The Protection of the Mother of God
Mosaic
The icon of the Protection of the Blessed Mother of
God has adorned the entrance of the Parish as a
Mosaic. This project was initiated by Reverend Father
Anton Tarasenko, during his tenure at the Parish in
2000, and completed on Friday June 6, 2003.
The Protection of the Mother of God mosaic
adorns the Holy Wisdom Cathedral in Kiev
Ukraine. Above the main narthex in the St. Sophia
Cathedral, also in Kiev is the great icon of the Oranta,
the Mother of God with upraised arms in prayer .
This
icon is present in many Ukrainian and Russian
Orthodox and Catholic churches.
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The icon at St. Sophia Cathedral belongs to the
iconographic type Oranta,
"praying woman." It has this name because of the
prayer stance of the Mother of God: she stands with
hands outstretched in prayer. The Oranta in St. Sophia
is also called "The Immovable Wall" (around the image
there is an inscription taken from Holy Scripture:
"The Lord is with you and you will not fall"). Having
survived ten centuries (the church was erected in the
middle of the 11th Century), the Oranta has become a
symbol of the endurance of the Ukrainian people
and
the Lord's care for them. The Mongols sacked
St. Sophia in the 12th Century. In the 1930s the
Communists intended to destroy St. Sophia and
build
a large square in honor of the victory of
Bolshevism
over its ruins. In the summer of 1941 they were
planning to dynamite "The Immovable
Wall" and the
Dormition Church of the Kyivan Monastery of the
Caves. But none of these plans came true.
Additional Information about Ukrainian Icons can be
located at the Papal Visit to Ukraine Web Site.
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