The spiritual feat of Grigory Zhuravlev The village of Utyovki is alive today, it did not perish in the hell of the hard times of two terrible destructions of Russia during the civil war and the even darker, damned nineties. Apparently a defender was found at this village before God. And who better than the son of a soldier to be that protector? True, he never saw his father. They took my father to Uspenye for military service in the Caucasus, and there, apparently, he was killed by a Chechen bullet. He never returned home from that war. But first things first. Grigory Zhuravlev, son Nikolaev, was born in the village of Utevka, Buzuluk district, Samara province in 1858. But the thing is that from birth he had neither arms nor legs. Arms from hands to shoulders, and legs from feet to knees. He was the third child in the family. The mother, Maria, at first wanted to kill herself and the child, but the grandfather, Pyotr Vasilyevich Traikin, prevented this, “proving the harmfulness of his daughter’s plan.” He said that he would raise Grisha himself. When Grisha was nine years old, his grandfather began taking his grandson to school. In winter on a sled, and in summer on a cart. Two years later, after the death of Pyotr Vasilyevich, he had to leave school, but a teacher from the zemstvo school taught the gifted child at home. The whole world helped raise little Grisha, and his brother and sister did not leave his side. They built a stroller and carried him in it. There was no need for a family, because the world took care of it. He plowed and sowed the land, harvested the crops and helped with community money. The rector of the temple, Father Vasily, also helped, taught reading and writing, donated oil paints, the village teacher Troitsky also taught him, and the gentleman - leader of the district nobility, retired general Prince Tuchkov - also helped. At his insistence, Grisha was taken to his estate and there he studied with the teachers who taught the general’s children. From early childhood, Grisha showed his ability to draw. He took a reed in his teeth and drew on the sand, and how well he came out with houses and figures of people and animals. The village of Utevki was large, rich and many people lived in it, but the temple was small. Grisha constantly asked to go to the temple of God, and his brother and sister took him there every day, as well as on all holidays. They drove Grisha to each icon, lifted him up, and he kissed the image and looked at it carefully, not like a child. They put him and his stroller on the choir and he sang along to the choir with a clear ringing alto throughout the entire service. The master, Prince Tuchkov, took part in Grisha’s education and, with the consent of his mother, at the age of 15 he sent him to study at the Samara gymnasium. And Grisha dreamed of learning how to paint “real images” with oil paints. His brother and sister went with him. The city board of trustees rented an apartment for all three of them not far from the gymnasium, paid tuition fees, and the master left money for living expenses and for a cab driver. Grisha studied well. At first his classmates shunned him as the governor's protégé and a cripple, but over time they got used to it, took a closer look and even fell in love with him for his cheerful disposition, lively mind and abilities, but especially for the folk songs that he sang in a strong, beautiful voice.
“- Wow, a person never loses heart! - they said. “It’s not that we are boring and sour.” In addition to the gymnasium, Grisha was taken to the city cathedral for services and also to the icon-painting workshop of Alexei Ivanovich Seksyaev. The masters were only surprised when they looked at Gregory’s drawings and soon they themselves began to teach him the secrets of icon painting. The owner, Alexei Ivanovich, taught him: “Grisha, paint the icon with the Jesus Prayer. You are a clean person, unsullied in everyday affairs, like a true monk: Write earnestly, in our own way - in Russian. We would like to write like this, but it doesn’t work. We’ve already become dirty, and we indulge in vodka, and the women in our lives are somehow confused. Where can we paint a truly holy image! We do not have a monastic monastery, where monks-isographers fast, pray, remain silent before painting an image, and rub the paints with holy water and a piece of holy relics. Wow! Holy obedience is fulfilled. And we just have a workshop, with worldly sinful masters. It helps us that after our hands the icons in the churches of God are consecrated with a special rite. Then the image becomes pure, holy. Well, you are a completely different matter. Yours is completely different - it turns out gracefully. But just don’t forget to follow the canon, don’t get carried away. The demon will tempt you, incite you to add some gag, but stick to the canonical. Because canonical means ecclesiastical, and ecclesiastical means conciliar, and conciliar means pan-human. God forbid you allow lies in the icon. Falsehood in icon painting can cause irreparable harm to many Christian souls, but spiritual truthfulness will help some and strengthen others.” Years passed, and Grisha learned a lot in the workshop of Alexei Seksyaev. Together with his brother Afanasy, at the age of 22, he graduated with honors from the Samara Men's Gymnasium. He independently studied drawing and anatomy