Americans helping to save ancient Ukrainian icons

On Sept. 15 the Cultural He­ri­tage Preservation Fund, which is headed by US Ambassador Ex­tra­or­dinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine William Taylor, issued a grant worth $42,800 to restore the Studion collection of icons housed in a monastery belonging to the Studite Order in Lviv. The grant envisages the restoration of 38 icons and two masterpieces of sacred carvings over the next two years.

The project also foresees the publication of a full-color bilingual catalogue of religious art and the installation of a security system and fire alarm at the Blessed Kazymyr-Klymentii Sheptytsky Church Museum of Sacred Art at 1 Kryvonis Street.

The creators of the project are the Lviv Tourism Development As­sociation and Rev. Sevastian (Dmyt­rukh), the head of the Com­mis­sion on Sacred Art and curator of the Studion collection. According to His Eminence Ihor (Vozniak), the archbishop of Lviv, the restoration of a single icon rescues the life contained in that icon and helps to preserve Ukrainian art in general. The project will also help to expand the Church Museum.

Ambassador Taylor also took part in an event held at the Lviv Historical Museum, where the manuscript of the Khrystynopil Apostol, a unique 12th-century Ukrainian monument, was presented. This is the oldest complete, se­quential manuscript of the Apostle in the Church Slavonic literary tradition. It includes the Acts of the Apostles, the Ecumenical Epistles, and the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle. The manuscript dates to the 12th century and was most likely created in the western part of Kyivan Rus’. (The current name of Khrystynopil is Chervonohrad, a city in Lviv oblast.) This masterpiece, which has been stored at the Lviv Historical Museum since 1948, was restored thanks to a financial contribution from the US government. The restoration took nearly one year and cost over $30,000.

According to art restorer Han­na Horyshniak, the Apostol was created from parchment made of the skins of three-year-old calves and written by different authors. Thanks to the US grant, the experts managed to make a paper copy of the Khrystynopil Apostol, a facsimile, and an electronic copy.

“Your civilization has a very long history; and this manuscript has a long one, too. When it was being written, the US did not even exist. Our joint projects are not only helping to revive Ukrainian culture, but also enrich the American people,” said Ambassador Taylor.