The Catalog of Good Deeds

Interview with the head of the mosaic workshop of St Elisabeth Convent Demetrius Kuntsevich

As we all know, St Elisabeth Convent will be 17 in August 2016. Numerous workshops, including the mosaic workshop, have been opened in the Convent. Could you please tell us how your workshop was established?

It all happened with the blessing of the spiritual father of the Convent – Father Andrew Lemeshonok – when the church inhonor of the Reigning icon of the Mother of God was being built. This church had been designed in accordance with the Byzantine style, so mosaic seemed to fit very well into the general concept of how it was to look. Father blessed us, saying, “Please try and make mosaic.”

I called my acquaintances – the guys I studied with. Some of them had already become practicing Orthodox, some were not regular church-goers yet. These were the people who formed the core of the workshop and have been working here ever since. We started from scratch: reading books, looking for materials. We would travel to St Petersburg and Moscow to find professional mosaic artist, of whom there are few. However, they did not have the skills we needed. We borrowed some experience from Christian artists. We would invent some know-hows ourselves.

To Order Mosaics from our Workshop, Email Us: St.Elisabeth.Shop@gmail.com

Hadn't you been making mosaic before that time?

My friends and I studied at the Belarusian Academy of Arts and majored in public decorative art, where they study mosaics. The skills that we had learned there served as the basis for our work. However, church art calls for special skills that we had not received while studying at the academy. This was a serious trouble. There are certain requirements and consistent patterns of church mosaic. Icons and frescoes in the church are a world of their own. You do not have the right to invent anything new or to make mistakes. Church art is supposed to preach the truths of the Gospel, not folklore of any kind. You have to know and understand what you are doing.

Did you have to learn on your own?

Yes, we tried to learn and comprehend as much as we could. We read a lot. We travelled to Archimandrite Zinone (Theodore) who is an acclaimed icon painter. We borrowed something from him, namely, his approach to work, the process itself, and his technique of painting. We asked questions, looked for ancient sources such as books and photos, and used them in our work. It was in 2001-2003. We did not have the technologies that we have today.

Someone would travel to Serbia or Greece and take pictures of church mosaics, and we would call that person asking them to give us their photos for some time, and then went to Moscow. However, these films were not intended to be used too often for fear of ruining them. So we had to print the photos for several days, and then bring these piles of photos from Moscow. We had to pay money at each stage of the process. However, we were glad to have the opportunity to use not only clips from the “Ogonyok” magazine and old Soviet-era black-and-white photos but also these new photos.

Suppose someone wants to work in your studio? What are the skills a successful candidate must have?

New people come to our workshop from time to time, and they have various backgrounds. Often they want to work with us but do not have abilities and special skills, even the basic ones. We hire them nevertheless. Father Andrew used to say, and I agree with him, that if people really want it, and if we have vacancies, we must gladly accept everyone. If we have vacancies, we hire everyone who applies. We do not go out searching for highly professional workers; we do not select a team that would suit us from the professional point of view. Among our staff are only those who came to us because they wanted to work with us.

Who works in your studio?

Some of the guys, especially our first workers, have artistic education: they had graduated from the Academy of Arts with majors in public decorative arts and painting. Kirill came later. Dima majored in graphics and “publics”. Half of the staff are girls and boys who have a school of art or art classes background. There is Uncle Vanya from Kazan, a hippie in the past; he turned to God long ago and he wants to do something, to serve God, to be part of the team, but he does not possess special skills. Two guys from Kiev wanted to work at our workshop – and they do work quite well. One of the two guys has artistic skills, he even studied icon painting in the Kiev Caves Lavra, while the other guy (Oleg) never did anything like that before; well, he does have an inclination and love of art but in fact, he is not an artist. Yulia, who is over 40, has come to our workshop recently. She cannot do anything but she is very eager to learn so she tries hard to do auxiliary and basic work. I believe that if she is persistent in her desire to learn, she will learn to do something more difficult. Perhaps, she will not be able to work without supervision but she is already capable of doing some of the essential work in our workshop. Attention, intuition, and obedience is everything one needs.

So you believe that willingness to work is more important than skill?

Yes, I do.

