St Sophrony’s image of Christ in a Liturgical perspective

In the following article we shall examine four icons painted by St Sophrony, linking them to his writings, theology, and personal development.

The Person of Christ was the undisputable centre of St Sophrony’s life. During long years of intense repentance, he expressed his devotion in thought, in prayer, in writing and in painting.^[1] From his meeting with Christ in his youth until his eyesight began to fade in old age, it was his burning desire to portray the Face of his Creator in a worthy manner. Although he realised that painting the perfect icon was an impossible task, he continued to portray his Saviour in various forms of expression through his long life.

St Sophrony’s image of Christ is inseparable from his understanding of the hypostatic principle.^[2]

The soul comes to know herself first and foremost face to Face with God. And the fact that such prayer is the gift of God praying in us shows that the hypostasis^[3] is born from on High and so is not subject to the laws of Nature… It is singular and unique.^[4]

God, the Absolute Being, is Hypostatic by nature, and man, who is created in the image of God, has the full potential to become hypostatic in so far that he strives to unite himself to God. Christ, who took upon himself human flesh, has shown us the way by his sacrifice and by his love.

Absolute Being is Hypostatic; and man, the image of the Absolute, is hypostatic. God is Spirit, and man-hypostasis is spirit… Just as the Divine Logos took on Himself human flesh… so, too, the human hypostasis is actually real. The Divine Spirit embraces all that exists… The hypostasis does not determine himself by opposition. His is an attitude of love. Love is the most profound content of his being, the noblest expression of his essence.^[5]

Christ’s Love was the strongest point for St Sophrony. This Love is closely linked to His sacrifice and kenosis. The only way to approach him is by ascetic struggle and self-denial.

Christ is miracle beyond comprehension. He is the all-perfect revelation of God. He is also the all-perfect manifestation of man… The moment will come when heart and mind are so suffused by the vision of the infinite holiness and humility of the God-Christ that our whole being will rise in a surge of love for God… Ever-growing love for Christ naturally leads to experiences that liken us to Him; and an unimaginable panorama will unfold before our eyes. The sorrows of the world will grieve us sorely. And we shall forget our body, and our spirit, in so far as it is able, will live Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane.^[6]

It is this sorrow for the world that is the aspect that St Sophrony tried to depict in his icons. After tasting this pain in prayer for the whole world, which he felt especially during his years as a hermit on the Holy Mountain—years that coincided with the Second World War and the ensuing Greek Civil War—he formed a deeper understanding of Christ’s suffering. He found expression for this in practicing the Jesus Prayer with deep repentance. The Jesus Prayer continued to be the essence of contact with Christ, even during the celebration of the Liturgy, as we shall see further on.

As a hesychast, St Sophrony had no thought to take up painting again, but his life evolved in such a way that he found himself in front of a panel in order to express the Beloved Face of his Creator in paint.

The two main paths for St Sophrony to a fuller knowledge and contact with Christ were hesychastic prayer and the Liturgy. These two aspects are closely related and are something he tried to express in paint on the face of Christ at the Last Supper. Four images will be examined in order to illustrate this aspect of St Sophrony’s prayer.

O Father all-holy, we have fashioned this image of Thy beloved Christ and we pray and beseech Thee, of Thy goodness send down Thy Holy Spirit upon this Icon, to bless it and hallow it, that all who pray here may be heard of Thee and receive Thy heavenly blessing, and the grace of Thy Holy and life-giving Spirit.^[7]

The above prayer, composed by St Sophrony, illustrates his attitude of reverence to the painted image of Christ. The striking resemblance to the Eucharistic prayer of the anaphora in the invocation of the Holy Spirit to sanctify the work shows that even though the painting was done with utmost reverence and care, yet it was in need of a seal of sanctification.

There is a fine line of distinction that is difficult to express in words. St Sophrony ‘painted’ the image of Christ not only in paint, but also in his theology, in his celebration of the Liturgy and in his very life. As the celebration of the Liturgy is closely linked with the painted image (both express the Person of Christ), the images chosen for examination are four faces of Christ at the Last Supper, painted over a period of fifteen years. They show a clear development in St Sophrony’s deepening understanding and relationship to his Creator.

