He did so by saying goodbye to the Catholic community in Kazakhstan at the end of his apostolic journey. The icon is dedicated to the largest Marian shrine in Central Asia. A work inspired “in the love of the mother”. The blessing of the Pontiff impels us to be missionaries of peace.
Astana () – Before bidding farewell to the local Catholic community and the whole of Kazakhstan, Pope Francis blessed the great icon “Yly Dala Anasy”, the Mother of the Great Steppe, dedicated to the largest Marian shrine in Central Asia (located in Ozornoe ) to which the local Catholics are particularly devoted. The author of the icon is a Kazakh artist, Dosbol Kasymov, who told catholic-kazachstan How was the process of making this unique work.
The first source of inspiration for the icon, the author confesses, is the “love of the mother”, which all men feel, whatever their culture, but which has particular nuances in the Kazakh tradition. In this tradition, the mother is called “Ana”. Mary holds the baby Jesus wrapped in a robe like the one worn by adults, called “chapan”, anticipating his future as a man, while she herself wears the “kimeshek”, the married women’s robe that is given to mothers after birth. birth of their first child. It is not luxurious clothing, but even in its simplicity it aims to highlight the beauty and dignity of the humble woman, the poor woman of the steppe.
When asked how long it took him to make the image, Kasymov explains that “in a certain sense, a lifetime”, because “it is a figure that gives meaning to all creative capacity”, and the icon blessed by the Pope is the culmination of a painter’s vocation. In Kazakh culture, the Mother par excellence is “Umay”, the guardian of all creation, who is reflected in all the mothers of the earth, the only beings capable of uniting all others.
Before the mother’s face, one feels “love, tenderness and also embarrassment, one would like to go beyond artistic canons and human limits”, and what the iconographer manages to reproduce in the painting “is only a small part of what one feels in one’s heart”, says Dosbol: “There is not enough time, one would have to compose the icon all one’s life”. In the Ozornoe icon, Christian faith in the Mother of God is expressed according to the canons of Kazakh art, that of “the great common house”, capable of integrating different inspirations: “I am pleased to see how the Virgin communicates with our mothers of the steppes”, says the painter.
Dosbol points to a famous contemporary Kazakh singer, Dimash Kudaybergen, as a model: he “sings in a way that can be understood by any man on earth, and for this he is loved everywhere.” And it is that “art is a language understandable for every human being, for everyone”; Inspiration is a natural process involving personal history and that of the people to which one belongs, along with numerous external sources that are difficult to explain in words. Francis’ blessing was a moment that “recalled the sense of responsibility of the author, but also of all the faithful who pray before the image of Mary,” whom the pope urged to be missionaries of peace and love for all.
In the icon, the Virgin does not look directly at the viewer, because “Kazakh women do not look their interlocutors in the face, it is considered rude”, explains the author. “In Kazakh we say “tygylyp arama” (do not look into the eyes), it is a sign of humility and sweetness.” The woman always looks beyond, and with that she helps anyone she meets on her way: “She thinks about the future, about her son and that of anyone who comes into contact with him -we can call it feminine intuition, or divine prophecy”.
The Child looks the other way, unlike the classic canons of iconography. “In him there is a mixture of feelings, look at the road ahead. Every man tries to foresee the future, the difficulties and the joys, and in Christ all the sufferings and all the graces of human beings are fulfilled. “He he would not want to part with his mother either, like all children, but he already understands that this will be his destiny”. “from the cross of the Son, who saves the world from the deep steppe of Asia.
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