Father Sophrony, Sergei Sakharov (1896 – 1993) was one of the founding members of a society of painters called ‘Bytie’ or ‘Being’ in Moscow just after the Russian Revolution. Although he was sympathetic with the quest of his fellow artists to captivate a representation of true ‘Being’ that would endure, he gradually realised that he could not find anything in the art of his era except the image of the chaos that surrounded it. An intense period of spiritual search led him to faith in Christ, and he abandoned painting in order to devote himself to prayer. He became an Orthodox monk and then a priest on Mount Athos. After many years of ascetic striving, he left the Holy Mountain and upon establishing an Orthodox monastery in Essex, England, returned to painting in order to attempt to portray true ‘Being’ in icons of Christ and the saints. This book presents the dual inspirations of Father Sophrony’s iconography, focusing on the years of his artistic formation and relating this to his later reflections on the relationship of prayer, freedom and creativity.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Chapter one
In the search for Being

Chapter two
Being, nonbeing and the abyss

Chapter three
From the abyss to the knowledge of Being

Chapter four
Painting true Being

Appendix A
Members of the ‘Bytie’ group

Appendix B
The abyss, asceticism and theology

BIBLIOGRAPHY