I have especially enjoyed creating
the designs you find in this section. In designing them it has been my
intention to incorporate some of the best-known and most important symbols of
Eastern Christianity so that, like my sketches, each of these designs reflects
some aspect of my own interests and therefore the “vision” of this website.
Please feel free to use them as you please and check back from time to time,
as I am working on others you may wish to add to your collection.
My drawings make obvious my
interest in the Eastern Church - both Catholic and Orthodox - and my special
admiration for the Staroobriadtsy Russian Orthodox Church, that is the
Old Believers for whose founder this website has been named.
These themes are central to the
first of these designs, one that I have named
Cross Medallion (1). It has as its principal theme a Three-Bar Cross,
the symbol par excellence of Slavic Christianity, combined with the
immortal words of Pope St. Pius X, Nec plus, nec minus, nec aliter –
“Nothing more, nothing less, nothing altered.” In the first years of
the twentieth century this was his response to an inquiry as to what the
liturgical norms of the newly-established Russian Catholic Church should be.
He had been asked how closely they should follow the usage of Russian
Orthodoxy. His answer made it clear that they should be exactly the same!
Since the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s many Eastern Catholics have
adopted these six Latin words as the motto for every aspect of the spiritual
and liturgical life of their respective churches. They may also be regarded as
the watchwords of this site.
The pattern
Seals and Monograms (2) also has a special personal
significance insofar as it incorporates themes related to the genesis of my
own interest in Eastern Christianity. For some strange reason many of the most
passionate champions of the Eastern Church are individuals who are not from
Orthodox families or even from families having their roots in those parts of
the world historically associated with Orthodoxy. This is also partially true
of myself. While previous generations of my family had no direct associations
with Orthodoxy, for several generations my father’s family lived in that part
of the world which Pope John Paul II once spoke of as “Holy Russia.” (Prayer
before the Icon of Kazan entitled "Along the Road That Takes You Back to Holy
Russia," 25 August 2004.)
While I always found my
grandparents’ Old Country stories fascinating, it was not until I was sixteen
that this interest became a real passion. That happened when I discovered two
Russian documents dated 1888. One was my great-grandfather’s draft notice; the
other was an “Edict of His Imperial Majesty, Alexander Alexandrovitch, Emperor
and Autocrat of all the Russias, Tzar of Kiev, Vladimir, Novograd, Kazan,
Astrakan, of Poland, of Siberia…i prochy, i prochy, i prochy –
and so on and so on and so on.” In addition to the family history it provided,
the beautifully engraved double-headed eagle at the top of this impressive
document particularly fascinated me. Calling to mind this discovery of forty
years ago, this wallpaper includes the monogram of Tzar Alexander III as well
as that of his son and heir, Nicholas II. The seal is found on several of our
family’s Old Country documents. Its inscription reads Volenskago
Gubernatora Pechat’ – “Seal of the Province of Volynia.” Located in
northern Ukraine, in the 1860s this Imperial Russian province became the “Old
Country” to my father’s family.
Continuing this “Old
Country” theme, the pattern
Double-Headed Eagles (3) combines the crests of Imperial
Byzantium and Imperial Russia. There are several interpretations of the
significance of the two heads. Some authorities state that they symbolize the
Western and Eastern halves of the Christian world, or, more specifically, Rome
(“Ancient Rome” or “The First Rome”) and Constantinople - "New Rome" or “The
Second Rome. A variant of this theme refers to the eagle’s gazing upon Rome
(the city sanctified with the martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul) and
Jerusalem, the city graced by the life, death and resurrection of Christ.
Another account states that they represent the ideal of the Byzantine State –
a harmonious "symphony" between the emperor and the patriarch, between the
church and the secular government. Yet another says that, after the 13-century
retaking of Constantinople from the Latins, the two heads represented Asia
Minor, home of the Byzantine-government in exile after the IVth Crusade, and
the newly reconquered Imperial City.