What are the materials traditionally used for mosaic?

The majority of our works are Byzantine mosaics. Traditionally, this style makes use of smalt, opaque colored glass, gold leaf, and gold tesserae. There may be inclusions of various stones, marble, insignificant insertions of granite. Smalt and opaque colored glass are cut into cubes and laid on a prepared surface. We often improvise by using various beautifully-looking kinds of colored glass, various kinds of peddle (sea and river peddle, black and white peddle), natural stones, nicely cut marble, granite, semiprecious stones, bricks and limestones.

All this may be combined to decorate surfaces. These materials have interesting structure and create a special atmosphere, and they can be combined in various manners with mosaics, frescoes, and icons.

In order to make the interior design look like a single whole, you have to pay attention to every detail because it has artistic value and importance of its own, even the gaps between the stones, the lining, and the profiles. All this is mosaic, even the decorative surfaces. We try to make sense out of all that.

What is the technology of mosaic? Could you please describe the entire process from choosing the topic to the completed artwork?

I could answer to this question both in a simple way and in a more complex way. The simple answer is: first, a draft is drawn up, based on an idea, which can even be abstract, for example, “divine glory and beauty”. In fact, this is an abstract idea but the central one: a portion of the God's Kingdom, the celestial world, reborn by the Holy Spirit, transformed by grace. There is no such idea in its pure form in our life because it is mixed up with chaos, ugliness, terror, and distortions.

The idea may give birth to a composition, to a traditional image of a feast or a saint. The image must fit well into the interior and the exterior, thus becoming a part of the building. It may be a church wall, nicely decorated by some natural or unnatural stone — everything may be inspired by God's glory.

We work both with the interior and the exterior decoration; both of these types of design are public art, which is inseparable from architecture and forms an integral part thereof. This is a holistic approach.

When the initial idea is embodied, for instance, in the images of certain saints in a certain place, then the sketch is drawn. It is not big, the size of a small sketch board — not larger than a meter in size. After the sketch is finalized, it is tested in the architecture of the church. We try to see how it fits — this way or that. Now there are good modern technologies: we can project the sketch directly onto the wall, using a computer and a projector, and get the accurate vision of how it is going to look when it is done. We can print something out, glue it and fit it, and draw something. We can examine the surface, measure it, and touch the wall. Once the sketch is tested, all dimensions are clear, and the composition fits well into the interior, we go on to make the mosaic.

Here we have to decide what colors and hues of smalt we are going to use, and how we are going to combine them. A color scheme is developed with colors for the given artwork. The artist may vary these colors as he likes because this is the stage of working with the abstract color scheme. If we apply this color scheme to the images, we amplify its effect, impression, and expressiveness.

Then the mosaic is assembled. As a rule, the first attempt is a preparatory one: we assemble parts of images or whole images on modelling clay, as if it were the finished mosaic. Sometimes we make a simple sketch, sometimes we make a more detailed image, and finally, all that remains to be done is re-assembling it on glue, cement or gesso.

After the preliminary assembly we see what we get, what we miss and what we lack. We can make an experimental assembly in concrete, and place it into the architectural context where it will live. If everything is fine, and the piece on the wall does not contradict with the original idea and the sketch, we proceed with the mosaic. We go on and correct mistakes on the go. Sometimes, if something falls below our expectations, we have to remove this section of mosaic and re-assemble it, changing the tint or the module or the size of the stone.

Mosaic has certain nuances: for example, the position of the rows of stone, and how the size of the stones changes — from bigger stones to smaller ones or vice versa. The gaps between the stones are also an important element. All this works for the sake of the intended effect, the feeling, and the expressiveness of the image. God's image must be in everything, not only in the image of Christ. God's image may be reflected even in some tiny stones, in the way they are put together. If everything is done with love, in an attempt to surpass oneself, to exceed one's current pathetic skills; if one tries to do more than he is able to in an attempt to let God act instead of the wretched man — everything will be alright.

The Lord acts, even though sometimes it seems that we do not succeed, do not like some things, that it is meaningless. However, if we go on working with the blessing, hoping that the Lord sees and knows everything and will interfere when necessary, then everything will obtain its completeness somehow. In the meantime, you may be looking at what is done and think, “Well, it wasn’t bad. Glad that we did it.”

