Art has the ability to touch that inner part of man and convey directly a creative experience and response difficult to express in words. It was the life long vocation of Saint Sophrony (Sakharov) (1896-1993) to offer this living experience through art. His artistic training had its roots in both Imperial and Soviet Russia where as a young student, he was influenced by the writings of Kandinsky on the spiritual in art. It was the spiritual life that called him ever more strongly and after working as a portrait and landscape artist in Paris, Father Sophrony abandoned his painting to become a monk on Mount Athos.