, the chapel of the Icon of Iver-Mozdok of the Virgin Mary, which had fallen into disrepair, was restored by local residents. Next to the Women`s Shrine of Mada Mairam is a medieval watchtower, the lights of which were visible from the Village of Tsmiti. In the middle of the century it was the largest in the gorge. 

The Mada Mairam holiday in Ossetia is celebrated on August 28. It coincides with the Christian feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At this time, many women visit Women`s Sanctuaries. The two most famous Sanctuaries are: Mada Mairam in the Kurtatinsky Gorge and the Rekom in the Tsey Gorge.