The art of mosaic is a very labor-consuming process. It demands extreme concentration, patience, and attention. What helps you to concentrate during work and to remain peaceful and calm?

This is not an easy question. Every day we have lots of responsibilities and duties, lots of things to do for our relatives, friends, or someone else. I cannot say that after praying, lighting up a vigil lamp, I forget about everything and sink deep into the ideal world... It is impossible, perhaps. Everything is mixed up.

Anyway, you've got to forget about everything else and make something ideal, not in the sense of what I can do, but how it could be if it were done ideally. You have to do it in spite of the fact that you cannot or do not know how to do it, have a headache, feel tired and unhappy. This is the disposition that one should have.

I believe that no matter what, we always have this disposition because we know that we do something divine, something that exceeds our abilities. So we have no right to do it thinking that “whatever we get as a result is fine”. It does not matter if you want it or not, if you can do it or not; this has to be bigger than the things around you, the world you live in, and yourself as a person. It is this perception that creates the breakthroughs. One cannot have this kind of concentration all the time. Nevertheless, if you try really hard, if you want it and see that it is necessary, the Lord will give you power to do that.

By Elena Makeyenok

Archpriest Demetrius: New martyrs were the people who kept telling the truth in this abode of sorrows. They told the truth about Christ, about man and his calling, using not only words, but also their personal lives. Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh used to say that one can tell the truth from two positions: either the position of power or the position of absolute weakness, total impotence. The Church must be totally powerless like God, because God does not force anyone, he does not coerce anyone: God is love and he always reaches out to us and calls to our conscience, our hearts, and our minds.

Sermon after a Liturgy on the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russian Church (February 7, 2016)

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Priest Sergius: Today we commemorate one of the greatest pillars of the Church — Saint Gregory the Theologian. The life of this man is comforting to us in many ways because, although he was a great theologian, he used to have certain shortcomings like everyone else. When he was assigned bishop to a semi-rural town where he could not possibly earn any interest, so to say, he simply ran away. Many people condemned him of this later.

As we learn about such flaws in the saint's biographies, we should understand that holiness is not a mountain top that no one can climb, where a person is more than a human being. Holiness is when God starts to act through a sinful and weak person. It is when God acts in that person in spite of his human talents or weaknesses. Then this is not a human achievement but rather God's grace.

Sermon after a Liturgy on February 8, 2016

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Archpriest Sergius: We all are confessors but this is not because we go to confession. We are confessors because the Lord has given us a chance to profess our Christian beliefs in real life: not just watch a church service on your home TV or come to church twice a year to light a candle but come to church every week and testify before God what total failures we are as Christians. What we ought to do is not to count our sins during a confession but to confess that we do not know how to love Christ and we are not yet ready for open persecutions.

Time flies quickly, so we should learn to become confessors during each service, as if we are to suffer for our faith tomorrow and we need to get ready. First of all we must be confessors of the love of Christ…

Sermon after the All-Night Vigil on February 6, 2016

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Our Church is unified, one and apostolic, and this is where her strength lies. Save for this, the hell's gates would have prevailed over it long ago. Today we read in the biography of the Three Holy Hierarchs how these saints introduced this catholic spirit because divisions based on who is better, higher, cleverer or more spiritually advanced cannot be tolerated in the Church of Christ. We must be aware that we all serve one God.

Sermon after a Liturgy on February 12, 2016

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Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok: When Apostle Peter was told that Jesus was in his boat, he exclaimed in terror, «Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord» (Luke 5:8).

What should we do when we receive Christ? Christ is in you — and it's an open wound! The more you live, the more painful it gets. When you see this awful, unappreciative attitude to God, any optimism or enthusiasm that you could possibly have disappears. What doubts could you have when Christ dwells in you? Is there anything that the Lord has not given you? What else does He have to do to make us alert, to make us happy in the Lord and capable of defeating all sorrows and sadness of this world? There are no sorrows, in fact, because everything is temporary and transient. This is why we should inhale the clean air of the church, the air of repentance, as often as possible. The church is the place where people must hear the truth about life, that the prince of this world will be driven away, and that we should not fear death.

