Icon Brought Ashore by Dolphins in Sochi

[Barbara]

"In a rather unusual occurrence, a pod of dolphins “returned” an icon of the Mother of God to people on the beach in Sochi....
A colonel and his wife, relaxing and enjoying the beach atmosphere on May 17, were witnesses to the event, their attention being drawn when a group of twelve dolphins swam all the way up to the beach itself. The bewildered couple wondered what the typically smart animals were doing on the beach, when suddenly they threw something out of the water, immediately swimming off.

The object was covered in mud, and seemingly completely unimportant. Though other people were lounging on the beach as well, no one paid it much attention. Eventually the colonel’s wife asked her husband to go see what the object was, and, having cleared away the mud, the colonel was shocked to find that the dolphins had delivered an icon of the Theotokos, which they later realized was of the type “of the Sign.”

How the icon wound up on the ocean floor, and how the dolphins knew that it needed to be returned to shore, no one knows. Perhaps the dolphins recognized in the icon the grace of their Creator and of His Most Pure Mother."

http://orthochristian.com/104337.html

I wondered whether this event might have been a purification from the 2014 Olympics held in Sochi. There must been much degenerate behavior taking place during the international meet. Perhaps the Mother of God is taking back the Sochi region for Her fief ?

[Maria]

Beware. This story is being widely published on different blogs and websites.

It very well could be a false tale to deceive those following the Old Calendar as it said that the Icon was brought ashore on a feast day of the Theotokos according to the New Calendar. Note well that Russia follows the Old Calendar.

Note this paragraph:

A similar event took place in 2013, when an 1896 icon of the Iveron Mother of God washed up on shore in Sochi, on the eve of its new calendar October 26 commemoration.

[Barbara]

Oh yes ! I did notice that but in my rush, I forgot to mention it.

This readthrough before posting, I was focused on the May 17 date. This very May 17, of course, was the 10th anniversary of infamous union between the MP and the former free Rocor. THAT is what made me very suspicious.
Then I thought, maybe I am making too much out of this because the connection to that union is not mentioned in the article.
Only because of that did I decide to post the story here.

I was also on guard because of the convenient Icon of Our Lady of the Sign, the signal Icon of the Russian Church Abroad.

Another question is why the other bathers did not pay any attention to the rather interesting spectacle of a group of dolphins coming into the shore ?

Also - why is the Colonel's name not provided ? Perhaps he asked for anonymity. Or maybe the name has come out in the media since. Still, that seems a little strange. Surely this officer would be besieged with requests for interviews.

Could the story be a plant to bring tourists back to Sochi now that the Olympic hoopla is over ? There must be thousands of empty hotel rooms throughout the area which were all built for the grand event, lots of restaurants languishing for customers.

PS - You wrote, Maria, that this tale is circulating. I left out the part about that this version quote the news as having appeared on the 'Orthodox England' website. I don't trust the editor of that site on many subjects [ i.e. his devotion to the Moscow Patriarchate and his lionizing of Rasputin as some kind of misunderstood martyr. That latter stand reveals irrationality ].