Treasure in a Box
a Guide to the Icons of St. Andrew
by
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When entering the nave at St. Andrew Orthodox Church, the worshiper is surrounded by a panoply of images within a small space. It is impossible to flee this intimacy of heaven brought near for it confronts us, surrounds us, and embraces us. This is the liturgical purpose of Orthodox Christian iconography, to immerse the Christian soul in the reality of God’s presence with her in eternity. Every icon expresses this mystery that is actualized corporately "in the midst of the congregation," but also personally in the heart of every believer. Thus, the Holy icons are not reverenced as painted objects, but as directives toward an encounter with the unseen Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, made visible to us through the Incarnation of Our Lord in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
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About the Book
Treasure in a Box: A Guide to the Icons of St. Andrew is a narrative companion to the largest body of Pokrovsky icons in North America, located at St. Andrew Antiochian Orthodox Church in Lexington, Kentucky. The late Ksenia Mihailovna Pokrovskaya was a world-renowned master iconographer who immigrated to the United States from Moscow in 1991, six months before the collapse of the Soviet Union. During the 1960s, she gave up a promising career as a biophysicist at Moscow University to become a leader of a clandestine movement that revived the tradition of icon painting in her homeland, where it was forbidden by law. Over the past two decades the curious as well as the faithful have come to survey the interior of an unremarkable shoebox structure that is St. Andrew Orthodox Church. The universal response has been one of awe when standing before this visual gospel that portrays the history of salvation from the conception of the Virgin Mary to the evangelistic preaching of the apostles. Treasure in a Box: A Guide to the Icons of St. Andrew provides an up close look at these symbols of faith.
About the Author
Mary Lowell is a poet and frequent contributor to the “Orthodox Arts Journal.” She is also a contributing editor of “Another City.” Lowell’s first monograph, Revelations: Visions of the Second Coming from the Old and New Testaments, was published by Viking Penguin Press in 1994. In 2003, Lowell founded the non-profit organization Hexaemeron, which provides ecclesial arts education in the areas of Orthodox icon painting, icon carving and pictorial embroidery. She administers Hexaemeron’s classes in venues across the United States and in South America. Lowell has been a member of St. Andrew Antiochian Orthodox Church in Lexington, KY since 1984.