and returned to his native village of Utevka, where he began to paint custom icons. The images he painted were widely distributed among the people. In addition to the fact that the icons were good and blessed, people especially appreciated and noted that they were not ordinary icons, but not made by hands. That “the Holy Spirit Himself helps Gregory the icon painter, that a person without arms and without legs cannot work like that. This is a holy deed, this is a feat according to Christ.” It is difficult to say exactly how many icons the artist painted. Among all, one particularly stood out, which depicted a simple peasant woman, Ekaterina Gracheva - Grigory clearly felt great sympathy for her. The painter immortalized Catherine in the image of the Mother of God along with her little son. He gave the icon to Catherine. This icon was called the “Utev Madonna”. According to people's reviews, she made an indelible impression. After the revolution, for many decades the icon was kept in the house of a local resident, and after her death, her nephews took the icon to Samara and sold it. The Utev Madonna has disappeared. In 1884, Zhuravlev turned to the Samara governor, who always took part in the life of the crippled painter, with a request to present the painted icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker to Tsarevich Nicholas, the future Emperor. In the personal archive of Governor General A.D. Sverbeev, a letter addressed by Zhuravlev to Tsarevich was preserved: “... Your Imperial Highness, most humbly and diligently... I wish to present to you the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which I wrote with my mouth, and not
with my hands, for the reason that by my nature I do not have the strength of movement in my arms and legs. I painted this icon at the admonition of Almighty God, who allowed me into the light of God. And he gave me a gift. Then the movement of my mouth opened, with which I control my mastery at the command of God.” The Tsarevich graciously accepted the icon. As the Samara Provincial Gazette wrote in January 1885, taking into account his financial situation and “his personal efforts in self-improvement in the art of painting, he was assigned an annual pension of 60 rubles.” In 1885, during the reign of Emperor Alexander Alexandrovich, in the rich and grain-producing village of Utevki they began to “build a cathedral church in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity,” and Grisha was invited to paint the walls. Gregory also took part in the design of the church itself. According to his drawing, special scaffolding was made, where the cradle on blocks could move in different directions. It was necessary to paint on wet plaster quickly, within one hour, and Grisha, fearing for the quality of the image, decided to paint on a primed canvas pasted on the walls. His brother and another assistant were near him all the time, moving him around, handing him over and changing brushes and paints. How difficult it was to paint the dome of the temple. These torments are unbearable for the common man. He had to lie on his back, on a special lift with screws, exhausted from fatigue and pain throughout his body, but he still completed the painting of the dome. From this work, painful bleeding ulcers formed on the shoulder blades, sacrum and back of the head. It was already easier with the walls. First of all, Gregory began to paint the magnificent apparition of the Holy Trinity to Patriarch Abraham at the Oak of Mamre, trying to make everything turn out like the work of the reverend iconographer Andrei Rublev. Rumors about such an extraordinary painter reached St. Petersburg, and journalists arrived. It was impossible to believe that the artist was painting a cathedral without limbs. “- How does he paint? It is known how - with his teeth, - the men said, puffing on rolled-up cigarettes, - he takes the brush in his teeth and went to play. The head moves back and forth, and two accomplices hold it by the body and move it little by little. - Miracles! - the journalists were surprised. - Only in Rus' can this happen. Will he let us film? - How he won’t let me in. He will let you in, without hesitation. Even if the Orthodox people are not really crazy, they will still look at your photos. Gregory’s icons are very good, very kind to the soul and heart. In a word, “not made by hands.” It took Gregory several years to complete this hellish work. His eyesight deteriorated from the hard work. I had to order glasses in Samara. My mouth was very bothersome. My lips were constantly cracking and bleeding, my front incisors were thoroughly worn away, and very painful ulcers appeared on my tongue. Finally, this feat of the human spirit and victory over bodily weakness was completed and the temple was completely painted, with the Holy Trinity and the seven Archangels depicted on the dome. On the frescoes are the apostles John the Theologian and Andrew the First-Called, Metropolitans of Moscow Peter and Alexy. The temple has excellent acoustics; the builders built special pots into the walls. The church was consecrated in 1892 on January 7. There was a school and a small library with her, and for its consecration “nobles from all over the province arrived, “the
