Carpathia to revive the Boiko icon
Lviv – Lavriv – Lviv – Twenty icons were the result of the first stage of Carpathia-2010, an international festival which has been held in Starosambir raion, Lviv oblast, for a second time now.
Father Deacon Mykhailo relates that people of various ages and dispositions came to Lavriv and the Lavriv Monastery from Kazakhstan, Russia, and all over Ukraine, in order to create those icons. “The goal of our school of icon painting is, first and foremost, a spiritual encounter with the image of Christ,” emphasized father deacon. “We taught with prayers and aspired to bring up true icon painters and not just painters who decorate churches.”
The icons were consecrated at St. Onuphrius Church. Some of them will remain at the Lavriv Monastery, and the others will travel to the apprentices’ homes.
The icon painting school was organized with the assistance of Oles Dzyndra, director of the Lviv Museum of Ideas, and Tetiana Skoromna, student at the Department of Sacral Painting at the Lviv Academy of Arts. The event was financially sponsored by the Starosambir raion council. According to the head of the council Volodymyr Horbovy, the endeavor is aimed at reviving the Boiko icon. “We want as many people to visit us as possible,” said Horbovy. “The more so that the Lavriv Monastery has a special aura, as it has been a sacred place of prayer for centuries.”
The next stage of the international festival Carpathia-2010 is a sculpture workshop en plein air, which is to last throughout September. The participants will be working on a garden of sculptures, to perpetuate the outstanding historical figures of the Boiko land in stone. At the end of next month, Carpathia will incorporate a regional festival of non-material culture, with folk bands presenting Boiko songs, dances, and rites.
The Day’s FACT FILE
The Lavriv Monastery of the order of St. Basil the Great was founded as an original monastic house back in the 12th century. The monastery was one of the largest spiritual, educational, and cultural centers of eastern Galicia. The monastic church of St. Onuphrius is the oldest of its kind in Ukraine. Historians maintain that it was built by Prince Lev, son of Prince Danylo.
On the church walls the artist Modest Sosenko discovered frescoes of the late 16th century, executed in a technique known as polychromy. Outside Lavriv, works of masters of this very period can only be found in Poland (Lublin, Krakow, Sandomierz, Posada Rybotycka).
The Lavriv Monastery contains the tombs of king Lev I Danylovych, metropolitans of Kyiv, bishops of Przemysl, Moldavian hospodars Kostiantyn Basarab and Stepan Petrychaiko, and Macarius, Metropolitan of Jerusalem.