This first image of the Lord’s face at the Last Supper is a detail of an icon painted for an iconostasis in a church in Southampton.^[8] It was the first major commission that St Sophrony received once he had established an icon workshop in his monastery. The main icons^[9] were painted in 1969, and this last one, which was positioned above the Royal Doors, was commissioned and painted the following year. The composition is in landscape format and presents the traditional iconographic scene of the Last Supper composed around a circular table with Christ in the centre, with St John the Divine leaning on his breast while Judas reaches with his hand for the dish positioned in front of Christ. The other Apostles are troubled; their faces show agitation and sadness. Only Christ’s face is still, but at the same time, it shows a deep sadness and profound pain. His state can be read in his eyes, which are large and very expressive, giving a sense of looking beyond the space of the icon into eternity. The expression is further emphasised by the straight eyebrows which are drawn upwards meeting the nose and the lines on the lower part of the forehead. ^[10] The rest of Christ’s face and position are calm. His features are Semitic with a long straight nose, a high forehead and light brown hair falling loosely on his shoulders. The colour tonality of the face is light,^[11] the passages from light to dark are gentle; the overall image is one of peace. An exception is the eyes, which express his full awareness of the kenosis to come, bearing the whole tragedy of the world. To paint this intensity without any other dramatic signs means that the painter lived Christ’s state himself; otherwise, it would be impossible to convey such depth of suffering.^[12] St Sophrony put special emphasis on the importance of the Liturgy, the ‘icon’ of the Last Supper. The priest is in fact taking the place of Christ himself at the Last Supper and as such participates in Christ’s kenosis. In his own words:

Deep prayer comes gradually. Body and soul adapt slowly. It is particularly important for the priest who celebrates the Divine Liturgy to transmute his entire life into prayer if he would live this great sacrament to the full. Preparing himself in awe, and approaching with reverence, by the very content of his office the priest is drawn into the domain of the Divine. He begins the Liturgy by invoking the dread Name of the Holy Trinity, and continues in spirit poised between the Creator and all created being. He remembers the Last Supper; Christ’s prayer in the garden of Gethsemane; Christ accused before Pilate; the cross and burial; the three days in the sepulchre; the Resurrection and Ascension; the sitting on the right hand of the Father—as the Son of Man now; and finally, the glorious Second Coming… Mighty waves of cosmic life sweep through him…^[13]

The icon above was the first one St Sophrony painted, expressing his feelings and states within the Liturgy. It is also one of his earliest icons, painted at a time when he was still learning the egg tempera technique.^[14] The fact that he was still searching for the technique gives this icon spontaneity and freshness. He himself emphasised that icons should have a strong tonal presence, solid colours and a ‘culture of surface’; all helping to convey a strong message while also being pleasing to the eye.

In the following icons of the Face of Christ at the last Supper the criteria will differ, as they are murals instead of panel icons.

Almost a decade later, St Sophrony painted the next iconographic representation of the Last Supper.^[15] Since he painted it on the east wall of the purpose-built refectory of his own monastery, he felt free to express another less traditional instant of the scene. Instead of the usual moment painted on icons, with the disciples in agitated positions and with Judas showing his disrespect by stretching across the table with his hand in the dish, St Sophrony preferred to paint a later time: just after Judas’ departure, at the moment when Christ felt free to speak openly to his disciples and start his Great Priestly Prayer (John 13:31–17:26). As such he was creating a more theological icon, an ‘icon of the Liturgy’.

This scene is composed in landscape format, only this time the layout is all on a single plane. The table stretches the whole width of the wall with Christ again in the centre, but this time in a frontal position; and the Apostles, turned slightly towards Christ, are seated in two rows on either side of him, while Judas can be seen departing in the upper left corner.

Christ’s face, calm and serene, at the same time shows a deep sadness. This time the sadness is internal; all the features are calm, while the eyes express a bottomless sorrow. Bearing the whole tragedy of the world, they look into eternity; they see the whole history of mankind, from the time of the creation into the future. These eyes are in a way mirroring the whole life of Christ. They reflect the pre-eternal Council, where the risk of creating man free with the danger of a possible fall was considered. The eyes are also looking into the future; they are fully aware of what is awaiting him in the three days to come: his kenosis, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. They are also looking further to the end of time, into eternity. They are sad and calm, full of gentleness and love for his creature, man, whom he is about to save. All these sentiments are expressed in his large, calm eyes.