We keep insisting on our own truth even in details. Shouldn't we admit our mistakes? Oh no, we are always right, we are heroes, aren't we? It makes me sick, this attitude, this lack of understanding why we have come to church and what for. Try correcting someone — you wouldn't be happy that you did. What can we be talking about, what Christianity? We have to speak about the eternity.

This is crazy — establishing a monastery in this world. How can we change stubborn, selfish, and envious people? This is impossible! However, there is one way to do this, my brothers, there is a way! We read a story in the Lives of Desert Fathers that a hermit used to water a dry stick for many years every day. He worked really hard to bring water from a remote well. Finally, this dead and dry stick blossomed! See what this story hints at? With God, everything is alive, if only we want to come alive. He can make Abraham's children out of stones. So as we turn to this God, we cannot but be saved, we cannot but encounter the Heavenly Kingdom. Of course, we will!

When an individual partakes of the Holy Mysteries, he may not be aware of anything but he opens his mouth and humbles down, praising the Lord. We hope that this drop of Jesus' blood will feed us like that dry stick. Gradually, drop by drop, drop by drop — imagine how much blood of Christ we already have! We have already had a blood transfusion. We must be like Christ already. How can we spoil that blood with sin and passion? How do we manage to do that? It's surprising!

Anyway, this is not the end of the story, my dear friends, and I am glad that the days are longer and longer, and the sun is shining more and more brightly. Pascha is near! Today we have to work hard and not to trust the sin that will keep persuading us that we won't be saved. Of course, we will, but not without pain.

Sermon after an Akathist to St Elisabeth on February 7, 2016

An interview with Tatiana Batura, a gold embroidery artist

"...This is a real salvation for a person to be doing church embroidery these days! It is first of all mental harmony, solitude and silence; it is constant, fervent, and sincere prayer, a conversation with yourself and with the saint whose image you embroider; it is fear, tears, and joy… I thank the Lord for being so merciful as to allow me to learn this ancient and wonderful craft!"

There was a time when Tatiana Batura did not know anything at all about gold embroidery. It was thanks to the Lord's Providence that she heard about it fourteen years ago in St Elisabeth Convent. At that time, there was no place in the entire country where one could go and learn how to make gold embroidery. Nevertheless, Tatiana began dreaming of using this ancient technique to embroider icons. Her desire could not but come true!

I had been eager to see the icons embroidered by Tatiana Batura, a sister of mercy of St Elisabeth Convent, for a long time. Finally, we agreed to meet. It was a cloudy and chilly December evening. It was raining, which made it even harder for me to leave the comfort of my house and drive to the other side of Minsk. However, after I met Tatiana Batura and her apprentices, my mood experienced a radical transformation, as if I wasn’t tired and the weather was perfectly fine.

We had an open and honest conversation. The fact that we share the same name instantly made us favourably disposed to one another. Plus, it turned out that Tatiana teaches icon embroidery and gold embroidery in St Tatiana Church.

When was your icon embroidery and gold embroidery club founded?

It looks like this is fairly recent but if you start counting, I have been teaching here for eight years already. We launched our needlework club with the blessing of the Most Rev Metropolitan Philaret in 2007.

Gold Embroidery Workshop of St.Elisabeth Convent

How did you learn this ancient craft of gold embroidery?

It was the Lord who led me into this. Gold embroidery is the most important part of my life. I put a piece of my soul into each work. I learned about this rare type of embroidery in 2002 when His Holiness Alexis II, the Patriarch of Moscow, visited our city. I attended a service in the House of Mercy and then went to St Elisabeth Convent where I accidentally overheard a woman asking Father Andrew Lemeshonok where she could learn to do gold embroidery. I immediately thought, “Although my legs ache, I can still learn to work with my hands, making something really valuable and necessary.” Since that day, I started looking for a place in Minsk where I could learn this craft. I went around asking everyone where I could learn to make gold embroidery but I could not find a teacher. A nun I knew advised me to attend a handcrafts club of the House of Mercy.