diocesan bishop, Samara governor, merchants-benefactors, officials of the provincial government and spiritual consistory. Dressed up people gathered from the surrounding villages. When the authorities entered the temple and looked at the painting, everyone gasped, amazed at the beauty of the images. Here the entire Old and New Testament shone in color. There was the fresco “The Joy of the Righteous in the Lord,” where the righteous, rejoicing, enter Paradise; there was the “Vision of John Climacus,” where sinners from a ladder erected in the air from earth to heaven fall headlong into the fiery mouth of the underworld. The image was so impressive that two merchant women rolled out of fear into the arms of their husbands and were dragged out onto the grass without memory. There was also “Let every breath praise the Lord,” and “Every creature rejoices in You,” where all kinds of livestock, every creature under heaven, wild animals and a handsome peacock, as well as the sea itself with reptiles and fish playing in the foamy waves were depicted. . The consecration was solemn. The bishop's choir brought from Samara sang. The litany was pronounced in a thunderous voice by the cathedral protodeacon, to the joy and delight of his admirers, the Samara money-bag merchants.” About a month later, after the consecration of the temple, when Grigory had just begun to come to his senses, a messenger arrived in the village with a letter from the Minister of the Court of His Imperial Majesty himself, inviting Grigory Nikolaevich Zhuravlev to St. Petersburg and enclosing five hundred rubles in banknotes for the journey. As soon as it was possible to refuse, in the fall Grigory got ready to go on the road. After the farewell service was served, the cathedral deacon chanted the litany: “Let us pray to the Lord to send them an Angel of peace, a companion and mentor who preserves, protects, intercedes and keeps them safe from every evil situation.” As usual, his brother and sister went with him. First by steamship, then by rail we reached St. Petersburg. After an Indian summer in their native village, St. Petersburg greeted them with damp and dank weather. Grigory settled with his brother in a wing of the palace of Count Stroganov, a great lover of Russian antiquity. All conditions were created there for the full-fledged work of an isographer. The flow of visitors did not diminish, but one day the Tsar-Father Emperor of All Rus' Alexander III and his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna came to see him. It was already winter outside. The sovereign emperor was shown the works of Gregory, and the empress, looking at the icon painter, said in French: “What a pleasant soldier’s face he has.” The august couple liked all of Gregory’s works, but the empress especially singled out the image of the Mother of God - “Mammal,” which was immediately presented to her. The next day, a decree was delivered from the Office of His Majesty's Court granting Gregory a pension - for life, in the amount of 25 rubles in gold monthly. And also another decree to the Samara governor about providing Grigory Zhuravlev with a fast pacer with summer and winter travel. Having stayed in St. Petersburg until spring, Grisha and his entourage returned back to his native Utevki. According to some sources, he stayed there for three years, but most likely this information is not trustworthy. At home, Gregory continued to paint icons. The authority of the Utev icon painter increased so much that they began to contact him with orders from many places. Thus, in the book “In the Name of Christ the Savior” published in Samara in 1894, which tells about the history of the construction of the largest Samara Cathedral in the Volga region, it is written: “The icons in the iconostasis were painted on zinc in Sidorsky’s workshop in St. Petersburg, and one, namely the icon St. Alexis Metropolitan
Moscow, written on behalf of the then former Samara governor A. Sverbeev (now a senator) by a peasant of the village of Utevki, Buzuluk district, Grigory Zhuravlev, deprived of arms and legs from birth, who painted icons holding a brush in his teeth.” After a trip to St. Petersburg, when wealth appeared in the family, he increasingly painted images on gold and signed with his own hand on the back side: “This icon was painted with his teeth by the peasant Grigory Zhuravlev of the village of Utevka, Samara province, armless and legless.” In memory of the miraculous rescue of the Imperial family during a train crash from a terrorist bomb in October 1888, Samara nobles ordered an icon from Grigory Zhuravlev to present to Alexander III, as evidenced by documents stored in the State Archives of the Samara Region. The image of the patron saint of Samara, Saint Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow, Samara Governor A.D. Sverbeev also commissioned Zhuravlev to paint. Already in our time, local residents returned to the temple the icons of Zhuravlev’s letters “Lord of Hosts”, “Myrrh-Bearing Women”, “Blessing Savior”, “King David”, “Baptism of the Lord”, “Resurrection of Christ”. The icon “Saints Cyril and Methodius” was brought from Kazakhstan. A message came from Moscow that Zhuravlev’s image “St. Leo - Pope of Rome” is in the church-historical office of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra along with works by Viktor Vasnetsov, Vasily Surikov and Mikhail Nesterov. Another Zhuravlev icon was recently discovered in the Urals. His icons also