God cares for man’s freedom as the most precious principle that he possesses, and so in humility draws the soul to His love. ^[16]

It is the moment when Judas has just left, when Christ is free to speak openly to his Apostles as the presence of Judas hindered him until then, ‘therefore, when he had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him’.^[17]

The Last Supper, mural, refectory, Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist

For St Sophrony, this was the main moment of the Last Supper and of the Liturgy. He painted Christ in such a position that the celebrating priest, standing in front of the Holy Table, was facing Christ, so that Christ was as if presiding over the Liturgy. To emphasise this role, St Sophrony had the prayer from the Liturgy of St Basil painted on the background of the scene, both in Greek and in English:

Thou art both he that offereth and he that is offered. Thou dost receive and art given.^[18]

In painting this face, St Sophrony was expressing his own experiences of close contact with Christ, having mainly lived his life as a hermit in the desert of Mt Athos. He related that once, after invoking the name of Christ during prayer, he felt the presence of God:

Then it was that the mystery of the priestly office was revealed to me… The following day I celebrated the Liturgy, and Christ-God was in me, and with me, and outside me, and in the holy sacraments of His Body and Blood. And the Divine Name and the words of the liturgical texts issued from my mouth like a flame. ^[19]

This second face is very different from the previous icon, not only in expression but also in technique and dimension. While the first was part of a panel icon and as such was much smaller than the real human dimensions; this latter face is part of a large mural with dimensions that are more than two times larger than the human scale. The technique used is also radically different in that the surface of the wall is kept shining through as light; while in the panel icon the light is built up from darkness. The base coat on the face is the darkest tone and the light is slowly added on top.^[20] This gives the sense that the light emerges or radiates from within the face. However, the technique used on the mural has another quality; it gives the means to express the overall lightness, the Uncreated Light.

The Uncreated Light has also a central place in St Sophrony’s theology and is inseparable from his understanding of the hypostasis:

The regeneration and activation of the hypostatic principle in man takes place though the visitation of the Uncreated Light…[which] informs his soul—in an ineffable manner—that man, made ‘in the image’ of God, will receive in his final state of perfection the whole fulness of divine-human life, ‘in the likeness’ of the God-Man Christ.^[21]

St Sophrony had been given the experience of the Uncreated Light already as a child. He recalled that after services, being carried out of the church in the arms of his nanny, he saw the town bathed in two lights: the normal light accompanied by another mystical Light.^[22] In his adolescent years, this was lost, but he found it again as a monk on Mt Athos:

Early in the 1930s—I was a deacon then—for two weeks God’s tender mercy rested on me. At dusk, when the sun was sinking behind the mountains of Olympus, I would sit on the balcony near my cell, face turned to the dying light. In those days I contemplated the evening light of the sun and at the same time another Light which softly enveloped me and gently invaded my heart, in some curious fashion making me feel compassionate and loving towards people who treated me harshly. I would also feel a quiet sympathy for all creatures in general. When the sun had set, I would retire to my cell as usual to perform the devotions preparatory to celebrating the Liturgy, and the Light did not leave me while I prayed.^[23]

He tried to express this Light and often referred to it not only in his painting but also in his prayers and in his writings:

O LORD JESUS CHRIST, Light everlasting,
Who from the Father dost shine forth before all worlds,
O Word (hypostatic) Who wast clothed in flesh…^[24]

Almost half a decade later, St Sophrony painted the Last Supper on the east wall of the purpose-built chapel in his monastery. As he was now more than eighty years old, he did not venture to change the design, but started with the same drawing of the face of Christ that was used in the purpose-built refectory. However, his life by then had taken on a further dimension, and the result would evolve into another depth.

This photo shows the beginning of the work in early 1984. The drawing of Christ used for the refectory has been traced on to the wall and a photo of the painted mural is attached next to the face as a model. The first shadows have been marked out lightly on the wall, slowly shaping the features. Though the same drawing is used, there are already some differences: the expression is sadder; there is a distinct mark of suffering in the face; the gaze is again into eternity, but this time He is contemplating more tragic events as well as having a foretaste of His own kenosis. In this image, St Sophrony further reveals his own spiritual state:

Living ‘to one side’ of this wild and brutal life, with a dreadful pain in my heart I appeal to the Heavens, with their sublime mysteriousness, to descend to the level of the earth, to embrace all who are by nature suffering people, to reveal to them another sphere of Being.^[25]

He wrote to his sister that he prayed for the whole world as follows:

…so that every labour of man may become an attractive process of creativity, so that the fruits of this creative upsurge remain without menace from destructive weapons. I pray that the Light, invisible to us unless there are objects to receive it, become visible to all people in the domain of their minds and their loving hearts.^[26]

However, there is another striking difference in this new face of Christ, which reveals another part of St Sophrony’s inner state: the eye colour is blue.

