Saint Alypius, one of the first and finest of Russian
iconographers, was a disciple of St Nikon , and from his youth he
lived a life of asceticism at the Kiev Caves monastery. He studied the
iconography of the Greek masters, and from the year 1083 beautified the Caves
monastery church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.
If he learned that in some church the icons had become
worn, he took them with him and restored them without charge. If people
happened to pay him for his work, he set aside one third to purchase supplies
for painting icons, one third as alms for the poor, and the remainder for his
own needs.
St Alypius was never famous, and he painted icons only
to serve God. He was ordained a hieromonk, and was known for working miracles
even in his lifetime. St Alypius healed a Kievan man suffering from leprosy and
decay of the body by anointing the wounds of the sick man with the paints he
used for the painting of icons. Many of his icons were glorified by miracles,
and sometimes angels helped him in the holy task of painting icons.
A certain man of Kiev who had built a church, once
gave two monks of the Caves a commission to have icons painted for it. The
monks concealed the money and said nothing to St Alypius about it. After
waiting a long time for the work to be completed, the man went to the igumen to
complain about St Alypius. Only then did they discover that he had not been
told of the commission. When they brought the boards provided by the customer,
it turned out that beautiful icons had already been painted on them.
When the church was consumed by fire, all of the icons
remained unharmed. One of these icons the Dormition of the Most Holy
Theotokos, known as the Vladimir-Rostov Icon, was taken by Great
Prince Vladimir Monomakh to a church he had built at Rostov.
Another time, when St Alypius lay deathly ill, an
angel painted an icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos for him. On
August 17 (around the year 1114), an angel came to receive the soul of St
Alypius, and he was buried in the Near Caves. The first three fingers of St
Alypius's right hand were positioned together, and the last two were bent to
the palm. It seems that he died while signing himself with the Sign of the
Cross.
One of the icons painted by St Alypius survives from
the time of Sts Anthony and Theodosius of the Kiev Caves, and is now preserved
in the State Tretyakov Gallery. This is the Sven Icon.
A twentieth century icon in the church of the Pskov
Caves Monastery of the Dormition depicts St Alypius holding a copy of the
"Assuage My Sorrows" Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos.
The Sven Icon of the Mother of God
The Sven Caves Icon of the Mother of God was written
by St. Alypius of the Caves. On the icon the Mother of God is depicted sitting
upon a throne, with the Divine Infant on Her knees. St. Theodosius is on the
right side of the throne, and St. Anthony of the Caves is on the left. Until
1288, the icon was in the Kiev Caves Monastery, where it was glorified by
miracles. In 1288 it was transferred to the Briansk-Svensk Monastery, which is
dedicated to the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.
At Briansk, Prince Roman of Chernigov became blind due
to an unknown ailment. Hearing about the miracles worked by the icon written by
St. Alypius, the prince sent a courier to the monastery requesting that the
icon be sent to him. A priest journeyed with the icon along the River Desna.
After the voyage, the boat landed on the right bank of the River Svena. After
lodging for the night, they went to the boat to pray before the icon, but they
did not find the icon where they had last left it. Looking around, they saw it
on a hill on the opposite bank, resting in the branches of an oak tree. News of
this reached Prince Roman, and he was led to the icon on foot.
The prince prayed fervently before the icon and vowed
to build a monastery on that spot, donating all the land which could be seen
from the hill. After praying, the prince regained his sight. First he saw the
footpath, then nearby objects, and finally all the surroundings.
After making a shrine for the icon, the prince had a
Molieben served, and laid the foundations for a wooden church in honor of the
Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. The tree on which the icon rested was cut
down and used as wood for other icons.
The feast day of the Sven Icon of the Mother of God is
also commemorated on August 17. The August 17 celebration was established in the year 1815 in
thanksgiving for the deliverance of the city of Briansk from invasion during the 1812 Napoleonic War.
The icon was glorified by healings of the blind and of
the possessed, and has long been regarded as a protector from enemies.
St. Alypius and the Miracle of the Dormition Icon
The Lord does not allow His faithful servants to be
shamed. It often happened that the martyrs of Christ, ridiculed and mocked
before the courts, unexpectedly performed a miracle, which instilled fear in
the unbelievers. Either the idols fell or thunder destroyed the temples of the
heathen or an unexpected downpour of rain extinguished the fire prepared for
their burning or the torturers beat themselves with stones and rods and so
forth. Thus, Antipater, the torturer of St. Myron, during the suffering
of this man of God suddenly went insane and killed himself.
St. Alypius, the icongrapher, was already at the end
of his life when he received an order from a man to paint the icon of the
Dormition of the Most-holy Theotokos. As the feast was approaching, this man
came several times to see whether the icon was completed. But the icon was not
even begun, not even on the eve of the Feast of the Dormition itself when the
icon was supposed to have been placed in the church. When this man returned
home completely saddened, at once there appeared a young man in Alypius' cell
who immediately sat down and began to paint the icon. He worked very quickly
and very expertly. When the icon was completed, it shone like the sun. Showing
the icon to the astonished Alypius, the young man took the icon and brought it
to the church for which it had been ordered. The next day, that man who had
ordered the icon went to the church and, to his great surprise, saw the icon in
its place. Then that man came to the monastery and, with the abbot, entered
Alypius' cell. "How and who painted the icon of this man?" asked the
abbot. The ailing Alypius replied: "An angel painted it, and he is now
standing here to take me away." And with that, he gave up the spirit.
Source: http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/08/saint-alypius-iconographer-of-kiev-near.html
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