MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS/: Andrey Rublev’s Holy Trinity icon has been returned to the Russian Orthodox Church.
"In response to numerous requests from Orthodox believers, Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a decision to return the miraculous Holy Trinity icon painted by Reverend Andrey Rublev to the Russian Orthodox Church," the church said in a press statement posted on its website on Monday.
The icon will be displayed for worship in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow for a year and after that it will be taken to the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius.
The Trinity is an icon created by famous Russian painter Andrey Rublev in the first half of the 15th century. One of the most famous masterpieces of Russian icon painting, it is believed to be painted by Rublev for the Trinity Monastery (now the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius) at the request of Reverend Nikon of Radonezh (1350-1426), a disciple of St. Sergius of Radonezh and the second abbot of the monastery after him.
The icon was moved to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in 1929 to be displayed at a temporary exhibition of old Russian art, but the exhibition was never held and the icon has been kept at the Tretyakov Gallery ever since.The Holy Trinity icon and the reliquary holding the relicts of Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky, which have been returned to the Russian Orthodox Church, will be kept in compliance with the requirements of the Tretyakov Gallery and the State Hermitage Museum, Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Pskov and Porkhov, chairman of the Patriarch’s Council on Culture, told TASS.
"They will be stored in accordance with the requirements of the Hermitage and the Tretyakov Gallery," he said.
It was reported earlier that the State Hermitage Museum will delegate to the St, Petersburg Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church the right to keep Alexander Nevsky’s silver shrine at the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg for 49 years. St. Alexander Nevsky’s relics will be placed inside the reliquary. According to Hermitage Director General Mikhail Piotrovsky, these terms are provided in an agreement signed between the State Hermitage and the St. Petersburg Eparchy. The ministry of culture has signed a corresponding executive order.
The silver reliquary for the relics of St. Alexander Nevsky was made of 1.5 tons of silver at the order of Empress Elizabeth (1709-1762) and was placed in the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. It was taken to the State Hermitage Museum in the 1920s as a jewelry masterpiece and has been kept there ever since.
