The exhibition "Descendants and Heirs of Saints" by Priest Igor Palkin, head of the photo service of the Press Service of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, cleric of the Church of the Martyr Tatiana at Lomonosov Moscow State University, has opened in the Sergiev Posad Museum-Reserve. It will last until May 18.
Among the works presented are: a portrait of His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, with a photograph of his grandfather, Priest Vasily Gundyaev, a confessor of the faith; a photograph of TV presenter and scientist Nikolai Drozdov standing in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow at a shrine with the relics of his relative— St. Filaret of Moscow; a portrait of Archpriest Sergiy Pravdolyubov, a priest in the sixth generation, in whose family there are 11 saints (Father Sergius is photographed wearing the stole of his grandfather, the Holy Martyr Sergius Pravdolyubov).
The poster of the exhibition features a photograph of Archpriest Vladimir Vigilyansky, rector of the Church of the Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University, holding an icon depicting his holy ancestor, the righteous Alexy Bortsurmansky.
"Ordinary" people become the heroes of Igor's father's photo portraits no less often than famous ones. Most of them are parishioners of the Tatiana Church, where Father Igor has been serving since his ordination as a deacon. "Any parish is 'great in small things.' There are completely different people there: different ages, different levels of education, different cultural attitudes, but they are together. Basically, of course, these are creative, deep-thinking people, and therefore spiritual. They pray, reflect on the country, their fate, their kind (what we are all called to do), and this is reflected in their appearance," said Archimandrite Simeon (Tomachinsky), associate professor at the Moscow Theological Academy, head of the Kinoviya cultural and educational center of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, with the support of who is hosting the exhibition (his path in the Church also began and is still connected with the Tatiana Church).
"Many of the characters in my photographs are literally descendants of saints or adopted the faith from their parents. Others came to the temple on their own already in adulthood. But we are all equally heirs of Russian saints. And the exhibition is a collective portrait of the Russian Church, as I see it from the inside," says Father Igor about his works. All the photographs presented at the exhibition are made in the original author's technique — direct printing on varnished and hand-polished boards.