Saint Matrona of Moscow the Blessed
THE ICON SHOWN
- AUTHOR
- Anastasia Kaplii
- YEAR
- 2024
- MATERIALS
- Egg tempera, natural mineral pigments, gold
- TECHNIQUE
- Translucent layering with fine painterly strokes
- TRADITION
- Early Russian icon painting, inspired by the legacy of Andrei Rublev
- ORIGIN OF THE IMAGE
- Russia, late twentieth — early twenty-first century.
ABOUT THE IMAGE
Patience and compassion
Saint Matrona of Moscow the Blessed is an image of patience, compassion and deep faith that already belongs to the history of the twentieth century. Matrona was born blind in 1881, and in her youth she lost the ability to walk. According to her life, she received the people who came to her, prayed for them, consoled them and gave spiritual counsel. People turn to Saint Matrona in prayer for health, for family and children, for help in everyday difficulties and for support in hard periods of life.
The iconography of Matrona of Moscow is modern. It took shape from accounts of the saint’s appearance and from surviving photographs, in accordance with the Orthodox tradition of depicting saints. Matrona’s local glorification took place in 1999, and her Church-wide glorification in 2004.
LETTER
The face is painted last. By that point nothing can be changed — neither the colour of the robes, nor the turn of the head, nor the gold behind the shoulders.
Gold here is neither ornament nor background. It is a refusal of space: the figure stands in no room, in no landscape.
An icon is not painted for a museum. It is placed at home, at eye level — and looked at for years.