The Parish of the Three Holy Hierarchs and the Icon

The importance of the Church canons

Saint Trinity However, all this was in essence impossible without the dogmatic rigour that is directly expressed by the genuine, or, as we called it earlier, the « catholic » icon. Uspensky's book, which was subsequently composed of articles that were published little by little, The Theology of the Icon is the result of going deeper into and rediscovering the Orthodox dogma accomplished by the Brotherhood. However, to be fertile, the dogmatic rigour had to be maintained in love, that is to say above all in the communion of the Church. This demonstrates the vital importance of respecting the canons, so essential to the members of the Brotherhood.

«The miracle of catholicity, writes V.Lossky, reveals in the very life of the Church, the order of the life proper to the Holy Trinity. The dogma of the Trinity, which is « catholic » in essence, is the model, the « canon » of all the canons of the Church, the foundation of all church economy ». « The canons of the Church are not magic formulas whose blind application and observance would suffice to create Church unity. They define the limit beyond which the unity of obedience to the Church would be broken, the limit of that unity that excludes any « individual will », in the image of the Holy Trinity where only one Will exists. Or rather, because it concerns the Church, the Body of Christ - an indissoluble union of two wills: « it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us ».As long as the canons are respected, the independence of the Church, her freedom with regard to the world, her autonomy remains intact: the Church remains unwavering, invincible through all the centuries of her history despite all the persecutions. (…) But where canons are despised, the sense of the independence of the Church is weakened. Her life merges with that of the world outside (…). In exercising its canonical power, the hierarchy must always pursue a double goal: on one hand, defending the freedom of the Church with regard to elements of this world and on the other, the economy with regard to the world with a view to its salvation. Thus one can see that the image of the Holy Trinity preserved in the Church through the canons is not in a similarity with the three-hypostatical structure, but in the identical nature of « life », the « unity of obedience », that is to say, the identical character of the bond linking the persons, the communion of love, which corresponds to the unity of nature in God, in the Church and with regard to the world. The loss of this bond implies that the life of the Church « merges with that of the world », whereas the life which is that of the world, is sin, passions, division and death. As to the structure of the Church, it is very clearly described by Saint Paul as that of a human body with its different limbs, the head of which is Christ, or that of a building composed of living stones, the cornerstone of which is Christ.

Father Gregory very powerfully describes this unity of the Church: "This unity, which is the nature of the Church, is the precious vase intact, that safeguards the holiness of the Church. (…). Just as a liquid that can fill only an unbroken vase, in the same way, holiness can be in plenitude only where its unity is undamaged. (…) Any heresy and any schism in the Church mean the destruction of the image of the Holy Trinity, the image in which the indissoluble unity of the Church is born and lives (…) The strength of ecclesiastical unity is not in an elementary uniformity but in an agreement with multiple components; its was born through the indissoluble agreement [of the persons] of the Holy Trinity. (…) The unity of the Church can be understood only in the light of the Holy Trinity. (…). The apostolic succession granted by the Saviour after the Resurrection, received a definitive confirmation in the feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit and was filled with acting glory and the plenitude of spiritual action.

« The principle of hierarchy, entrusted to the Apostles, shone at the Pentecost with an everlasting purity and the power of the Apostles received the possibility of being transmitted through the laying on of the apostles' hands and, through the right of succession, the laying on of the bishops' hands; it is transmitted, maintained and it acts in the Church as a kind of uninterrupted movement, like an inexhaustible flow ».

The spirit of filiation

The Pentecost On a spiritual level, this attitude of respect towards the canons implies the same attitude of respect of filiation. For instance, saying that a certain local Church draws its canonicity from the universal Church and not from another local Church implies a rejection of the spiritual filiation, which is as deadly on an ecclesiastical level as on a personal one. This filiation is indispensable to the gestation, and the begetting as well as to the maturing of the spiritual being; it is necessary to the new birth from above. The Tradition of the Church means « transmission » of the gift of the Holy Spirit; and this transmission, as everything that happens in the Church of the Three-personal Divinity, can only be personal, and be achieved from person to person in the unity of obedience which flows from love. Tradition is the Tradition of the Fathers, of our Fathers, who opened our spiritual eyes.

The filiation from the Mother Church is personal, hypostatic; it is neither cultural nor linguistic. Speaking the same language or singing the same melodies are not enough if the communion has been broken, besides, with those who communicated the gift of the Holy Spirit to us. Yet it would be a folly to refuse the forms through which we received « the light of Life », which are also, among other things, cultural and linguistic. Things happen in the same way in our lives as well as in the life of the Churches. Saint Paul says: « For though ye have ten thousand masters in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. » It is thus inevitable that such an « imitation » is accompanied by a more or less greater integration of cultural forms characterizing the teaching and the personality of our teachers.

In the same way, it is impossible that a universal Church, understood as an abstraction, distinct from one or more local Churches, or understood as their sum, in the manner of Roman universalism, creates a new local Church; and that should not be « any » local Church: but, the local Mother Church, universal because catholic, in giving existence to the local Daughter Church , gives her both universality and catholicity.

