Artists will sketch on just about anything — an index card, a paper napkin, the edge of a tablecloth, a scrap of cardboard, the back of a restaurant bill.
If the date of this pencil or charcoal sketch of the Saviour-Jacob monastery is correct (1860), Vasily Polenov would have been 16 years old when he came upon the well known and much revered place. It is said by pilgrims approaching the monastery, "It seems to float on water."
The Saviour-Jacob Monastery was founded in 1389 by St. Iakov of Rostov who was banished from his town for having spared a woman who had been sentenced to death. The Church might claim him as the patron saint of those who are opposed to capital punishment — believing that the turning of hearts and minds is the principal mission of the church and that killing someone for their crimes makes that conversion impossible. We might say that opposition to capital punishment is the ultimate mercy — seeking someone's healing instead of death.
Often, it is the horror of life that causes one to become a monk, as Trappist monasteries overflowed with candidates returning from the horror of the Second World. So, instead of losing his mind over the meanness of life, Iakov of Rostov went off and founded a monastery.
While nothing remains of the original 14th century buildings, today, the monastery is a collection of several exceptionally beautiful churches built over the centuries. The Saviour Monastery has a long history and endured great suffering, especially during the seventy years of Soviet rule. Beginning in 1918 the Church lost all control — the place was looted and turned into a soldier's barracks and army infirmary, a prison, government offices, a concentration camp and detention center for juvenile delinquents.
When Joseph Stalin came to power in 1922, one of his first instructions was to have the bells of all the churches and monasteries across Russia removed, to "silence the voice" of the Church. The Savior-Jacob monks were expelled; liturgical services ended in 1929. Utterly dilapidated, the complex was finally returned to the Church in 1991. Today, it has been restored; a small and young community of monks presses on.
One of those monks says the essential quality of a monk is hard work and humility. Well, lots of folks know hard work, especially these winter, Covid days. Humility comes from the Latin word, humus, which is good earth. Humility means, I'm down to earth about myself. I don't take myself so seriously. I always have a lot to learn, not from books, but about myself and what it means to be a full human person. That's what the Incarnation is — in Christ, God has come into the world with a human face to show us how to live compassionate lives.
In the recent photo below we are standing in the exact spot where young Vasily sketched the Saviour-Jacob Monastery. Only the trees have changed, and the movement of clouds, and the shoreline plants in the wind. The priest-martyr, Father Alexander Men, wrote, "God has given us two books: the Bible and Creation."
