MOGADORE: Jim Stevens cries every time he walks into the sanctuary at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church and sets his eyes on the brilliant icon of the Mother of God with the Christ Child, flanked by two angels.
“It’s just overwhelming — they’re beautiful,” said Stevens, as his eyes welled up with tears. “It’s unbelievable!”
Stevens, a parishioner and co-manager of the parish banquet facility, witnessed the painting of the icon by Ivan Roumiantsev over 17 days in late April and early May.
“It started as a blank, light blue wall and we literally watched that icon come out of the wall,” said the Rev. Nicholas Wyslutsky, rector at the parish. “It’s an amazing thing and a big change for the parish because there have never been icons on the walls here. In the Orthodox Church, the icons are an indication that the church is the kingdom of heaven. We call them ‘windows to heaven’ because they give us a glimpse of what awaits us in eternity.”
Roumiantsev returned this week to the parish to install and paint more icons. The iconographer, who is employed by St. Tikhon’s Monastery Bookstore in South Canaan, Pa., expects to be at the church for a month, transforming the blank walls in the upper tier of the altar area with fresh, vibrantly colored frescoes.
The first day of Roumiantsev’s current visit was spent working with a two-man crew from Pennsylvania to hang eight icons that he previously painted on canvas.
The icons, depicting the Nativity and Jacob’s Ladder and six saints — St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Gregory of Palamas, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great and St. Athanasius the Great — now cover the lower walls in the altar area.
Once the icons were secured in the altar area, Roumiantsev began sketching the frescoes (including the Last Supper) that he will paint, over the next several weeks, on the upper tier of the altar.
“As an artist, you want to make them come alive. The key is in the eyes — they need to be friendly and warm to embrace you when you look at them, so you want to pray,” Roumiantsev said. “The icons bring a warm atmosphere to the church that makes people feel good, so when they’re here, they don’t want to leave. It is sacred work because the main purpose is to glorify the Lord and serve the people.”
Icons are customary in all Eastern Orthodox churches. They typically represent Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, the saints and angels. Since the sixth century, they have been viewed as a means to help worshippers pray.
Iconographers, like Roumiantsev, are required to follow the rules established by the Orthodox Church and have knowledge of the symbolic meaning of everything that is painted on the icon. For example, halos represent the presence of the Holy Spirit, gold represents heaven and eternity, blue represents purity and red represents divine life.
Roumiantsev said that while his artistic ability is a gift from God, his work also requires prayer, fasting and humility.
“When I am painting the images, it’s not my face, it’s the face of the person I am painting,” Roumiantsev said. “The Holy Spirit inspires me with a vision and I am obedient.”
From army to art
Roumiantsev, a Russian native, began his work with sacred art after high school at the Moscow Academy of Art, where he studied for five years to restore sacred icons. While serving in the Soviet Army, his unit commander discovered his talent and gave him a space to restore icons for some of the commander’s friends and ultimately encouraged him to start writing (or drawing) icons.
After his service in the army, Roumiantsev worked at the Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow, his home parish, restoring and writing icons. He came to the United States in 2001 and began working on a fresco on the outside of the Monastery Church at St. Tikhon.
Since then, he has been contracted out by St. Tikhon’s to other Orthodox churches, including in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. His work at St. Nicholas began two years ago, when the congregation renovated the interior of the church and decided to include icons on the interior of the dome at the center of the sanctuary.
The dome’s focal point is an icon of Christ the Pantocrator (“ruler of all”), which depicts Christ holding the gospels in his left hand while he blesses with his right hand. The gospel book is symbolic of Christ as the righteous judge and the blessing represents God’s loving kindness. The dome also includes icons of four prophets — Moses, Elijah, David and Melchizedek.
After experiencing the icons in the dome area at the center of the sanctuary, parishioners began making donations to cover the majority of the $80,000 project, which includes the artwork in the dome, the icon above the altar and the work that began this week.
“Once Ivan finished the dome, it literally rained down,” Wyslutsky said. “It’s still raining. We’ll see when it stops.”
St. Nicholas Orthodox Church is located at 755 S. Cleveland Ave., near the intersection of state Routes 224 and 532.
For more information, go to www.stnickoca.org or call 330-628-4441.
Colette Jenkins can be reached at 330-996-3731 or cjenkins@thebeaconjournal.com. She can be followed at www.twitter.com/ColetteMJenkins.