It is the same in iconography, too: a specifically local icon cannot be born while there is a rejection of the personal and, therefore, cultural characteristics of the teachers who, through those very forms, have transmitted universal iconicity to us, that is to say, have opened our spiritual eyes... The personality of each individual is also tormed by his/her teachers, in the same way as his/her nationality. By going deeper into this determined iconicity, the authentic character of the spiritual life will gradually give rise to a new local iconicity based on of the individual characteristics which constitute the person: nationality, culture, and experience of each human being and a new style will itself arise of , with no considered elaboration and no research. The only concern remains spiritual asceticism and the demand of iconicity: « But seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, and all these things will be given to you also ». « We say that what is true fears nothing; and what we can also say, is that what is true appears without effort. (…) The Mother of God is the One who bears without effort. (…) She gave birth to God without effort through the action of the Holy Spirit who came down on Her. As the Lord says in the Gospel: « Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ».

Consequently, reproducing one or other iconographic style because of taste, « fashion » or nationality, « forcing » it, in a way, should be avoided. Artificially reproducing a style - which is a widespread temptation today because of the expansion of photographic reproductions - demonstrates a kind of refusal of obedience and, consequently, of filiation, and this is a really grave problem as it prevents the resurrection that comes after the death of obedience. Without this new birth, there is neither new man , nor is there new creation.

The Hesychast basis

The Ascension Ecclesiastical and spiritual filiation is the guarantee of fertility, of the powerfulness of prayer and artistic creativity - of course, so long as they are divine-human activities, i.e. imply the co-operation between God and man. If the flow of this life current is interrupted, there is no more prayer or creation. What remains is the necessity of the humble acceptance of not being free to choose the one who begot us in spirit, but of accepting him from the hand of Providence, such as he when, for example, the Mother of God presented Father Athanasius in person to the future Metropolitan Anthony, as we saw earlier.

Prayer is the fruit of this life current and it cannot develop without Hesychasm as the perfecting of spiritual life. Saint Isaac the Syrian calls Hesychia « catholic », too, because it possesses the integral Christ and unites the one who prays with all men. « The icon - [such as the icon of the Holy Trinity painted by Saint Andrew Rublev, which is the very icon of Hesychia] is a testimony to the deification of man, to the plenitude of spiritual life, communication through image of what man is in a state of prayer, sanctified by Grace. In some way, it is painting nature, yet it is painting drawn from renewed nature with the use of symbols. It is the way and the means; it is prayer itself. It is from here that the majesty, simplicity and calmness of movement of the icon come, as well as the rythm of its lines and colours wich flow from perfect inner harmony. »

For twelve years, Father Athanasius Nechaev was this icon; he was the one who carried the community spiritually, both monks and parishioners of Rue Pétel. There were regularly held monastic meetings and all monks and candidates to Monachism would attend them to deepen their knowledge of it. The future Metropolitan Anthony once made an exposé on Saint Nil of Sora. Father Athanasius would never come. Metropolitan Anthony asked him why. He replied: « One can not speak of Monachism - one has to live it ». In 1943, when he was ill, he wrote a note to the metropolitan, saying: « I have just experienced what contemplative silence is. Now I can die. » He died three days later.

He was not only a spiritual Father to Metropolitan Anthony but also to Archimandrite Sergius Schevich, who himself became a monk before his death in 1943 and was the spiritual father of Father Gregory Krug. All of them were hesychasts, men of silence and prayer. So there has always been a continuity of monasticism in the Exarchate, rooted in the spiritual tradition of the Valaam Monastery. So, in the few years that followed Father Sergius's death in 1987, three monasteries, which took over the tradition of Hesychasm and uninterrupted prayer, were founded. In addition to that, a small monastic community was always associated with the Three Holy Hierarchs' Church, on the same premises or much later, in Nikolai Berdayev's house. In addition to that, in 1934, Father Andrei Sergeenko had bought a parcel of land in the Chevreuse Valley where he had built a church and a small house. He bequeathed all this to Father Sergius Schevich when he returned to Russia in 1945, and that is where Father Gregory lived from 1948 after he had taken his monastic vows.

Faced with the poverty of the community, which could not provide enough for the priests to live on, in 1933, a decision was taken to found another parish, then a second one in 1935, in order to reach a larger number of people and to improve the situation. That is how Father Stephane Svetozarov established the Holy Trinity parish in Vanves, in Impasse Alexandre where Krug was already painting icons, such as the large icon of the Trinity; this parish was later transferred to Rue Michel-Ange. Two year later, Father Michel Belsky founded the parish of Saint Genevieve at Rue de la Montagne Saint Genevieve. The parishioners of Rue Pétel, who were among the most faithful, were spread between the two parishes. The future Father Sergius was assigned to the parish in Vanves and the future Metropolitan Anthony, to the parish of Montagne Sainte Genevieve... Among the members of this parish - "the poorest in Paris" » - were the painter Milioti, Maxime Kovalevsky who would sing at the kliros, the Zimins and the Losskys … In the minds of its founders, the parish was to be the church of the Brotherhood and take over its missionary activities. The celebration of the two rites - the Eastern , in Slavonic and the Western in French - was taken up again. However, there had to be two priests for this and the French were becoming too few. So they gradually started celebrating the Eastern rite only, and subsequently, and from 1953, solely in French. Translating Eastern texts then gradually became the main task. E. Kovalevsky wrote later: « Fr. Michel Belsky, whose parish received some French elements [after the Father Lev Gillet's departure in 1938] continued, to a certain extent, the cause of French Orthodoxy. However, he was bound by an immense majority of his parishioners who were Russians ». Metropolitan Anthony was tonsured a monk - in secret because he was a doctor - by Father Athanasius Nechaev, in the presence of Father Sergius.