Saint Margaret – Aged Lithograph – Mount Athos

Description

Aged Lithograph of Saint Margaret

Saint Margaret (January 25) was the abbess of the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist in the city of Menzelinsk, Russia.

She was of Greek origin and was distinguished for her excellent education, prudence, and strict ascetic life. She organized her monastery based on the standards of the old monasteries of Greece. Inspired and guided by Abbess Margaret, the nuns lived a rigorous monastic life, diligently performing their prayers and monastic duties. All worked with a spirit of sacrifice and great dedication in their obediences.

In September 1918 AD, when the “White” forces left Kazan and surrounding cities, Abbess Margaret, fearing the Bolsheviks, decided to flee temporarily with other refugees. She reached the river port, where refugees were boarding riverboats. There, Saint Nicholas appeared to her and said: “Why are you fleeing from the crown that awaits you?” Struck by this event, Saint Margaret immediately turned back. She returned to the monastery, convinced that martyrdom awaited her. She summoned a priest and, to his astonishment, asked him to prepare her coffin and grave and, if possible, to bury her on the same day.

The next day, during the Divine Liturgy, a group of revolutionaries entered the monastery’s cathedral and arrested her. The elder Margaret begged to receive Holy Communion, but the revolutionaries were unmoved. They dragged her to the outer narthex and executed her as a counter-revolutionary without further explanation. The grieving nuns retrieved her body, performed the funeral service, and buried her behind the cathedral’s altar.

The following day, the priest understood the meaning of her strange request to be buried immediately. The Bolsheviks brought a Muslim cleric and executed him at the monastery, intending to bury him in the same grave as the Orthodox nun. However, they were unable to do so.

Later, the monastery was closed and abandoned. In the 1970s, a miraculous event occurred. As Marina Mikhailovna, the daughter of a priest, recounted, authorities decided to dig near the altar. They knew nothing of Abbess Margaret’s grave. As they dug, they unexpectedly found the incorrupt body of a nun dressed in her habit, monastic schema, and cross on her chest. She appeared alive, as if sleeping, with no signs of decay on her body.

Aged Lithograph: Characteristics

In this particular image, the monk-iconographer employed the technique of lithography to create a work of unique beauty. Specifically, using a lithographed replica of Byzantine art, the monk crafted this piece following the traditional method of artificial aging, as taught in the iconography workshops of the Athonite State. The artificial aging of the icon is handcrafted, a process to which the monks of Mount Athos attribute special importance.

Origin: Mount Athos