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ICONS IN THE NAME OF PATRONS

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Once a woman turned to us asking to paint an icon of St. Alexander. Her husband Alexander had became a believer and had been christened not long ago. The woman wanted to make him a present. It is known that a holy patron leads a person along the way of Truth helping in hard times protecting from evil in the name of God. And the fragile newly born soul needs this support.

We looked through the christian calendar and found out that there 26 St. Alexanders canonised by the Orthodox Church. Who was the patron of our Alexander? He was christened in winter in February. The nearest day of St. Alexander after the date of christening is the day of St. Alexander Konstantinopolsky (of Konstantinopol), the founder of the cloister of Unremitting (the memory day is on 23rd of February of old calendar style). But how we could paint this sacred image? There are many icons of St. Alexander Nevsky, the icons of Alexander Svirsky can be found also, but there were no images of Alexander Konstantinopolsky in our archives. Then in Miney (in the daily church books of divine service) we found the life story, the biography of St. Alexander.

He got the education in Tzargrad where he entered the military service. But after some time he retired and served only to God. Constantly reading Gospel he fasted and prayed a lot and then entered the cloister of St. Prophet Ilya in Syria. After four years he left Syria and only with Gospel he went to desert. His belief was so strong and his life was so righteous that about 400 different monks joined him. He established 9 monasteries for them. In these monasteries he settled a new custom of Unremitting, i.e. the monks during 24 hours a day in 24 shifts sang psalms. St. Alexander Konstantinopolsky died in 430.

We portrayed St. Alexander with a church in his hands as a founder of monk cloisters and in monk clothes. The fact is that the clothes of Saints differ from our common ordimary clothes. These are metaphor garments which are got as a reward for exploits. Adam having made a sin saw that he was naked. In order to cover himself with the garments of divine Glory he had to make spiritual exploits to purify. That's why we painted St. Alexander in monk clothes as a symbol of a monk life.

A neighbour dropped to my place one day. Hello, Ekaterina- he said, A grandson of my friend from the office was born. Their family doctor said that the 6th of May (23rd of April) is the memory day of St. Georgiy the Victor. So the child was named after him. My friend wants to make a present to his son- to give an icon of St. Georgiy. Can you paint it?

St. Georgiy the Victor is a very honoured saint in Moscow. Moscow coat of arms bears the fragment of icon "The miracle of St. Georgiy the Victor about dragon".

St. Georgiy died excruciatingly for orthodox belief. That is why the Orthodox Church treats him with respect as a great martyr. In the end of III century in Finikia after the death of St. Georgiy at the town of Berita situated not far from Palestine in Lebanon mountains was a big lake. A terrible poisonous dragon lived somewhere around this lake. It ate people and terrified the local population.

The people didn't know how to get rid of the dragon and being the drab heathens they followed the advice of a local priest and every day sacrificed a person (son or daughter) casting a lot. One day the turn was of the single daughter of the Tzar. Father called for the daughter and crying ordered her to put on the best expensive dress decorated with precious ornaments and with a great sorrow let her go. She was standing mournful expecting the death with tremble on the bank but suddenly St. Georgiy appeared riding a horse with a lance in hands. "Why are you standing here crying?"- he asked the unlucky girl. "Get away from here handsome young man or you'll die with me". That very moment a monster appeared from the water. "In the name of my God"- said St. Georgiy and crossed. Then sitting on a horse he rushed at the dragon and thrust his lance into its mouth sticking it to the ground. The horse meanwhile trampled it. Then St. Georgiy ordered the young girl to bind the monster with the belt and take it to the city. All 25 thousand citizend and tzar were so shocked and surprised that believed in Jesus Christ in once.

In Apocalypse written by St. Ioann Bogoslov St. Georgiy is described as follows: "... a white horse with a rider holding a bow. The rider was given a crown and he went as a victor to defeat" (Revel. 6,2).

When we painted St. Georgiy we placed his figure on the foreground because the victory of St. Georgiy is a great symbol. Revelation considers this victory the victory over evil forces in the name of Christ, our true God. We also should note that the cross is always painted on the end of his lance. There are many pictures of St. Georgiy on the horse. His horse is always white (remember Apocalypse), his long coat is always red as a symbol of his martyr death and his fiery strong love to God.



©Екатерина Ильинская
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