Information for the objective student of Russian, Greek, and Balkan icons
If you have not yet seen them, you might enjoy taking a look at the byzantine icon-inspired Lord of the Rings images by Stelios Karellas, utilizing AI (artifical intelligence) generation.
It has all kinds of implications for the future of icons, if they have a future. Here is the link to an article with more images.
If those of you who receive these postings via email do not see the link, just go to the web site and you should see it there. Sometimes email removes links.
When I was a boy, on cars one would often see notices commemorating a visit to one of the regional tourist sites — “Trees of Mystery” or “Sea Lion Caves,” and so on. Visitors to these places often came back with other souvenirs, from postcards to ladies made from seashells — all kinds of odd things to remind them of where they had been.
The Eastern Orthodox world — particularly Russia and Ukraine — was no different, except in those countries the trips were to religious sites — pilgrimage sites. Thousands of wandering Russians would visit particular monasteries or churches that were noted for having the relics of a saint, and often they would bring back icons or crosses or other religious items sold at those shrines. So of course there is a whole category of icons one could call “pilgrimage” icons.
Often we see such icons from the 19th century depicting a saint standing before a church or monastery, and such icons were among those commonly sold as pilgrimage icons.
A reader recently asked me about a rather strange looking icon type. Here is an example from the early 19th century:
It is not very attractive, and you will probably have no idea what it depicts. Well, I will tell you. It shows a very large reliquary “box,” and in that box — you can see there are doors that open to the sides revealing what is within — is what remains of the body of Athanasios Patelarios, who in the 17th century twice became Patriarch of Constantinople. Because of the troubles at that time, Athanasios, having resigned from his post as Patriarch, went to Russia in 1652 to try to convince the Tsar to retake Constantinople from the Ottoman Turks. Needless to say, that did not happen. Nonetheless, while there he did meet Patriarch Nikon (yes, that fellow who caused the huge schism in the Russian Orthodox Church and the separation of the Old Believers) and Tsar Alexei. Athanasios left Moscow and was on his way to the port city of Galați (Moldavia, now modern Romania) when he stopped at the Mgarskiy Monastery near the Ukrainian town of Lubni. There he passed away in April of 1654, and he was placed, sitting up, in a stone crypt in the Transfiguration Church.
Eight years later the crypt was opened, and his body was declared to be “incorrupt,” though that was not entirely the case. Nonetheless, as these things go in Eastern Orthodoxy, it was seen as miraculous, and of course word went around that his remains, his “relics” had healing power. That led to stories of miracles associated with the relics, and made the place a pilgrimage site.
What you see in the icon above is the very large reliquary “box” in which the body of Athanasios was placed, sitting up and dressed in bishop’s robes. Perhaps you can read on the reliquary the notice “1819 года” — “The year 1819.” That is when the remains were placed in the new reliquary for public veneration.
So that explains this rather bizarre icon. Some examples of the type depict Athanasios standing beside the reliquary containing his remains, such as this lithographed example:
The inscription identifies him as Святитель Афанасий, патриарх Цареградский, Лубенский Чудотворец–Svyatitel’ Afanasiy, Patriarkh Tsaregradskiy, Lubenskiy Chudotvorets — “Bishop Athanasios, Patriarch of Constantinople, Lubni Wonderworker.” One could also read the Св. abbreviation at the beginning as Svyatuiy — “Holy.”
So if you happened to be a religious pilgrim wandering from holy site to holy site in the 19th-early 20th century, at Lubni you could have bought an icon of the reliquary of St. Athanasios to take home.
Today some people specifically collect “pilgrimage” icons and religious objects, and though some of the monasteries and churches depicted in such icons no longer exist, on these old icons their images may often still be seen.
ICONS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION 