www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Icons & Iconography Our Lady of the Most Holy Chokti?

An interesting icon I discovered today:

[Linked Image]

It's a variation of the icon of Our Lady of the Kiev Caves Monastery, which is usually depicted as such:
[Linked Image]

This particular variant was painted in 1688 by Hierodeacon Sergius of the Vysotsky Monastery in Serpukhov, Russia.

Instead of Saints Anthony and Theodosius standing on either side of the Theotokos and Child, they are shown kneeling before Them while the Christ Child hands to Saint Anthony a chotki.

Sources:
http://artinvestment.ru/news/exhibitions/20130415_Serpukhov.html

http://www.art-pro.ru/articles_GTG_Icona_05.php

Obviously, influenced by images of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary in the Christian West:

[Linked Image]

Ah, Griego Amigo, you've made my day!!

I've never seen the icon of the Christ-Child giving the chotki to Sts Anthony and Theodosius!

The one below it is honoured on May 3rd as a miraculous icon, as you know.

Chi Rho Publishing has printed a beautiful, large edition of "The Prayer Rule of the Theotokos as prayed by Saint Seraphin of Sarov" by Anthony Stehlin.

Also, on the site "www.pravicon.com" are MANY Orthodox icons of the Theotokos where Western influence can be readily noted.

There are even statues of the Theotokos in some Orthodox monasteries in Russia - especially that of Our Lady of Loreto that can be seen in the collection and ALSO Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (although it isn't called that, of course). There are also miraculous statues of the Pieta venerated in certain Russian Orthodox monasteries.

Don't you just love those Russians? (Most of them . . . )

There is also an icon on Mt Athos of the Theotokos giving prayer beads made up of Our Lady's Tears or Job's Tears to a monk. Those beads are said to have originated on Golgotha etc.

The Master Beadsman makes them . . .

All the best!

Alex

Thanks for letting me know. It's a beautiful looking book. [amazon.com]

Yes, an excellent site.


Yes, that is true. Here is an example:
[Linked Image]

Yes, I do!

Like these?:
[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]

I found this blog that has several pictures of the monks making the prayer beads. There is also a video at the end: http://agioritikesmnimes.blogspot.com/2012/01/494.html

Dear Griego Amigo,

Wow! Thank you for all of that!

Now I want to get a statue of Our Lady of Loretto for my icon corner . . . Do you know of any places that sell them at reasonable prices?

Why GOOGLE when I have you?!!!

The Master Beadsman made me a chotki of 100 Panaghia Tears, divided every ten. What a beautiful tradition that has such strong roots in the East!

Interestingly, I noticed on the video you present that the Greek tradition, as one can notice elsewhere, prefers the form of the Jesus Prayer that is: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me."

In any event, lots to contemplate here!!

Please accept my deep spiritual bow!

Alex

You're welcome.


Here are two sites that I could find:

1) Sheehan's Church Goods [matthewfsheehan.net]

2) Demetz Patrick Woodcarvings [demetz-patrick.com]

Devotion to Our Lady of Loreto among Russians inspired the icon of Our Lady, Enlightener of Minds, also known as Our Lady, Increaser of Intelligence.
[Linked Image]
It is popular among students.

Here is video of Russian pilgrims praying before the image of Our Lady of Loreto: link. [youtube.com]

The photo of the Our Lady of Loreto statue in front of an iconostasis comes from a monastery of nuns in Russia. You can see more photos here:

Photo album 1 [tervenichi.ru]

Photo album 2 [tervenichi.ru]

Photo album 3 [tervenichi.ru]

Video. [tervenichi.ru]


Ha, ha, ha!!! Others have said similar statements to me before. What can I say? I'm a resourceful type of guy. If I weren't serving the Church, I may have ended up being a detective.

This remins me of when my dentist, an Eastern Catholic, came to our place for a visit.

As per tradition, I kissed him three times on the cheeks when he arrived - much to his displeasure.

He retorted, "Alex, you are the only man who kisses me!"

To which I replied, "Andrew, the other guys don't know what they're missing . . ."

God bless you for everything sir!

Alex

Here are others icons that depict the Mother of God holding a chotki in Her hands:

1) Miraculous icon of the Mother of God, "Joy Of All Who Sorrow" [pravicon.com], which belonged to Tsarevna Natalia Alexeievna.
---Article about icon. [catalog.obitel-minsk.com]

2) Variant copy of above icon. [pravicon.com]

3) Miraculous icon of the Mother of God, "Praise of the Caves" [pravicon.com], enshrined at the Monastery of the Caves in Kyiv, Ukraine.
---Article about icon. [hram-nikola.kiev.ua]

4) Icon of the Mother of God, "More Honorable than Cherubim", More Glorious than Seraphim". [pravicon.com]

5) Variant copy of above icon. [pravicon.com]

Very interesting exchange of comments and images.

I am sure you are both aware that in icons above, God the Father appears over the Mother of God. He is recognizable as an older bearded figure whose halo is either a triangle or contains projecting triangles. Of couse, among Eastern icon purists, such as Constantine Cavarnos( d.2011), depictions of God the father are frowned upon, if not forbidden. He criticizes them as against theology and as a Western convention. Take that for what it's worth. I just find it interesting that these images are revered by all, even those in Russian Orthodoxy and the Royal Court. So much for the myth of purism.

