Icon Painting at St. Michael's

The Six Days of Creation Icon Painting Workshop at St. Michael the Archangel Orthodox Church in Louisville, Kentucky went by quickly, but oh, so gloriously!

The first full workday on Monday, July 24, concluded with a miracle. Nearly 1000 people poured into the church to await the arrival of the Myrrh-Streaming Icon of St. Anna. The response to this event exceeded our wildest expectation!

With the blessing and encouragement of Fr. Alexander Atty, pastor of St. Michael, Hexaemeron began working in early February 2006 with the monks of Hermitage of the Holy Cross in West Virginia to assist us with bringing the Miracle-Working Icon from Philadelphia to be a part of the workshop's public offerings to the Louisville community.

But there was a problem, an apparent roadblock to our plans...

Fr. Athanasy Mastalski, pastor of Our Lady, The Joy of All Who Sorrow Orthodox Church in Philadelphia and guardian of the Icon was suffering from physical ailments which rendered him too weak to travel for most of the winter and into the summer. As June slipped away to July, we were informed that Fr. Athanasy would not be able to come, barring a miracle. In our discussions with Hieromonk Alexander of Holy Cross, he quoted Fr. Athanasy as saying, "St. Anna goes where she chooses; I only follow."

So it was that St. Anna chose to keep her date with St. Michael Church. And what a date that was! According to the New Calendar, it was the eve of the Feast Day of the Falling Asleep of St. Anna, Mother of the Ever Virgin Mary Theotokos and Grandmother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Little did we consider such a coincidence when planning the event! Neither did Fr. Athanasy and the monks of Holy Cross who observe the Old Calendar, according to which the Feast Day of St. Anna falls 14 days later on August 7.

Yet, St. Anna knew... and silently gathered worshippers from all over the United States to greet her Holy Myrrh-Streaming image that night. Seven Orthodox priests, many nuns, monks and deacons were there, along with pilgrims from many churches in the Midwest and 90 percent of Fr. Alexander Atty's parish. It took nearly two hours after the Akathist service for the attending priests to anoint all the faithful.

Though the rest of the week could have been anticlimactic after that wondrous night prepared for us by St. Anna, the workshop was infused with expansiveness and gratitude for the high quality of instruction provided by our teachers - Xenia Pokrovsky, Anna Pokrovskaya Gouriev and Marek Czarnecki. Our 23 wonderful students worked hard during the daytime and into the night to produce some very beautiful icons. We are proud of all of them and pray they keep working!

If the many, many kindnesses provided by our host and sponsor, the parish of St. Michael, seemed simply part of the paid package for workshop participants, Hexaemeron's staff was keenly aware of the sacrifices that the parishioners of St. Michael's made to present this session of the Six Days of Creation as the most smoothly run in all our four years of offering workshops in icon painting. Every day we were surrounded by helpfulness and love. We are deeply indebted to and thankful for Fr. Alexander Atty's active participation in each stage of the planning process; for his help and that of Fr. George Geevarghese and Deacon Stephen Vernak of St Tikhon Theological Seminary for providing extra Matins services every day for the workshop participants, in addition to the daily cycle of prayers offered regularly at St. Michael.

We thank Chef John Vernak for preparing outstanding gourmet meals, interspersed with the tasty delicacies of St. Michael's Lebanese, Palestinian, Greek and Slavic cooks. We also appreciate the hard-working kitchen crew made up of Deacon Stephen Vernak, Stephen Jacobs, Margo McCabe and Elionni Shunnara. Lest we neglect others unaware, God's blessings be upon all our dear friends in Christ at St. Michael!

Many thanks are due to Mark Jacobs for donating the printing of our icon-painting manual and the fliers and posters for the workshop events.

God Bless Matushka Olga and the choir of St. Michael's for beautifully singing the Akathist Hymn to St. Anna on Monday evening.

God Bless the monks of Hermitage of the Holy Cross, whose partnership with us in divine things is a constant source of encouragement and joy! We especially thank Hieromonk Alexander for driving Fr. Athanasy all the way from Philadelphia and returning him home.

God Grant You Many Years!