The next pattern continues this
heraldic theme. The Byzantine
Eagle (4) is based on a pattern found in a 1418 fresco in the
monastery of Manasija, (Resava) Serbia on the robes of Despot Stefan
Lazarevic. He had this church constructed between 1406 and 1418, the largest
of all the Moravian-style churches and the second largest of all Serbian
medieval churches - Decani being the largest. This fresco of Despot Stefan is
a beautiful portrait showing him holding the church’s charter scroll and a
model of the church. He is offering the model to three angels symbolizing the
Holy Trinity, while being crowned by Christ and presented with sword and
spear.
The double-headed eagle
surrounded by six-pointed stars is based on a woodcut from the first book
printed in the Slavonic language. In the last years of the 15th century,
Montenegro was the only Balkan state free from Turkish rule. Its ruler,
Djurdje Crnojevic, anxious to raise the national awareness of his nation,
purchased a printing press in Venice and set up a printing shop under the
supervision of seven monks. Known as the Crnojevica Stamparija (the
Printing Shop of the Crnojevics), it produced a series of Slavonic liturgical
books, the first being “The Voice Octoechoes” published in January 1494. This
double-headed eagle is copied from a headpiece carved for this volume.
The next patterns of this
series present other motifs of special significance to Slavic Christians. The
central design of The Mystical
Cross (5) combines the three-bar cross with several symbols
associated with the crucifixion of Christ and a number of abbreviations from
the Slavonic icon of the crucifixion. These symbols are the crown of thorns,
the spear with which Christ’s side was pierced, the reed and sponge used to
offer Christ a drink of wine mixed with gall, and the skull of Adam. In
Slavonic this symbol is known as “The Analavos” – a term originally derived
from the Greek verb airo – “to take up” in the sense of taking up “the
Mystical Cross” of self-denial in order to follow Christ in accordance with
His words recorded in Mark 8:34: “And when he had called the people unto him
with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
The best known of the
inscriptions on this symbol is the Greek phrase IC XC NIKA, generally
translated as “Jesus Christ Conquers” or “Jesus Christ is victorious.” The
abbreviation IC XC for Christ is an ancient one derived from Iesous Khristos
, written in its New Testament form as IHCOYC XPICTOC
. The other abbreviations are TSR’ SLVI for TSAR SL
AVUIY (The King of Glory), K for KOPIE (spear), T for
TROST (reed), SI BZHIY for SUIN BOZHIY (The
Son of God), MLRB for MESTO LOBNOE RAY BUIST (The
Place of the Skull Becomes Paradise), G G for GORA GOLGOFA (The
Hill of Golgotha) and G A for GOLOVA ADAMA (The Head – i.e. the
skull - of Adam).
A variant of this “Mystical
Cross” symbol is incorporated in the design I have entitled
Philokalia (6). This Greek word, which may be translated as “The Love
of the Beautiful,” is the title of a collection of texts authored by Orthodox
Christians living between the fourth and fifteenth centuries. For the most
part, these authors were monks whose daily striving for Christian perfection
is a recurring theme in this volume. Other than the Bible, and a
handful of writings by early Christian Fathers, the Philokalia
is by far the most influential and widely admired example of Eastern Orthodox
piety in print today.
This wallpaper is based on
the title page design of the first printed edition of this work completed in
Venice in 1782. A huge folio volume of over a thousand pages, it was compiled
and published by two Greek monks, St. Nikodimos of Mount Athos and St.
Makarios of Corinth. This volume was translated into Slavonic by the renowned
Russian Orthodox monk, Blessed Pasius Velichkovsky (1722–1794), and printed by
the Moscow Synodal printshop in 1793 under the title Dobrotolubiye (the
Slavonic translation of the Greek word philokalia). This volume was
largely responsible for the great monastic revival of 19th century Slavonic
monasticism by redirecting the attention of Orthodox Christians to the true
sources of Holy Orthodoxy. Evidence for its tremendous influence upon Russian
laity can be found in the writings of Fyodor Dostoevsky and in the well-known
The Way of a Pilgrim, a nineteenth-century religious travelogue in which a
Russian traveler who is taught the “prayer of the heart” by the people he
meets during his wandering and by reading the Philokalia.
