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TSAR-MARTYR NICHOLAS II
On August 11, 1927, in the newspapers of Belgrade there appeared a notice under the headline, "Face of Emperor Nicholas Il in the Monastery of St. Naum on Lake Ochrid." It read as follows: "The Russian painter S. F. Kolesnikov was invited to paint the new church in the ancient Serbian Monastery of St. Naum, being given complete creative freedom in adorning the interior dome and walls. While completing this, the artist thought of painting on the walls of the church the faces of 15 saints, to be placed in 15 ovals. Fourteen faces were painted immediately, but the place for the 15th long remained empty, since some kind of inexplicable feeling compelled Kolesnikov to wait for a while. Once at dusk he entered the church. Below, it was dark, and only the dome was cut through with the rays of the setting sun. As Kolesnikov himself related later, at this moment there was an enchanting play of light and shadows in the church, and all around seemed unearthly and singular. At this moment the artist saw that the empty oval which he left unfinished had become animated and from it, as from a frame, looked down the sorrowful face of Emperor Nicholas Il. Struck by the miraculous apparition of the martyred Russian Tsar, the artist stood for some time as if rooted to the spot, seized by a kind of paralysis. Then, as he himself describes, under the influence of a prayerful impulse, he leaned a ladder against the oval, and without marking with charcoal the outline of the wondrous face, with brushes alone he made the layout. He could not sleep the whole night and, hardly had the first daylight appeared than he went to the church and in the first morning rays of the sun was already sitting high on the ladder, working with such a fever as he had never koown.
As he himself writes: I painted without a photograph. In the past I
'several times saw the late Emperor close up, while giving him explanations at exhibitions. His image imprinted itself in my memory.'"
THE VERY PHENOMENON of the Tsar-Martyr is a source of inspiration to Orthodox Christians. But this is only a part of the Orthodox significance of Nicholas II. His personal piety and Christian character, and his active role as Tsar in promoting a veritable Orthodox renaissance, make him the last and one of the greatest representatives of the tradition of Orthodox monarchy, with whose collapse (as we are witnesses) the reign of lawlessness has indeed entered the world!
The story of Nicholas II - Orthodox Tsar has yet to be told to the world, at least in the English language.
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This article was in my mind when I said that iconography is guided by the Holy Spirit. The icon is usually depicting a spiritual reality that can’t be explained so easily in words.. A ridged viewpoint is always going to miss the mark one way or another. Somethings are in the realm of mystery and wouldn’t do us any good knowing anyways as Saint Anthony was told in the desert when he asked his question.