St Sophrony had a special relation to the colour blue. Already as a child, he was fascinated with the endless depth of the blue sky, to the point that looking at it for a long period temporarily damaged his eyes. Later, as a hermit on Mt Athos, he would contemplate the blue sky letting his gaze sweep from one end of the horizon to the other; then, he would gaze at the horizon and beyond, embracing the whole universe and wondering at its depth and mystery:

The more eagerly I studied the heavenly sphere, full of light—the more the mystery fascinated me. And when, by a gift from on High, it was vouchsafed to me to behold the Uncreated Light of Divinity, I saw the blue sky of our planet as a symbol of the radiance of heavenly glory. This radiance is everywhere—filling all the depths of the universe, ever intangible, otherworldly for the created world.^[27]

In the case of this icon, the blue further emphasises the ‘eternal’ look, the gaze into the distant future. However, as the painting progressed, the eyes developed too. As a painter, St Sophrony had to take the whole picture into account and carefully adjust and harmonise all colour in relation to the overall balance.^[28]

The above image is the same face of the Saviour a few years later, when it was finished. St Sophrony worked long and hard on it with great care and attention. The paint is applied in many fine layers and nuances; yet, it has retained its luminosity and lightness, proper to a mural. As mentioned above, the colour of the eyes has changed: they are still blue, but are covered over with a less obvious green tone. The gaze still has the eternal, endless quality, but now has a deeper and calmer expression. The whole face radiates peace and a humble majesty. There is still an underlying sadness, but it is vanquished by a deep love: the Saviour looks at his world with a tenderness that is paternal and forgiving.

The position of Christ in the architecture of the chapel, in the centre of the east wall just above the Holy Table, makes Him the presiding high priest of the Liturgy.^[29] For St Sophrony, the celebration of the Divine Liturgy was the means of an ever-deepening knowledge of Christ:

Taking part as fully as possible in the Liturgical Act gradually teaches the faithful to participate in Christ’s Gethsemane prayer. This is the pattern: when we are pierced by sorrow, pain, loss, we transfer our hurt to the universal plane, and suffer not merely for ourselves but for all humanity… This noble science of the spirit is not acquired in a few short years of academic study: it demands our whole being. There is no end to this learning, since we never attain the fullness of Christ’s love.^[30]

St Sophrony urged us all to attend the Liturgy with serious preparation and attention, making an effort each time to live it more deeply and to participate in what Christ lived during the Last Supper:

Liturgical prayer with frequent participation in Holy Communion is the fullness. And truly, for this it is obligatory for us to live the Liturgy and to understand it consciously. Then we see that the Liturgy embraces in itself all our life; in the Liturgy are included all the levels of our being in its turning towards God. The Liturgy, as long as it is lived with all our being, enables us to live it as a truly Divine Act, which not only bears within itself this visible world in its entirety, but also goes beyond this world’s limits to an infinite degree. ^[31]

St Sophrony poured his knowledge of all that he had experienced of Christ into this painting of Christ. He created a real icon, in the sense that it expresses more about Christ than a million words could say. It also depicts its painter. Comparing it to the first icon we can ‘read’ the development of St Sophrony’s life and knowledge of Christ. St Sophrony expresses the mystery of the presence and ‘life’ of an icon thus:

The theology of the Name and the theology of the ikon have many traits in common. Contemplating the ikon of Christ, in spirit we rise into contact with Him. We confess His manifestation in the flesh—He is both God and man, wholly man and perfect Divine likeness. We go further than colours and outlines into the world of the intelligence and the spirit. So it is that in invoking the Name we do not linger on the sound but live its content. The sound may change according to the different languages used but the content—cognition—contained in the Name remains immutable. ‘O Lord, Jesus Christ, save us’.^[32]

Ιmage 1: Detail of The Last Supper, iconostasis, St Nicholas Church, Southampton.

Image 2: Detail of The Last Supper, mural, refectory,
Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist.

Image 3: Face of Christ at the Last Supper in process of being painted, mural, Chapel of St Silouan the Athonite, Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist.

Image 4: Detail of the Last Supper, mural, Chapel of St Silouan the Athonite,
Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist.

 

^[1]*  Nun Gabriela is a member of the monastic Community of St John the Baptist and she has been one of the closest apprentices of St Sophrony in the  iconographic projects of the Community for the last 10 years of his life.

St Sophrony was a painter in his youth, something he gave up at his meeting with Christ, but after many years of kenosis this art was taken up in the form of icon painting. For further information, see the introduction by R. Edmonds to A Sophrony, His Life is Mine (New York: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1988); the first chapter in, A. Zacharias, Man the Target of God (Essex, UK: Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, 2015), 25–53; Seeking Perfection in the World of Art and BEING, both published by Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, 2014 and 2016.