Angels, and in particular
those known as the cherubim and seraphim, are central to Orthodox
spirituality, particularly in Slavic nations. They figure prominently in the
Divine Liturgy, in particular the Great Entrance during which the clergy and
servers process into the nave of the church with the unconsecrated bread and
wine. This entrance is accompanied by the singing of the beautiful chant, “Let
us who mystically represent the cherubim and sing the Thrice-holy Hymn to the
life-giving Trinity, now lay aside all cares of life.” It concludes with “That
we may receive the King of All, escorted invisibly by ranks of angels.”
Accompanying the procession are acolytes carrying ripidia – liturgical
fans ornamented with a seraph as a symbol of the participation of the angels
in our praise to God. In some Orthodox churches small bells are attached to
these fans so that as they are waved their tinkling suggests to us the sound
of the seraphim's wings as they circle about the Glorified Christ in heaven.
The next design,
Svatuiy (7) Slavonic for “Holy,” (the endlessly repeated chant of the
cherubim) has two principal components, a seraphim and a cross bearing the
likeness of the crucified Christ with a distinctive ornamentation on its outer
edge, scroll work representing the wings of the seraphim. This style of cross
is a design so much favoured by Old Believer Russian Orthodox Christians (they
often receive such a cross at their baptism and wear it for the rest of their
lives), that it is frequently simply designated as “the Old Believer Cross.”
The abbreviation ST’ represents the word “Svatuiy” in the form that it is
frequently found on the vestments of Slavic Orthodox deacons. The
abbreviations on the cross are the same as those of the “Mystical Cross” with
the addition of INTSI for ISUS NAZORYANIN TSAR I
UDEISKIY (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews) and RASPAYAT-IE GIE for
RASPYATIE GOSPODIE (The Crucifixion of the Lord).
The remaining wallpapers
include some of the best known Christian symbols. Among the most ancient is
the Greek Cross (8), in
this case surrounded with a wreath of stylized palm branches, an ancient
symbol of victory and, from a Christian perspective, especially evocative of
Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem a week before his passion. The great
importance of this small detail becomes apparent when one recalls that this
incident was a dramatic fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy made some
five centuries before Christ by the prophet Zechariah. Specifically referring
to the ninth verse of the ninth chapter of this prophecy the Evangelist John
states:
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They took palm branches and went
out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of
the Lord!" "Blessed is the King of Israel!" Jesus found a young donkey and sat
upon it, as it is written, "Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your
king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt." At first his disciples did not
understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that
these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to
him. (John 12: 13-16).
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Known by several names in addition
to that of the Greek Cross, (the crux quadrata, St. George’s Cross, the
Ethiopian Cross) crosses of this design were popular with Greek Christians of
the first centuries and with ancient Roman believers who frequently employed
it in the catacombs of that city. Later it was used on pillars and roofs of
churches to denote that these structures had been consecrated to the worship
of God by a bishop. After Emperor Justinian the Great employed a Greek cross
inscribed in a square as the ground plan of Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia its
popularity immensely increased.
Another well-known
liturgical symbol of the Eastern Churches is found on the wallpaper I have
named Nika (9). In one
part of the pattern four crowns form a Greek Cross; the Greek letters IC XC
NIKA on another Greek Cross form the second pattern segment. The virtual
universal use of this symbol in the Eastern Church is largely due to its
association with the so-called “Vision of Constantine the Great.” On the night
of 27 October 312, the day before what he regarded as the most decisive battle
of his entire military career, the Roman Emperor Constantine is said to have
had a vision or dream. In it he saw Christ’s monogram (the Greek letters
Chi and Rho) shining in the sky together with the Greek words en
touto nika - a phrase often translated into Latin as In Hoc Signo Vinces
and into English as "In this sign (i.e. the Chi-Rho symbol) you will
conquer." The next morning the Emperor ordered this design to be painted on
the shields of his troops and on his imperial banners. Although heavily
outnumbered, Emperor Constantine defeated his enemy, became the sole ruler of
the Roman Empire and, the following year, abolished all laws that had
previously declared Christians to be enemies of the Roman state.
