The Catalog of Good Deeds: Workshops of St.Elisabeth Convent

The churches of St. Nicholas Convent will be decorated by the stained-glass windows created by the workshops of our convent. The craftspeople are working on them since last summer. On this moment, our artists are working on compositions for St. Nicholas church and the churches in honor of St. Barbara and St. Spyridon of Trimythous.

The windows are supposed to help us to tune in to prayer

For example, the decoration of the Church in honor of St. Spyridon includes the works in the forechurch, the middle part of the church, the altar and the stairs. For comparison, we can say that the amount of work that is going to be made exceeds the work that has been made in the church in honor of the Reigning icon of the Mother of God in St. Elisabeth Convent.

Our artists had an aim to support the festive mood, which is created by the murals inside the church. In case of windows, this mood is expressed through colors and specific details. At the same time, stained-windows were always made less staring. “The windows create a chamber atmosphere in the church, which is supposed to help people in the church to focus on what is inside, on prayer”, - said Alexander Turovsky, the head of the project.

The convent in the eyes of our craftspeople

The last trip of our craftspeople fell on the feast day of St. Spyridon of Trimythous. Alexander recalls those days warmly: “The convent is located in the Yaroslavl diocese, among the forests on the bank of the river Solba. When we came, we saw the snowmen on the territory of the convent. Children played and went sleigh riding. There are also an orphanage and a school in the convent.”

“We organized a master-class for children. By the way, there is a mosaic workshop in the convent, so the technique was familiar to them, - adds Sister Anna Alexeichik. - We offered the children to create the Nativity decorations by the examples we gave them, but many of them got creative and made their own original compositions”.

“We will surely organize another master class in May at the festival that will take place there. It will be a special event, - says Alexander. – We were happy to experience the nuns’ hospitality and the joy of a common celebration on the patron saint’s day and on the birthday of Nun Eroteyida (Gazhu), the abbess of the convent. It is as if we have been in a big family, where everything is alive, natural and sincere! People even give each other handmade gifts.

Since the moment of the convent’s restoration, even when there was no money, after the Sunday service, all the comers from the neighboring villages were fed at first in a small refectory, later in the church of St. Xenia of Petersburg, and then in a large refectory, when it was finally built. This tradition is still alive. We have seen that with our own eyes and were really impressed”.

About miracles and responsibility

It is not a secret that at our economically diffocult time, it is hard to work as an artist. The whole workshop was praying to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and after a short period of time and through the prayers of the saint, God brought the sisters of St. Nicholas Convent to us. They were looking for people, who could decorate their churches with stained-glass windows for long. Last spring was the first time when they came to our convent, and at that time, they got acquainted with the craftspeople of our workshop. Now we have an important commitment to do our work as good as possible.

January 27, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

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