Order Vestments from the Workshops of St.Elisabeth Convent

I spent a year studying there. There was little information about this craft at that time. We tried to find additional information in the Internet but we could understand very little without proper explanations. Anyway, I could not stop at that. There were several other people who, like me, were eager to learn this difficult and scrupulous craft – painting with a needle, as it is referred to poetically.

I thank God for meeting Valentina Vazhnova, a remarkable woman who taught needlework in the House of Veterans. She agreed to enroll into gold embroidery course in Moscow, organised by the Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts. She would travel to Moscow every week and then share her newly-acquired skills and knowledge with us. That was not unlike distance learning. It took us two years to study the nuances of gold embroidery in such a way. When the course was over, we sent our icons to Moscow in order to receive our certificates. Teachers in Moscow were surprised: our works were better than those of other students!

So can we say that the ancient tradition of gold embroidery continues in our country?

Unfortunately, there was a time when the craft of gold embroidery was completely forgotten in our country. There are museums of gold embroidery in Russia, for instance, and they have many places where one can learn this craft. On the contrary, we had to gather information literally from everywhere: we would look for and then order rare books from Moscow. Of course, we would be interested to see the exhibits of Russian museums. Those who are involved in this craft consider themselves lucky if they have the chance to see something new. In fact, there used to be various schools of gold embroidery in Russia in ancient times. In Belarus, St Sophia of Slutsk and St Manefa of Homel made gold embroidery – this is mentioned in their biographies.

Luckily, there are people who can do gold embroidery in our country, too. There is even a gold embroidery workshop in our St Elisabeth Convent. The fact that monasteries and convents are at the forefront of this revival of old traditions is wonderful. Gold embroidery is a very ancient and beautiful craft. It was mentioned in Russian manuscripts as early as the 11^th century. It was originally invented and used in monasteries. Later people started using gold embroidery for decoration of clothes. It was then that court workshops appeared in the palaces of princes and aristocrats.

How difficult is it to master the skill of gold embroidery today?

If you are keen on it and if you possess a lot of patience and diligence, you will learn everything with time. The programme of our club covers three years, with classes every week. Eight people have already finished this course. Now a third group is about to finish the course, too. There are people who live in Minsk and in other cities and towns among our students. People come to learn gold embroidery from various cities and regions. I never work with more than five students because the technique is very complicated — artistic embroidery pales in comparison with it — so I have to pay as much attention to each student as possible. It takes months to embroider just one icon.

We begin with samples, some specific elements. The feeling when we begin to embroider faces of saints, the Mother of God, Jesus Christ — it is very special: work turns into incessant prayer. You literally cringe under the burden of this huge responsibility and fear. Later, when the faces are ready, there comes grace.

Can you describe some of your works to our readers, please?

I've made quite a few of them in the recent years! I embroider icons, bookmarks for the Gospel and prayerbooks, vestments for priests, crosses for straw mitres, and Easter eggs… I have embroidered faces of St Peter and St Paul, Mother of God of Vladimir, Mother of God of Kazan, St Euphrosyne of Polotsk. My works and works by my students are in many churches in our country, as well as in Jerusalem and on Mt Athos. I feel so happy when I can bring someone a gift made by my own hands with love and prayer for their special occasion.

Why do people continue to do handicrafts nowadays? It is so labor-consuming and takes so much time, you know…

It was the Lord himself who blessed handicrafts. It is an essential, an integral part of a woman's life, especially the life of an Orthodox woman. At least, this is what suddenly dawned on me one day. I never did anything like that before, but now I cannot imagine living without it. Speaking in particular about church embroidery, this is a real salvation for a person to be doing it these days! I try to do some needlework every day. Church embroidery is first of all mental harmony, solitude and silence; it is constant, fervent, and sincere prayer, a conversation with yourself and with the saint whose image you embroider; it is fear, tears, and joy… I thank the Lord for everything I have, especially for him being so merciful as to allow me to learn this ancient and wonderful craft!

By Tatiana Shimko

February 16, 2016

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Holy Shroud of the Mother of God

Will you please try and make a mosaic?

Excerpts from Sermons: "Holiness Is When God Acts Through a Sinner'

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