Located at the crossroads of thriving Mediterranean trade for centuries, Sicily has experienced the influence of Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, and Spanish cultures. Under the Norman rule, distinguished by its cultural tolerance, various artistic and architectural influences fused together in what may be one of the most remarkable examples in the entire Mediterranean oikumene…
Section: Ears to Hear, Eyes to See
Ukrainian Sacred Design: Exploring The Visual Identity Of The Orthodox Church Of Ukraine Through Theo-Aesthetics, Fonts, And Multicultural Influences
In 2013-2014, against the backdrop of the Revolution of Dignity, Oleksiy Chekal, as a devout Christian and Ukrainian citizen, left the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) on moral grounds. This church supported the idea of a “Russian world” and did not listen to the suffering and essence of its people…
The Art of Pysanky: An Interview with Sofika Zieluk
Sofika Zielyk, an artist who grew up and continues to live in the heart of Manhattan’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood, has been expressing her heritage through the art of pysanky eggs since childhood…
The Quiet Between Two Bombardments and Resistance to Nihilism
One Like (and Unlike) A Son of Man: Deification, Liberation, and the Nonhuman in The Boy and the Heron.
Anime is an art form born out of the modern, postwar meeting between East and West in Japanese society. It drinks liberally from classical religious, mythological, and philosophical wellsprings, both indigenous to Asia–Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Daoism, and Shinto—and imported, particularly the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. As a result, anime provides a unique[…..]
Art as Communion
Creation is born of contemplation: contemplation of nature, of people, and finally of objects. Contemplation is a process of mutual creation. You look at an object, and the object looks back at you.
Spiritual Physiognomy
I was born on the island of Patmos where the religious aspect of life is particularly intense, with the presence of the Cave of the Apocalypse and the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian. I was fortunate enough to belong to a family that had monks in the monastery, so from a young age I[…..]
Father Sergei Glagolev: An Appreciation
I have heard the legacy of Father Alexander Schmemann described as one of freedom. So many descriptions of Orthodoxy present the Church as history and rules. Indeed, many people find their way to the Church through reading about the early church. The strictness of the Orthodox Church’s disciplines reflects the strictness of its theology.
Iconostasis
In Eastern Christianity, an iconostasis is a wall of icons and religious paintings separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. “Iconostasis” can also mean a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church. There are strict rubrics governing the placement of icons within the iconostasis, and far from being a[…..]
The Search for Holiness in The Young Pope: An Orthodox View
The HBO series The Young Pope, directed by Paolo Sorrentino, generated unexpectedly involved and heated discussion among Orthodox Christians in Russia. It seemed as though every self-identified believer in Russia watched it. Some spat and condemned it. The majority admired it. But nobody remained indifferent or reserved judgment until the first season’s end.
The Hands of the Fisherman
Anastasia Semash paints, draws, and makes sculptures of people, flowers, and animals. Between 2012 and 2014, she created sculptures of gospel characters out of bottles.
The Mystery of the Church
When Sister Ioanna [Reitlinger] was commissioned by the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius in 1945 to decorate their chapel at Ladbroke Grove, London, she had come to a crossroads in her life. Father Sergii Bulgakov—her teacher, spiritual director, and friend for twenty-five years—had died the previousyear.
Mariupol Deesis
We Must Not Lose Hope
Resonant Silence: Is Arvo Pärt’s Music Orthodox?
Many factors led me to the deeper study of Arvo Pärt’s music that I have undertaken during recent years. First among them was the music itself which has made an indelible mark on me for the past quarter-century.
Constantin Pertzoff and the Quest for American Orthodox Architecture
The history of church architecture in America reflects in wood, brick, stone, and concrete the turbulent history of the establishment and development of Orthodoxy in America.
Miniature Worlds
Walking in the hills above Elliot Bay in Seattle, I am greeted by unique images that call out to my attention. A design formed by moss climbing the stairs, ancient maps on the stones, the play of light against a wall, a precious color reflected off a petal only at this moment, on this day,[…..]
Sister Ioanna Reitlinger
Her vocation as a painter had been clear from an early age, but events did not allow her to complete her studies at the art school in her native city. Having withdrawn during the Russian Civil War to Crimea, where her mother and two sisters would die from typhus, she met Fr. Sergius Bulgakov, an[…..]
Showing Modern Art In Austria’s Historical Monastery
Visitors come to the magnificent Klosterneuburg Monastery outside Vienna—which recently celebrated its 900th anniversary—for many reasons: to celebrate the foundation of the Austrian state (which more or less began here), to pray in the imposing Baroque church, to tour the ornate imperial residence built around it as a kind of Escorial, to see the crown[…..]
The Pilgrimage Chapel
In 1944, a bomb destroyed a small Christian chapel on a hill outside the eastern French town of Ronchamp. The structure had been built in the fourth century, probably on the site of a pagan altar, and had become an important pilgrimage site. After the end of the war, the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier was[…..]
Menorah and Cross in Late Antiquity
Some time ago, a magazine asked for my comments on a certain project launched by an international network of tattoo salons, the goal of which was to restore the swastika’s primordial solar meaning. Before submitting my analysis, I spent some time exploring the history of the symbol. I was struck by the deep iconic resonance[…..]
Kythira’s Byzantine Heritage: The Church of St. Demetrius in Pourko
Just a few miles to the south of Peloponnesus, washed by waters of the Aegean Sea, lies the isle of Kythira, the southernmost of the Ionian islands. It doesn’t attract as many tourists as better known destinations, such as Corfu or Zakynthos; it is a quiet (thus a bit rugged) resort popular among the Greeks,[…..]
The Image of the Whole Earth as Icon
For the past fifty years I’ve been living with a remarkable photograph. I’m looking at it now. It was taken on July 16, 1969, by an astronaut who was gazing at his home planet through a thick glass window. I wonder if he didn’t feel like a new Bartimaeus, a man born blind whose eyes[…..]
Icons on Ammo Boxes
For their ongoing Icons on Ammo Boxes project, the contemporary Ukrainian artists Sofia Atlantova and Oleksandr Klymenko salvage the wooden lids of ammunition boxes from the eastern front in Ukraine, which has been destabilized for the past five years by Russian-backed separatist forces. Then, with egg tempera—and, in some cases, colored pencils—Atlantova and Klymenko transform[…..]
The Odd Catholic Couple
It is no wonder that the lead actors in The Two Popes, Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, have been nominated for Golden Globes, Oscars, and British Academy Film Awards. After all, the 2019 film, by director Fernando Meirelles, is a character study, the very kind of movie that relies on actors’ skillful portrayal. At the[…..]