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FIREBIRD Videos, Audios & Books Producers of Educational Materials about the Orthodox Faith and Cultures 14 Years of Service: 1992-2006
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LIFE OFST. ANDREI (ANDREW) RUBLEV
St. Andrew (Andrei) Rublev (pronounced roob-lyof)
wrote and proclaimed the Gospel with paints rather than with words — he was an
iconographer (a person who writes/paints icons). His icons have been regarded for almost
600 years as so perfectly shining forth the divine splendor and radiance, joy and
love—witnesses to the truth of Orthodoxy—that other iconographers have been
directed to use his icons as models. He worked with the best iconographers of his day,
painting some of the most important churches in How do iconographers fulfill such a high calling—to let God speak to people through their icons? It is by working together with divine grace, and by living a holy, pure and simple life. And how does one live a holy life? Most of the saints, including St. Andrew, lived to serve God above all else, and worked hard to overcome their self-centeredness (that gets in the way of God speaking through them) by strict fasting, abstinence, prayer, frequent reception of the Holy Mysteries, helping the needy, and by cultivating the spiritual attitudes of humility, patience, joy, peace and love. Sometimes, as with St. Andrew, the Holy Spirit leads persons to express great love for God and His creation by becoming monks. St. Andrew further expressed his love of Divine Beauty in his painting/writing of icons, through which God still speaks loudly and clearly to people today.
This article was written by Jane M. deVyver, M.Th., Ph.D., and the
photos of the Savior Cathedral and the icon at the top are by the author. The other
2 icons are Russian.
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northern Russia. Through his
most famous icon, the Holy Trinity (photo, right), he has eloquently
preached a beautiful sermon about the nature of the Holy Trinity. St. Andrew is frequently
depicted holding this Holy Trinity icon (as he is in both of the icons of him shown
here). The Orthodox Church teaches that the divine Word and Light can be proclaimed just
as powerfully in written-in-paint icons, as in written-in-ink words. "We proclaim our
salvation in words and images [icons]," we sing in the Kontakion
for Orthodoxy Sunday.
St. Andrew was born near Moscow, and as a youth, knew St.
Sergius of Radonezh, who had founded the Monastery of the Holy Trinity about 45 miles from
Moscow. It was at this monastery, now known as the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, in the
city of 
St. Andrei's relics are buried beneath the floor of the Savior Cathedral (photo,
right) of the Andronikov Monatery in Moscow, where the blessed one was living and
working at the time of his repose, and have yet to be unearthed. Although he had
painted the entire interior of the Savior Cathedral, nothing whatsoever remains of these
fresco icons. Probably what saved the Andronikov Monastery from total destruction
during the Soviet era was its establishment as the site of the Andrei Rublev Musem of
icons. Although many of its icons have been moved to the Tretyakov Gallery, may
beautiful icons still remain here. The Savior Cathedral was returned to the Church
and reopened in May, 1991, and the monastery itself has finally been returned to the
Church and re-opened as a monastery relatively recently.