Russia in Its Icon

“The days of the flourishing of Russian icon-painting art begin in the age of the greatest Russian saints—at that very epoch when Russia gathers around the monastery of St. Sergius and grows out of ruins. And this is not accidental. All three of these great facts of Russian life— the spiritual feat of great ascetics, the growth of the worldly structure of Orthodox Russia, and the greatest achievements of religious Russian painting—are connected with one another by that close, inseparable bond that is so eloquently expressed by the silk-embroidered image of Saint Sergius…”