Pilgrimage to Holy Mountain 31

31

The Icon School:

After living at Saint Anne’s for about three weeks, Father Athanasius told me after breakfast one day that taking care of Saint Anne’s monastery is a rotating job. Both he and the monks presently on duty here only remain here for one year. During this year they serve the pilgrims who appear at the gate daily and do the maintenance work of the church and related buildings. But for the rest of their lifetime stay on Holy Mountain, they live at one or another of the sketes nearby pursuing their vocation as icon artists.

Then he asked me if I would like to visit a studio where icons were being produced. Though I had claimed to be most interested in the production of icons when I asked for permission to remain on Holy Mountain, this was the first time I had been invited to see one. Of course I said I would very much like to visit such a school and he asked me to follow him.

I thought we would have to walk to another monastery at least, but to my surprise Father Athanasius led me to a large sunny workroom where some of the same monks I had helped make up pilgrim’s beds that morning were gathering to create world famous icons.

This icon studio, I learned, one of the most important on Holy Mountain, was right here at Saint Anne’s!

The monastery, though small, was composed of such a maze of corridors and rooms that if you didn’t know where something like this studio was it was next to impossible to find without a guide.

I had noticed that every day after breakfast and morning chores, most of the monks not needed for other work would disappear. I had supposed that they went out to the garden, maybe even fishing or to other tasks, but now I saw them assume work stations with the same calm deliberation with which they performed their housekeeping duties.

Father Athanasius recited a prayer and after a short silent meditation the monks silently began work.

I had been told that the creation of an icon was a religious act and now I saw that it was really just an active form of prayer. The monks’ prayer mode continued seamlessly into their production of the works of art. To my great surprise, Father Athanasius was not only Abbot of the monastery and cleaner of toilets but also an accomplished artist.

I saw that these exquisite icons are produced as a community effort rather like an assembly line.

Some workers prepare the wood boards which are the icon’s “canvas”, others prime the wood with a gesso mixture. Some prepare paints. Some artists are experienced in painting backgrounds, coloring figures or applying gold leaf and others do the finest details and lettering. The icons thus manufactured are donated or sold to Orthodox churches, believers and art collectors all over the world. There is, I was told, a constant demand for them and some are quite valuable. Part of the money earned through sales of their icons goes to defray some of the expenses of the Hagia Anna monastic community.

To Orthodox believers, these icons, prepared with such diligent care and following ancient traditional models, are literally “windows into another world”.

They believe that contemplation of the icon is an aid to spiritual growth and understanding, and their icons are treated with the care and respect accorded to other “sacred objects”.

Since these icons are a sort of visible prayer, they are never signed by any of the artists responsible for their fabrication.

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Tomasito, 2009


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