I recently stumbled upon an interesting report about a group of Orthodox ascetics, living deep in the Russian hinterlands, who have adopted an iconographic image of Vladimir Putin in its religious rituals.
"In a previous lifetime, Putin was the apostle Paul, -- reported the Mother. -- But the president and I have a long-standing spiritual connection. In another life he was the prince Vladimir, and I the princess Olga. In yet another hypostasis he was Solomon, and I -- the queen of Sheba," - declared the head of the believers, who goes by the name of Mother Photinia (on her passport -- Svetlana Frolova). [It should be noted that the mainstream Russian Orthodox Church does not believe in reincarnation and never has--Trans.]
Specially for the parishioners in the church they publish a newspaper «Temple of light». On the pages of this publication one can read exclusive «interviews» with the apostle Paul, Seraphim of Sarov, and even the Virgin Mary herself. Likewise here are constantly voiced not only the addresses of «the spiritual personage» Photinia to Putin and Alexiy II <
The next report
proclaimed: ever more employees of the administration of the FSB for
Rostov Oblast are turning to faith in God.
"Spirituality - our foremost resource, a tradition, by which one can not go back into the past. With satisfaction I note that among us is growing the number of employees who turn to faith", - declared to journalists the chief of the oblast administration of the FSB, colonel-general Nikolai Britvin.
To this can be added that in days of old, they used to call icons
"books for the illiterate". Either we've got more illiterates in Russia
nowadays, or those who write the «books» have changed drastically. In
general, an icon (Greek: "εἰκών") - "image", "depiction" - this is a
canonical (pictorial) depiction of an image of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, saints, as well as events
from Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition,
confirmed by the Church
at the Seventh Ecumenical Council.
I may be mistaken, but I somehow don't seem to recall any recent Ecumenical Council where they might have confirmed a canonical depiction of Putin.
In one of the research pieces dedicated to Russian iconography, I read: "In the Russian icon is absent a conscious striving for elegance. It does not know and does not want to know beauty as such, and if it is saved from hideousness, then only because it is permeated with the reverence towards sanctity and divinity of the personalities depicted..."Vladimir Vladimirovich, of course, has been practically a saint for a long time already: he is simultaneously the «leader of the nation», and the chief party member, and the chief economist, and above the president (although by the status of the position occupied he stands lower); he is also an athlete, and a friend of children and dogs, and a psychotherapist (they say that his appearances on television soothe the entire country)... And finally, in Russia there are several monuments to Putin, a Prospect Named After Putin in Grozny, a collective farm named after Putin someplace in the Altai. It all sounds pretty saintly to me...
Only one small matter remains: to officially confirm the image of V.V.Putin in a canonical capacity following the initiative of a group of Orthodox ascetics.
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This is certainly a cult. Not Orthodox ascetics. For one, Orthodox Christians do not believe in re-incarnation....
Dear Grigory, even if you called yourself a horse, that would not necessarily make you one. These people are not Orthodox, no matter what they call themselves.
If I was Putin I'd have some objections too. The "icon" of him is less than flattering.....
Alexandra