(Nun Anfisa about the beginnings of the Convent, about
icon painting and the workshops…)
Mother Anfisa, can you tell us how the workshops came
into existence in the Convent?
The Convent was founded in 1999, and it was then that
our sisters started to make vestments. At first, the sewing, icon painting and
ceramic workshops started their work. Later, the mural painting, mosaic,
joinery, icon setting and stone workshop were established. Each of the workshop
was tiny at first and grew on with time. Today we have more than twenty
long-established workshops, each with its own microclimate. Generally, we did
not plan that there would be workshops in the Convent. It was God who decided
in a different way.
The first workshops were established within the
premises of the National Psychiatric Clinic. We asked the head doctor for
permission to use one of the basements in an old shabby building within the
walls of the Clinic. They granted us that permission; we put everything in
order there. This was our first workshop. The room was also packed with
humanitarian aid, which we handed out to the patients. In those times, the ill
people had to stay in the hospital for half a year or even more, so they needed
those clothes. Our first iconostasis was also painted in that basement. This
iconostasis now stands in the church in honour of St Nicholas the Wonderworker.
It was started by Alexander Cress who made the templates for the icons. Father
Sergius, who is now the head of the icon painting studio, and novice Demetrius,
who is the head of the mural painting workshop, were students of the Academy of
Arts at that time. They were rubbing the paints for that iconostasis with great
reverence. They also visited Father Igor Latushko in the Holy Spirit Cathedral
to learn the art of icon painting from him. They learned how to paint icons,
how to gesso the surfaces and prepare paints, they were his apprentices, in
fact.
Then it turned out that Alexander could not finish his
work, and it was time to consecrate the church, so Father Andrew blessed the
brothers to finish the iconostasis on their own. These were their first icons.
Nun Liudmila, Nun Martha and Matushka Larissa helped Father Sergius and Brother
Demetrius.
How did the icon painting studio develop after that?
New people were coming. Father Igor Latushko helped us
a lot: he told us about icon painting and painted icons himself. We started
travelling a lot, seeing and seeking advice from other iconographers… We were
gathering information about the art of icon painting, about various cultural
layers related to church art: Byzantine Greek style and Russian art of icon
painting, of course.
Did you develop a unified style?
Everything that Father Sergius, Matushka Larissa, nuns
Liudmila and Maria, had to work hard to achieve and learn, now goes to the
young artists, the would-be icon painters. The young artists can learn from
their experience straight away. When we look at our first icons, they are so
very different from what we are able to paint now. It is surprising to see the
school develop…
The style develops after years of scrupulous work.
Generally, there are many churches in our Convent, and if you take a look at
them, neither frescoes, nor iconostases ever repeat one another. It is amazing
that the icons are painted according to the canons and at the same time they
show creativity. This is what constitutes the school, a specific direction and
style in icon painting.
Can you tell us about the Convent? How did it start?
There were sisters who wanted to devote themselves to
monastic life. There was God’s blessing through the spiritual father of the
Sisterhood and through some circumstances of their lives. The first sisters
started to live together in the spring of 1998. At first, they had to sleep
right in the workshops. They had to stay in the workshops all night because
Liturgies normally started early in the morning, at half past six, and the
sisters were to take the patients to communion, so it was difficult for most of
them to come to the hospital from downtown by that time. The sisters often
stayed in the hospital wards until very late so it was meaningless to come back
home.
There used to be waste land on the place where the
convent now stands. Later we laid the foundation of the church in honour of St
Nicholas the Wonderworker, bought a small cabin and installed central heating
in it.
How many sisters were there at that time?
At first, there were four sisters. Later there were
twelve of us. The first monastic tonsure was held in August of 1999, and three
sisters were tonsured into Rassaphore at that time. That is how we lived. Later
they built the second floor and that was the accountant’s office. There also
was a small house close to it, where the ceramic workshop with just one oven
was located. The ground floor turned into the joinery workshop. It was
interesting to see that it was the office during the day and the bedroom at
night. The sisters took turns cooking meals.
Weren’t you afraid?
No, I was not. It was just that once I realized that
the meaning of life lies much deeper. Is it worth living when you feed your
vain pride and build your life according to stereotypes? Ought a person to
struggle for the sake of this? What must a person struggle for? The Lord showed
me the beauty of monastic life. Monastic life is deep. Everything apart from
that ceased to mean anything for me. This is my way, perhaps. Each person has
his own way to God. This is a mystery that one keeps inside.
What was next?
We started building St Nicholas Church. When the
basement floor had already been finished, we immediately decided to have it
consecrated. We started celebrating Liturgies there. I remember when the first
Liturgy was celebrated in that church, water dropped onto our heads, everything
was gray, and we were standing on sand mixed with small stones but everybody
was incredibly happy because this was the first Divine Liturgy in the new
church.
Actually, first we started divine services in the
National Psychiatrical Clinic, in their rehabilitation centre. The room where
the Liturgies were celebrated on Thursdays normally served as a room for
hypnosis. Services there continue up to the present day. We dreamed about
building a church for the people who stay in the wards for them to feel a
completely different life. We made gates in a hospital wall to take the
patients to church but unfortunately, we forgot about several problems. The
patients who stayed in the department for drug and alcohol addicts were only
too happy to use this gate to run away from the hospital… We had to close this
gate. Only the patients who are allowed to go out from their departments can do
so. There is a confession on Wednesday evening, and the Liturgy is served on
Thursdays. What we are to do is prepare the patients and take them to the
service. Most departments are isolation type, and the patients who stay there
are not always emotionally stable, so it is their doctor who approves or
disapproves of their going to church. Those who are allowed to go out the
hospital, come to the convent, and it is a great joy for them.
Then Father Andrew blessed the construction of the
monastic dormitory. Later, a church in honor of St Elisabeth was built. There
are photos, and when I look at them I just cannot believe that it was real.
Then we received our first true cells, two or three cells, I do not remember
exactly how many. The dormitory was consecrated in 2002.
Were the icons for St Elisabeth Church painted in the
workshops of the Convent?
All icons located in the churches of our Convent are
painted in our workshops. The Lord has provided it that everything has been
made with our own hands. It
is surprising, of course.
CONVERSATION