It may be a mere coincidence, but after the Russian authorities'
declaration of the normalization of the situation in the North
Caucasus, the Russian Orthodox Church became both more active and the
prior sphere of internal policy. A VK correspondent recently reported
about an icon arriving in Kabardino-Balkaria from Serpukhov. The icon
is called the Inexhaustible Cup. In a day or two it became clear that the Culture Fund of North Ossetia had presented the deanery (part of eparchy, uniting a group of parishes and churches in territorial neighborhood to each other) of North Ossetia with seven canonical icons.
This is the second generous deed by the Culture Fund for North
Ossetia. Created with unique technology - nutwood is soaked in special
proportions, dried and then figures are drawn during fasting and
prayers - they possess the great artistic expressiveness of their
origin, that is St. Xenia of Petersburg, St. Matrona of Moscow,
Nicholas the Wonderworker, Seraphim Sarovskiy, Madonna of Kmev. The
rural dean of all Ossetian churches, archpriest Father Vasily, thanked
the chairman of the Fund's guardian council Alexey Chernov for the
priceless gift, saying that "the community of Saints will be seen in
the republic's churches that need it most".
North Ossetia is currently erecting new churches and reconstructing
old ones. The church of St. Life-giving Trinity in Nogir village is in
the final stage of construction. Father Vasily expressed his desire to
see the copy of the well-known Trinity of Andrey Rublov there. The
Fund promised to present North Ossetia with a copy of live-giving icon
of Tolgskaya Madonna, taken out of devastated Alania in the XII-XIII
centuries and now in the Tretyakov Gallery. The ancient technology of
fresco is preserved and the copies can hardly be told apart from the
originals.
Tamara Bunturi, Vladikavkaz. Exclusively for VK
