I have forgotten almost all that happened in that period of my life but the light I have not forgotten.”
To think of it brings back the feeling of quiet happiness that filled my soul at the time. Sunlight could not eclipse the presence of another Light. “There were occasions when coming out of church I would see the city, then the whole world for me, lit by two kinds of light. In his writings he recalls coming out from the Church as a child and seeing Moscow “bathed in an otherworldly golden light while at the same time feeling an ineffable joy and peace.” He often had such experiences but it was not until much later in life that he understood the gift of these manifestations of light, and wrote of it: He would often attend church services with his nanny and spent many hours sitting at her feet praying. She writes that Sergei Simeonovich Sakharov (1896-1993), the future Saint Sophrony, was “from early childhood preoccupied with the question of eternity”. It is evident that from his youngest years he was preoccupied with spiritual questions and possessed spiritual and artistic gifts. The examination of this unbroken thread begins during Father Sophrony’s childhood in Moscow and traces his spiritual and artistic development. The young Sergei Sakharov’s family residence in Moscow, taken in 2013. At times it gets fragile, in danger of snapping, at other times it wears tenuously thin but in spite of all the tribulations, it is not broken and through tireless perseverance it ends up not just as strong as a rope, but ultimately, a lifeline.” Sister Gabriela writes that “The quest for knowledge of Being runs like a thread throughout Father Sophrony’s life. Sister Gabriela chose to make a special study of this particular strand of his life as his early involvement with the group so exemplified and mirrored what was to become the saint’s lifelong search for the meaning of Being. This further elucidation of Saint Sophrony’s work was also an opportunity to publish many of his additional thoughts and insights on the subject of Orthodox icon painting, whilst simultaneously looking into his involvement as one of the founding members of the group ‘Bytie’ (being) in early 1920s Moscow. In ‘ Being’ we find a penetrating and thought-provoking excavation and analysis of many of the main and nascent themes found in Seeking Perfection (the first book of the series), as well as extensive new material much of which is unknown and has never previously been published. As well as containing extensive new research on the saint’s life, much of the book is based on her personal notes made over 10 years throughout which she assisted him on many iconographic projects. Sister Gabriela is a member of Saint Sophrony’s monastic community at the Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex, England, and is also an accomplished iconographer who, after initially studying with Leonid Ouspensky in Paris, made her iconographic apprenticeship with Saint Sophrony.
Uniquely, he simultaneously strove to express both his immense theological and personal spiritual experience through his iconographic practice at the various environments he meticulously created, especially those throughout the monastery he founded in England in 1959. Image: ©The Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, Essex.ĭuring the last century, Saint Sophrony the Athonite emerged as a leading ascetic and spiritual father, hesychast, and theologian par excellence of the hypostatic principle and the Uncreated Light. īook Cover of one of the English editions of ‘Being’.
#FEMALE ICONOGRAPHER IN MALE ORTHODOX MONASTERY SERIES#
The previous summary of Seeking Perfection in the World of Art: The Artistic Path of Father Sophrony can be found here.Ĭontinuing the exploration of the exceptional iconographic work of Saint Sophrony the Athonite (1896-1993) begun in the summary of Seeking Perfection in the World of Art: The Artistic Path of Father Sophrony, we now come to the second monograph in this unique series by Sister Gabriela, which is entitled ‘Being’: The Art and Life of Father Sophrony (2016).
Because of his extensive work as an iconographer and liturgical artist, his canonisation is particularly significant for iconographers, liturgical artists and lovers of the liturgical environment. Since the publication of the first part of this series, Father Sophrony was canonised by the Holy and Great Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, receiving the title Saint Sophrony the Athonite. Image: ©The Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, Essex.Įditorial note: This is the second part of a series on the artistic path and iconographic legacy of Saint Sophrony (Sakharov) as seen through a collection of monographs by Sister Gabriela, a member of his monastic community in Essex, England. Archimandrite Sophrony, painting Christ at the Last Supper, early 1980s, the Monastery of St John the Baptist, Refectory.
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