 

^[2]  For a full explanation of his theology on this point, see A. Zacharias, Christ, Our Way and Our Life (PA: St Tikhon’s Seminary Press, 2003), 17–29.

 

^[3]  In the original text the word persona is used instead of hypostasis.

 

^[4]  A. Sophrony, His Life is mine, 43.

 

^[5]  Idem.

 

^[6]  His Life is mine, 93–94.

 

^[7]  Extract from ‘Prayer at the Blessing of an Icon of Christ’, A. Sophrony, On Prayer (Essex, UK: Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, 1996), 208.

 

^[8]  The Church of St Nicholas, Southampton.

 

^[9]  The main icons of the icon screen were Christ, The Mother of God, St John the Baptist, and St Nicholas. The screen also consisted of the Annunciation on the Royal Doors and the two archangels on the side doors. See A. Sophrony (Sergei Sakharov), Catalogue Raissonné Vol.2. Icons: Commissions & Collaborations (Essex, UK: Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, 2020).

 

^[10]  These straight eyebrows drawn up into a point at the bridge of the nose is something that later on became something of a trademark of St Sophrony’s iconographic faces. Their origin is the suffering face of the Mother of God at the Entombment of Christ fresco in Nerezi.

 

^[11]  St Sophrony was once asked why all his apostles looked ‘Russian’. He explained to the person that artistically the tonal value of the colours had to be measured to the light of the country and that in the soft English light, stark contrasts would look out of place.

 

^[12]  As a painter myself, I have proved this to be painfully true: even if a face painted by St Sophrony is traced and copied in minute detail, the outcome of the image is not the same as the original. It will always lack strength and even sometimes turn towards being sentimental. The icon contains a whole other dimension, not visible to the eye, but fully palpable to the heart of the beholder, especially when in the act of praying.

 

^[13]  His Life is Mine, 87.

 

^[14]  In his professional life he had mainly worked with oil colours. He painted many portraits and the expression of the soul of the person depicted was of prime importance for him already in his youth.

 

^[15]  In the mid-1970s, due to the increased influx of pilgrims, it became necessary to build a large refectory in the monastery. This hall was arranged in such a way that, if necessary, it could also serve as a chapel. Hence, the liturgical mural decoration programme was created.

 

^[16]  A. Sophrony, St Silouan the Athonite (Essex, UK: Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, 1991), 220.

 

^[17]  John 13:31.

 

^[18]  The Offertory, Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, The Orthodox Liturgy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 61.

 

^[19]  On Prayer, 47.

 

^[20]  For the murals, St Sophrony used very diluted oil paint straight on to the gypsum plaster that had been sanded to make the surface absorbent. Since he was using the painting medium he had learned and used during his days as an artist, this gave him greater ease of expression in handling the paint.

 

^[21]  Christ, Our Way and Our Life, 26.

 

^[22]  A. Sophrony, We Shall see Him as He is (Essex, UK: Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, 1988), 37.

 

^[23]  We shall see Him, 184.

 

^[24]  On Prayer, 197. See also the prayer on p. 204:

O CHRIST OUR GOD,

Desire of our hearts,

Diffuse the light of Thy truth over us.

that in Thy light, unworthy as we are,

we may behold Thy glory

as of the only-begotten of the Father,

and so be fashioned after Thy searchless image,

in the likeness of which Thou didst create man.

O God our Saviour, light of our minds,

may Thy strength abide in us,

that we may ever be in Thee,

bearing always within us Thy Holy Spirit.

^[25]  A. Sophrony, Letters to his Family (Essex, UK: Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, 2015), 280.

 

^[26]  Idem.

 

^[27]  We Shall See Him, 166.

 

^[28]  When painting the Chapel, he told his helpers that murals and large works of art can be done in two ways: one is to look good from a distance, from the point of the viewer, while the other is to look good both from far and from close up, to be able to take detailed photographs. He desired that the painting be done to the second criterion, which is much more demanding than the first. For this reason, the close ups of his work are often stronger as they put the hypostatic principle in an illustrative value. From these detailed views one can read St Sophrony’s state more than from the whole works, however perfect these may be in themselves. They still hide the fine detail.

 

^[29]  Traditionally, one finds the Communion of the Apostles with Christ as the presiding priest on the lower part of the east wall in Byzantine architecture. St Sophrony respected this tradition, but by representing the beginning of the anaphora, he brought the imagery to another theological level.

 

^[30]  His Life is Mine, 88–89.

 

^[31]  Letters to his family, 70–71.

 

^[32]  On Prayer, 166–67.