found their way abroad. One of these icons was discovered in 1963 in distant Bosnia, while taking inventory of the cultural monuments of the Serbian Orthodox Church, by the Yugoslav art historian and restorer Zdravko Kaimanovic in the Serbian village of Puracic, near Toulouse. He saw an icon painted by the Utev artist Grigory Zhuravlev. “The medium-sized icon,” the researcher wrote, “is executed in oil paints on a board and depicts St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Slovenian First Teachers Cyril and Methodius. The saints are depicted standing with scrolls in their hands. And it is a thorough and delicate work, so at first I thought that this was the work of an icon painter with an academic education. But the text on the icon read as follows: “THIS ICON WAS WROTE BY THE TEETH OF THE PEASANT GRIGORY ZHURAVLEV OF THE VILLAGE OF UTEVKA, SAMARA PROVINCE, ARMSLESS AND LEGSLESS, 1885, JULY 2.” Zdravko contacted the address indicated on the icon and the State Archive of the USSR. Documents were found there that confirmed the signature of the armless and legless icon painter. Having received evidence, the Bosnian art critic wrote a number of works about the unique artist. These publications in the Yugoslav, American and Italian press created a real sensation. Grigory Zhuravlev became world famous. The USSR was forced to become interested in the sensation. Archivists, art historians, and museum workers got involved. Utev teacher and local historian Kuzma Danilov began corresponding with Kaimakovich and published several studies of Zhuravlev’s life and work in the regional newspaper. They began to look for the artist’s works, and in the school museum they set up an exhibition on his creative heritage.
From that moment on, the revival of the icon painter’s name began, which was forgotten even in his native village. But we will also remember the last years of the master. Year after year he worked and painted icons; during his leisure hours, his fellow countrymen took him fishing, where he held a fishing rod in his teeth. But the twentieth century broke out with a bloody dawn. First, the Russian-Japanese War, the revolution of 1905, then World War I, when the same armless and legless cripples poisoned with gases began to return from the front. Gregory got bored and had a vision that very soon icons would no longer be needed. He died in 1916 from transient consumption. With the blessing of Bishop Mikhail of Samara, G.N. Zhuravlev was buried near the Utevskaya Trinity Church, which he painted. A small coffin containing his remains, similar to a saint's shrine, was buried next to the temple, which was subsequently closed in 1934 and used to store grain. By the way, they tried to dismantle the church several times, but each time something prevented it. The Church of the Holy Trinity in Utevka has survived to this day. In 1989 it was returned to believers. Icons painted by Grigory Zhuravlev, fragments of wall paintings and domes were miraculously preserved in the church. After services began in the church, the face of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye began to appear spontaneously on one of the icons. Miraculous images of Grigory Zhuravlev were found in almost every Utevsk hut and in neighboring villages. Local residents saved the icons and brought them to the church. In addition, they are kept in the Samara local history and diocesan museums, in the Peter and Paul Church of Samara, in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra near Moscow, the St. Petersburg Kazan Cathedral, the Pukhtitsa Monastery in Estonia, and in private collections. In the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, in the museum of the Church Archaeological Cabinet, the icon of St. Leo, the Pope, by Grigory Zhuravlev. This work by Grigory Zhuravlev is an example of icon painting schools of the 19th century. This is a typical classical tradition of realistic writing. The album donated by the emperor returned to the icon painter’s homeland; local historians found it in a school museum in one of the districts of the Samara region. Zhuravlev's house has also been preserved. His grave has been restored in the church fence. Residents of Utevka have long said that their great fellow countryman deserves canonization: for his ascetic life and amazing gift for icon painting. The story-legend of the Samara documentarian V. Myasnikov “Return” and the story of the Leningrad writer V. were written about the extraordinary life and divine talent of this national genius. Lyalina "Isograph". S. Zhigalov wrote the novel “The Gift over the Abyss of Despair”, the prototype of which was Grigory Zhuravlev. And on Grisha’s grave a simple Orthodox Cross was placed with the inscription on it: “Behold, Man.” ***
There have always been and are people around us who are capable of not breaking in the face of misfortune. They find the strength to actively serve society. The fate of Grigory Zhuravlev - a man of faith and with a pure soul - is a vivid example of this. Born with a terrible illness, but having deep faith and fortitude, he worked in the name of God and for people. Having learned about such a person, I want to talk about him in order to help someone return to creative work, to bring someone out of a state of despair and hopelessness, and for someone to find faith that was lost for various reasons.
