The Patriarchate of Georgia has appealed to the donors of the icon of St. Matrona to make appropriate changes to the icon, or said it will do it itself.
In the Patriarchate’s statement they say that since Stalin’s meeting with St. Matrona, due to insufficient evidence, is not included in the canonical text of her life, is not recognized by the Russian Church, which canonized her and conducted a special study on this issue, it is necessary to change the mentioned episode and take into account other details related to the canonicality of iconography.
“Due to one of the episodes depicted on the icon of Saint Matrona in the Holy Trinity Cathedral, conflicting conversations and confrontations have been ongoing in recent days, which has taken a kind of political context. At the same time, the icon became the object of completely unjustified offensive actions, and the tension increased even more. There are other misconceptions, which is why we explain the following:
“In general, based on the canonical rules of iconography, not only the saint, but real stories related to the saint’s life with the image of any person can be painted on the icon, including rulers and ordinary people, heretics and persecutors of the Christian faith, even those who tortured the saint himself; However, this does not mean at all that the icon glorifies these persons or attributes any dignity to them, but such details are a reflection of indisputable facts related to the saint.
“Since Stalin’s meeting with St. Matrona, due to insufficient evidence, is not included in the canonical text of her life, is not recognized by the Russian Church, which canonized her and conducted a special study on this issue, it is necessary to change the mentioned episode and take into account other details related to the canonicality of iconography.
“We appeal to the donors to make appropriate changes to the icon themselves, or we will do it,” reads the statement.
The mentioned icon was discovered in Tbilisi’s main cathedral, Holy Trinity (Sameba), depicting the Russian Saint Matrona of Moscow seated beside Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, a man who ordered the extermination of tens of millions of people in the 1930s and 1940s.
Related story: The Matrona-Stalin Icon Scandal