Also, an interesting article put out by the University of Dayton contains theoretical ideas about the early medieval phenomenon of "The Black Virgin(Madonna)....statues and icons.

https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/b/black-madonnas-origin-history-controversy.php

Thank you for the link.

I am reminded of the controversy regarding the cleaning of the image of Notre Dame du Pilier at Chartres Cathedral, which made the image go from Black Madonna to kewpie doll. Link. [vialucispress.wordpress.com]

Is it then restored to the original "kewpie doll" look or was the restoration done poorly?

Good question. I am looking forward to Griego Catolico's opinion here.

My belief is that the restoration was done as accurately as possible, using the research of many Art Historians and scholars. The fact that we think of it as a "Kewpie" look, is our perspective in the 21st century. To the medieval eye, untainted by mass produced baby dolls, it was probably seen as astonishingly beautiful and spiritually inspiring.

We are used to viewing ancient sculpture/architecture as raw and unpainted, simply because the paint has long since worn off. We are so used to it, that it has contributed to an aesthetic of "truth in materials"..........ie, if it is stone, it should look like stone. If it is wood, it should appear wood. This aesthetic was not always the case and only started changing, perhaps, with the Renaissance.

As far as cleaning off the aged patina, that's another issue. Do we want to see how it looked originally, or do we appreciate what is has become? Is it more important as original, or more important as it wears its age and history.

This question isn't limited to the artwork of our faith either. There are philosophical connections. For instance, if we had a chance to see exactly what some aspect of Christian history was really like -without any doubt- would we welcome it?
Or would we say , "no.....that's not what we thought, we don't like it, we would rather have what time has made it"............just a thought.

It was a "throw away" comment to end my post. It comes from Martin Filler's critique in his article, "A Scandalous Makeover at Chartres" in The New York Review :


I am not opposed to the cleaning and restoration of churches and images, as long as the necessary research has been accomplished beforehand. If the restoration involves a significant alteration to an image venerated by the people, then I believe the impact it would have on them should be seriously considered.

Here are some examples of icons that have been restored:

Salus Populi Romani (before and after). [fsspx.news]
Video of the restoration. [youtube.com]
The end result is an icon that looks brighter and cleaner without substantial changes.

Miraculous icon of the Mother of God Chernivtsi (before and after) [sobor.cv.ua]
The face of the Mother of God had been repainted. The restoration involved bringing back how the face looked originally.

Miraculous icon of the Mother of God of Univ [m.day.kyiv.ua]
This is not a "before and after" comparison; these are two icons that came out from one. Restoration involved removing the top layer of repainting, transfering it to a new board and making a separate icon.

Miraculous "Gate" icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk [smolnarod.ru]
The image changed significantly following restoration.The restorers found six layers of repainting on the icon, more than 16 times the icon had been retouched. The riza could no be longer used since the head position of the Mother of God had changed.


There are some images, in my opinion, that could never be restored without causing scandal for the people.

Imagine if the patina from the icon of the Mother of God of Częstochowa were removed. Would the people of Poland be alright with an image that is no longer the Black Madonna?

Imagine if the retouches and additons that were made to the miraculous "not made by human hands" image of Our Lady of Guadalupe were removed. (Yes, it's hard to believe, but someone decided it'd be better to add a few things to the miraculous image. A crown was painted on Our Lady's head, but has since flaked off. The sun rays around Our Lady are flaking.)

Dear Griego Amigo!

There are about seventy Black Madonnas throughout Europe and I've read about the view that it was the Templars who first brought this genre of icon to Europe . . . from Ethioipia when they were there at the pleasure of Emperor Lalibela.

That does resonate in that the Templars, by way of an example, wore cords around their necks of intertwined black and red threads which are the colours of their Order. They may have picked up this tradition in Ethiopia where the neck cord or Matab is standard for every baptized Christian.

However, getting back to the topic here, the symbolism of the Black Madonna has to do with the OT book of the Song of Songs where mention is made of "working in the Vineyard and the Sun burned my skin" in other words, the analogy to how the Fire of Divinity, like the rays of the sun, transfigures us i.e. deifies us and, in particular above everyone else, the Most Holy Mother of God the Word Incarnate, is underscored by the icons and statues of the Black Madonna.

That makes perfect sense to me by way of an effective iconographic style used to bring this theological truth home with us who venerate them. Our Lady of Loreto, who is also venerated in the Orthodox Church as "The Theotokos Who Increases our Wisdom" (Pryvablenie Uma - I hope I'm translating that correctly), is so ancient a Black Madonna that you will find this STATUE enshrined before iconostases in Orthodox Churches! I personally like the Black Madonna of Our Lady of Paris and of Our Lady of Laghet.

By way of ending, I've come to the realization, late in life, that much of the stuff our "more Orthodox than the Orthodox" EC zealots (or "Orthodox Police?") established as a standard of "non-Latinized Byzantine Christianity" was simply a concoction that exists only in their own minds. One would have expected that if those standards truly did reflect Orthodox praxis along several lines, that the Orthodox themselves would reflect it in their own ecclesial lives. And in so many things that are regarded as Latinizations figure not peripherally but even prominently in the spiritual praxis of Orthodox Christians.