In 1858, in the village of Utevka, Samara province, a child without arms and legs was born in a darkened hut.
One body and a head. Everything is smooth, kind of like an egg. At this time, Father Deacon came to the hut, to whom the relatives turned:
How could this happen?
Hmmm, Orthodox Christians, this is a complicated question. Apparently, the Lord saw a great man in this baby. Maybe he was appointed by the Lord to be a general, or maybe even a bishop. But the devil, out of evil intent, took it and took away the baby’s arms and legs. However, maybe I’m wrong, so forgive me for Christ’s sake.
On the eighth day the baby was brought to church:
Servant of God Gregory is baptized. In the name of the Father. Amen. And the Son. Amen. And the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“And what kind of child is this, just a mouth,” the receiver grumbled, receiving the baptized Grisha in dry diapers.
Father, looking reproachfully at the receiver, said:
We don’t yet know what God’s providence is for this child. And as for the mouth, with this mouth he can do even greater things. After all, the mouth is not only used for eating food, but the Scripture says: “In the beginning was the Word.” Wait, he will still feed you. What is impossible for man is possible for God,” said the priest, approaching the child with the holy world...”
Grisha's ability to draw manifested itself early. While still very young, he surprised his fellow countrymen when, crawling around the yard on his stomach, he clenched a piece of charcoal with his teeth and drew everything he saw: people, trees, houses. With his childish mind, he penetrated into the very essence of things and events. It seemed that through his suffering he saw many things that others did not see. One day, a rural school teacher caught him doing this and asked his family to bring Grisha to school. Studying was easy for the boy. He did well in all subjects, although he wrote with a pen in his teeth. When the boy grew up, he was sent to study at the Samara boys' gymnasium. Brother Afanasy helped him in everything. In addition to the gymnasium, Grisha was taken to the city cathedral for services and also to an icon-painting workshop. When Grisha found himself in the workshop, he was simply not himself. Inhaling the smell of drying oil, turpentine and varnishes, he experienced a joyful festive feeling. One day he showed the owner of the workshop his drawings on paper in pencil and watercolor. The drawings passed from hand to hand, the masters shook their heads and, clicking their tongues approvingly, patted Grisha on the back. Soon they, without being lazy, began to teach him their skill of fine icon painting, from the very beginning, from the basics. It was difficult at first, oh how difficult it was. His brother put a brush in his mouth and he began. The board had to lie flat on the table, evenly, so that the paint did not flow down. The brush had to be held vertically in relation to the board. The better this was done, the finer the drawing came out. Being too close hurt my eyes and my neck hurt from tension. After two or three hours of such work, a spasm of the jaw muscles occurred so that Grisha could not remove his hand from his mouth. He was able to open his mouth only after wet hot towels were placed on his cheekbones. But successes were evident: the design on the icon came out solid and correct. No one else can do it with his hand as Grisha does with his teeth. He started with simple icons, where there was one figure of a saint, but then little by little he moved on to more complex iconography.
At twenty-two, Gregory graduated from the Samara gymnasium and returned to his native Utevka, where he began to paint custom icons. The images he painted sold like hot cakes. Not only were the icons good and blessed, but the people especially appreciated and noted that they were not ordinary icons, but not made by hands. By 1885, during the reign of Emperor Alexander III, a cathedral church in honor of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity began to be built in the village of Utevka. The church project raised some objections from Grigory Zhuravlev, and fellow villagers entrusted him with correcting the shortcomings. According to the drawings he improved (another talent of a nugget), the Utev church was built. As for the picturesque decoration of the temple, Gregory was invited to paint the walls. He spent whole days on “stages” specially created for him. It was terribly difficult to paint the dome of the temple. He had to lie on his back, suffer from fatigue and pain, but he still managed to complete the painting of the dome. From this work, painful bleeding ulcers formed on the shoulder blades, sacrum and back of the head. From hard work and constant looking at the drawing, my vision was almost completely damaged. My lips were constantly cracking and bleeding, my front incisors were thoroughly worn away. When he, sitting at the table after work, could not eat because of pain in his mouth, his loved ones told him: “You are a martyr, Grishenka, you are our martyr.”
