The

Temple Gallery

Established 1959

Exhibitions Archive

 
 

AZ31. St Sergius of Radonejh (Sergei Radonezhsky)
17th century, probably Sergiyev Posad
Dimensions: 31 x 27cmClick here to convert metric size to imperial
Provenance: Amsterdam, from the collection of Loek Caspers. Loek Caspers was a Dutch Resistance fighter during the Second World War who helped many Jewish children and resistance fighters. She worked as a maternity nurse which allowed her to retain a bike, which she used to transport weapons and help communication between resistance cells. She went on to train as a doctor in England and died in 2019, being one of the last surviving members of the Dutch Resistance.
Feast Day: 25th of December; 5th of July

Proceeds from this icon sale will help the Sister Mura Foundation in Johannesburg. The Foundation assists migrants living with HIV/Aids by providing income generating schemes. They also provide educational bursaries, helping eighty families to pay for primary, secondary, and higher education.

No. 31. Detail


No. 32. Detail with the Trinity


St Sergius has a unique place in Russian religious culture. He is one of the most celebrated saints and founded many monasteries across Russia. Among them the Trinity-Lavra Monastery in Sergiyev-Posad, a centre of Orthodox spirituality and one of the greatest monasteries in Russia which originally housed Rublev’s famous icon now in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The monastery is the centre of his cult and his incorrupt relics are kept in the Katholikon of the Monastery. He is shown here with crosses on his shoulders and chest, attributes of the Great Schema, the highest and most rigorous level of monastic practice in Orthodoxy.

The image of the Trinity on the upper border tells us the icon was probably produced in the icon-painting workshop of the Lavra for pilgrims as a memento of their visit.

Fig. 1. Back of Panel