A priest from Donetsk commented on the transfer of Rublev’s main masterpiece to the Russian Orthodox Church

“The Monk Andrew wrote the “Trinity” for the temple”

Dimitry Tribushny, a priest and poet from the capital of the DPR, commented to MK about the contradictions caused by Vladimir Putin’s decision to transfer Andrei Rublev’s main masterpiece to the Russian Orthodox Church. Our interlocutor does not hide his disappointment that the situation with the Orthodox icon has provoked a “multiplication of enmity.”

– Tonight, shells exploded in the courtyard of my parishioners. I live nearby – sat in the hallway. Not so long ago, my former candlestick burned down in a minibus – there was an “arrival”. I often think about what can stop this madness? And then I read about the “Trinity” – and again enmity and discord. Saint Andrew wrote the “Trinity” for the temple. Maybe, returning the icon home, instead of multiplying mortal enmity, let’s think together how to maintain peace at least among ourselves? And let’s think about how the experience of secular scientists will help save the greatest icon painted for the church by the son of the Church?

– Father, there is an opinion on the Web that believers will still kiss not the shrine itself, but its armored case. In general, for the Orthodox, is there a difference between the original icon, its copy, or a reproduction?

– Any icon is a miracle. The miracle of the manifestation of the Divine on earth. And we will give each icon the veneration inherent in the shrine. But at the same time, the original is the original, the copy is the copy. I doubt that the will of the icon painter Andrei Rublev is that his icon should not be in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Let’s listen to the author?

And if in order to save it, it is necessary to apply to the armored body, the believer will take it calmly. I think this is a special sign: during the current absurdity, it was the shrines – Rublev’s “Trinity”, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, who went to martyrdom for the sake of the reconciliation of fraternal peoples expected by God.