The Russian government has allocated 60 million rubles to make reproductions of the images of Christ, the Virgin and the saints for the cities located between Donetsk and Mariupol, the strategic control points of the area that flows into the Azov Sea. The Rublev Museum exhibition, which has already been presented in many Russian cities in recent years, is now becoming a “front line exhibition”.
Moscow () – Not only the most revered of all, the icon of the Rublev Trinity, has been enthroned in the Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior in Moscow, but a whole army of sacred images has been enlisted to face the counterattack of the Ukrainians against Holy Russia. The Russian government has allocated 60 million rubles (just under 1 million euros) to make reproductions of the images of Christ, the Virgin and the saints, in charge of the museum dedicated to Rublev himself, one of the most important in the country.
The project is called “Faces of the Russian icon” and is intended for the cities located between Donetsk and Mariupol, the strategic control points of the area that flows into the Azov Sea – the access route to Crimea – where they fear that they will occur. the Ukrainian offensives. The iconographic copies must be made “in full compliance with the original techniques, including the materials”, and the priority images are those of the “Savior Not Made by Human Hands” (Spas Nerukotvornyj), the “Yaroslavskaja Mother of God”, a version synthetic “Vladimirskaya” and “Kazanskaya”, and the triumphant image of the “Resurrection of Christ”, which breaks down the gates of Hades and frees humanity enslaved by the devil by taking Adam and Eve by the hand, the best symbol of the Russian war for the de-demonization of the whole world.
Putin had already handed out icons to soldiers on the front lines during his last propaganda visit to Donbass. From both sides come icons painted on armored vests -sacred defense against enemy bullets- one of which was given by Zelenski to Pope Francis on his recent visit to Rome. The exhibition of the Rublev museum has already been mounted in many Russian cities in recent years, exhibiting precisely faithful copies, and now it becomes a “front-line exhibition”.
The Rublev Museum is located in the center of Moscow, in the buildings of the Andronikov Monastery, where the Monk Andrey spent his formative years under the guidance of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, who later moved to the monastery on the outskirts of Moscow dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The saint who inspired the rebirth of Russia is buried there, in whose honor his disciple composed the famous icon of the Three Pilgrims visiting Abraham. Stalin inaugurated the museum in 1947 and for a long time it remained in the hands of the state, despite the insistent requests of Patriarch Kirill to return it to the Church.
Now Kirill has won his war against the past, restoring to the Church the historical role of spiritual guide of the State and its campaigns or “special operations” against all internal and external enemies. The Rublev museum is under his control, which means that all the country’s icon collections are now at the disposal of the patriarchate, as well as the Ministry of Defense, the institution closest to the Orthodox Church of all state bodies. Rublev’s Trinity has been moved with great pomp, in special vehicles with an unchanging internal atmosphere, along the short journey from the museum to the cathedral, where it should remain for a couple of weeks before returning to the restoration workshop. Although Kirill is sure that he can keep it for at least a year, and indeed forever.
Those responsible for the current disposition of the icon assure that there were no problems during the transfer and that in any case “any detail will be repaired, repainted or rebuilt with the same techniques used by the holy iconographer Andrej.” The care of the icon thus becomes the symbol of the restoration of the entire image of Russia: it has been placed in a special capsule that maintains the necessary level of humidity, and a special climatic and organizational regime has been arranged throughout the apse, submitting to meticulous controls all those who come to admire him and pray for the salvation of the homeland and his own soul, with staggered income and time limits for devotion.
