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A holy image… on pavestones

Den has been presented with an icon by Polish artist and revolutionary Michal Ploski, as a reminder of the newspaper’s journalists’ active involvement in the Euromaidan events
15 December, 17:07
“LED BY THEIR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, DEN’S JOURNALISTS TOOK AN ACTIVE PART IN THE EUROMAIDAN EVENTS. THIS STONE IS A REMINDER OF IT,” UOC KP PRIEST SERHII DMYTRIIEV SAID WHEN EXPLAINING THE DECISION TO PRESENT US WITH THIS ICON / Photo by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day

Organizers of the international open air session “Mercy in Icon” presented us with this unusual image. Picturing Jesus Christ, it was painted on the pavestones taken from Instytutska Street. Polish artist Michal Ploski painted the icon with tempera. The master created 20 such artworks to mark the Euromaidan’s anniversary.

Ploski came to Ukraine for the first time this year. He spent a time in prison for participating in the Solidarity movement back in its age. While in prison, Ploski started painting icons, and has been doing it ever since. In the artist’s opinion, the current situation in Ukraine resembles the events in the 1980s Poland. The master wishes that the stones which were thrown at the people become God’s weapon, and the Ukrainians choose peaceful solutions for their crises.

“I joined Ploski as we gathered these pavestones. We picked up old stones in the places where people had died. The police first asked us why we were doing it, but then they even helped us,” the organizer of “Mercy in Icon,” priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of   Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC KP) Serhii Dmytriiev told us. “A legend has it that Jesus Christ wiped sweat from His face while on the way to Calvary, and the image was imprinted on the veil which a woman named Veronica gave Him. It was this image, the Savior on the Cloth, which Ploski recreated.

“These pavestones display the image of God to which one can pray. By the way, the first icons were painted on the rock in the Roman catacombs. That is, the Church has been at it for 2,000 years. Religious symbolism is present everywhere. Crosses were painted on swords and shields, icons were placed on tanks. This is a reminder that we must remain human. We are all prone to aggression. Sometimes we lose our human nature amid a conflict, even when our side is in the right. However, no believer will throw a stone with Christ’s image at another person.”

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