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[Published in The Greek Australian Vema, July 2011, 9]

Revering an Image of the Holy Trinity

By Doru Costache

The icon reproduced on this page, painted by an anonymous artist in the 15th century, is in

fact a mural depiction to be found at Moldovița monastery, Romania. This icon of the Holy

Trinity offers glimpses into numerous mysteries, recapitulating the whole divine economy for 

our sake and for the restitution of our wholeness (one of the meanings of the word ‘salvation’

in the Classical Greek). Below, I will try to share with you a few thoughts that come to my

mind when gazing upon its beauty.

The Holy Trinity, whose revelation is the content of the feasts of Theophany (Epiphany) and

Pentecost, is uniquely represented here in a colloquial posture. The Father, represented as the

Ancient of Days, and the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, face one another as if talking, and both bless the holy cross in concord – a summary of the entire economy, accomplished not without

the sacrifice of the Lamb. On top of the cross rests the Dove, in a clear suggestion of the

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outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the final outcome of the crucifixion. Fr Dumitru Stăniloae

insisted on many occasions on the idea behind this tremendous image of the divine council to

which the whole of creation is called, with or without mentioning the famous fresco. Not

without reason an exegete of his work, namely, Maciej Bielawski, OSB, penetratingly

remarked that Fr Stăniloae’s legacy can be summarised along these lines: “in the beginning

there has been a dialogue, and at the endless end there will be another dialogue”…

Every time I contemplate this icon, it looks to me like a pointer to the divine plan of creation,

which begins with the pretemporal moment when the Son of God and true God turned his

face toward the Father as Christ and Logos of creation (cf. John 1:1), saying: “let us make the

human being according to our image and according to likeness” (Genesis 1:26 LXX). This is

the moment when the Son of God as Logos of creation put on the “form of God” (cf.

Philippians 2:6), becoming the Prototype of our fashioning (for we are called to become in the

image of God’s Son; cf. Romans 8:29) and thus anticipating his profound kenosis in the

“form of a servant” (cf. Philippians 2:7).

The mystery of the cross features at the very centre, as an encryption of the entire plan, like in

St Maximus’ vision of the whole creation established on the Lord’s sacrifice, which in turn‘exegetes’ the meaning and purpose of creation... τὰ φαινόµενα πάντα δεῖται  σταυροῦ... And

thus, the divine epiphany announces at once the origins of everything and the climax of the

whole plan, opening the window towards the purest and universally demiurgic act of 

crucifixion, this whole-burnt offering of the Lord. Furthermore, this icon shows that far from

 being an accident in history Christ’s crucifixion reiterates “in the fullness of time” his original

and foundational sacrifice, of the Lamb upon whose life the life of the world is built (cf.

Revelation 13:8). Indeed, nothing can be without being founded on a sacrificial bedrock...

I take this opportunity to add that I am worried about the new waves of iconoclastic denial of 

the iconographical representation of the Father as an old man. According to the promoters of 

this new iconoclastic trend, any icon of the Father is illegitimate, given that the Father never 

took flesh... How silly this is. The Holy Spirit never took flesh and we still representhim/her/it as a dove and as tongues of fire; and we do this given his/her/its epiphany in such

forms. In fact, the epiphany/revelation/manifestation is a significant presupposition of icon-

making – if not the ultimate one (the incarnation of the Logos being the culmination of all

revelations). And if the revelation of a person is what makes an icon possible, then the

representation of the Father as an old man is legitimate. I am thinking here of that canonical

epiphany of the Father as the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7:9-10,13-4, toward whom walks the

Son of Man, a prophetic revelation which might have very well served as a pretext for the

Moldovița fresco. Plus, unlike other, more celebrated representations of the Holy Trinity, our 

icon makes an important differentiation between the unincarnated Father, depicted in a white,

translucid attire unstained by matter, and the incarnated Son, clothed not only in the flesh but

also in the heavier colours of creation.

Last, but not least, this icon talks to me of a different yet not unrelated level of reality. It

seems to recast upon the mystery of the Trinity the light of another mystery, that of spiritual

guidance, where the two persons in the icon reflect the spiritual elder and the spiritual child.

Indeed, the elder teaching the disciple under the wings of divine inspiration – thus forwarding

the legacy, signified by the identical scrolls held by both Father and Son in the icon – can

very well be recognised in this archetypal image of an eternal council, where the Father 

entrusts the Son with the accomplishment of salvific economy...