The central design of the
Crux Gemmata (10) pattern is of special Byzantine significance insofar
as it was the custom of Byzantine emperors to send richly jewelled crosses as
gifts to the most important churches of their empire. In the sixth century
Emperor Justin II presented such a cross to St. Peter’s Basilica. Today this
imperial gift is one of the greatest treasures of Rome’s Vatican Museum.
Tradition recounts Emperor
Constantine I sent such a gift to Jerusalem to mark the site of Christ’s
crucifixion, then located in an open atrium of the basilica. (The most
beautiful ancient Christian mosaic in Rome includes a representation of this
jewelled cross surmounting Calvary. Located in the apse of the Basilica of St.
Pudentiana, it is dated to the pontificate of Pope Innocent I, 401-417.) Each
evening the faithful in Jerusalem gathered in front of this magnificent cross
for a service entitled the "Celebration of Light."
The Crux gemmate
(Latin for “Gemmed Cross”) is exceptionally rich in symbolism. When set with
thirteen precious stones, it is a symbol for Christ and his twelve apostles.
As is well known, early Christians did not have crosses that featured a
depiction of the crucified Jesus. The focus of their faith was the Christ of
Easter Sunday, the victorious Lord of the Resurrection, whose triumph over
sin, suffering and death served as a model for their lives. “The Jewelled
Cross” was one of the ways in which they symbolized this victory.
Hagia Sophia I and
Hagia Sophia II
(11, 12) are based on designs from this magnificent church, the sixth-century
masterpiece of the Emperor Justinian the Great. The popularity of these
particular patterns immeasurably increased after their inclusion in the
collection of Byzantine designs in the definitive work on the decorative arts,
The Grammar of Ornament by the Welsh architect and interior designer Owen
Jones (1808-74). Byzantine decorative designs, a synthesis of classic Greek,
Roman and early Christian themes, gave birth to unparalleled achievements in
art and architecture, of which Hagia Sophia was the crowning glory. Adorned
with a splendour worthy of King Solomon, its decoration included an amazing
variety of stone and wood carvings, mosaic work and work in gold, silver and
precious gems, some of which have endured to the present day.
The wallpaper
Jerusalem Cross (13) combines this ancient symbol with a
traditional brocade pattern known as
Chelmsford (14) (
Chelmsford II -15 – is a variant.) Of all Christian Symbols, the
Jerusalem Cross has perhaps the most numerous explanations. Among these are
the following: Five crosses represent five wounds Christ received on the cross
– the large center cross symbolizes the wound in Christ’s side, and four
smaller crosses, the wounds He received to his hands and feet. Other
authorities state that the large central cross represents Christ, and four
smaller crosses representing four corners of the earth to which the Gospel
must be taken. Still others say the center cross represents Christ; the four
smaller crosses represent the four Gospels.
Top of Page
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Gallery One - A Witness to The Elect
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Gallery Two - When the Wall Opens Again - Past Tragedy - Future Glory
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Gallery Three - The Saviour and The Gospels: Christ, The Mother of God, and
The Cross
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Gallery Four - Fathers
and Saints of the Universal Church
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Gallery Five - Saints and Historians of the Church of Ancient Rus'
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Gallery Six - Metropolitans, Confessors and Patriarchs of the Ukrainian and
Russian Church
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Gallery Seven - Popes and Patriarchs
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Gallery Eight - Churches
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Gallery Nine - Texts
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Gallery Eleven - About Us