For several years, Grigory Zhuravlev painted the temple and glorified the church throughout the province with his frescoes. Grigory Zhuravlev also had other important orders. In 1892, the Cathedral Cathedral of Christ the Savior was consecrated in Samara. Saint Alexy was considered the patron saint of Samara. Governor A. Sverbeev commissioned Grigory Zhuravlev to paint the icon of the heavenly patron, thus expressing recognition of the icon painter’s talent. (The further fate of the Samara Cathedral of Christ the Savior is sad: there is no temple, it was blown up by the atheistic authorities of Soviet times).
Soon rumors about the unusual master reached the Royal House. Zhuravlev was invited to the capital and surprised everyone there with his art. He stayed in St. Petersburg for three years. For the last family to reign in Russia, Zhuravlev painted a group portrait, with which Nicholas II was pleased. He returned to his homeland with a pension assigned by the Tsar in the amount of 25 rubles in gold monthly. And the Samara governor was ordered to give the icon painter a pacer with winter and summer travel.
Although Gregory had the means, he did not start an icon-painting workshop; he still painted the images himself. The students helped him grind paints, prepare icon boards, and prime them. People came from the distant outskirts of Russia to buy the icons of Grigory Zhuravlev. In life, he was always in an even, peaceful mood, nothing shook or darkened his soul. Always cheerful, cheerful, he shone like a light to people, supporting them as best he could in difficult times. He did not give people the impression of a man deprived of fate. On the contrary, he was distinguished by his extraordinary strength of spirit, everyone respected and loved him.
In 1916, when there was a difficult, bloody war with Germany, Grigory became bored and began to get sick often. During one particularly serious illness, he had a revelation: that hard times would soon come when he himself and his icons would not be needed by anyone. And three years later this happened, but Gregory did not see it, because he was already lying in the grave. He died at the end of 1916, just before the revolution. He was buried in the church fence of the Utev Trinity Church.
In the Holy Trinity Lavra of Sergius, in Sergiev Posad, one of the icons by Grigory Zhuravlev called “St. Leo - Pope” is carefully preserved. It is an example of one of the icon painting schools of the 19th century.
He was deprived of arms and legs from birth. He created while holding a brush in his teeth.
Grisha's ability to draw manifested itself early. While still very young, he surprised his fellow countrymen when, crawling around the yard on his stomach, he clenched a piece of charcoal with his teeth and drew everything he saw: people, trees, houses. With his childish mind, he penetrated into the very essence of things and events. It seemed that through his suffering he saw many things that others did not see. One day, a rural school teacher caught him doing this and asked his family to bring Grisha to school. Studying was easy for the boy. He did well in all subjects, although he wrote with a pen in his teeth.
When the boy grew up, he was sent to study at the Samara boys' gymnasium. Brother Afanasy helped him in everything. In addition to the gymnasium, Grisha was taken to the city cathedral for services and also to an icon-painting workshop. One day he showed the owner of the workshop his drawings on paper in pencil and watercolor. The drawings passed from hand to hand, the masters shook their heads and, clicking their tongues approvingly, patted Grisha on the back. Soon they, without being lazy, began to teach him their skill of fine icon painting, from the very beginning, from the basics.
It was difficult at first. His brother put a brush in his mouth and he began. The board had to lie flat on the table, evenly, so that the paint did not flow down. The brush had to be held vertically in relation to the board. The better this was done, the finer the drawing came out. Being too close hurt my eyes and my neck hurt from tension. After two or three hours of such work, a spasm of the jaw muscles occurred so that Grisha could not remove his hand from his mouth. He was able to open his mouth only after wet hot towels were placed on his cheekbones.
At twenty-two he graduated from the Samara gymnasium and returned to his native Utevka, where he began to paint icons to order. The images he painted sold like hot cakes. The people appreciated and noted that these were not ordinary icons, but not made by hands.
For several years, Grigory Zhuravlev painted the temple and glorified the church throughout the province with his frescoes. Grigory Zhuravlev also had other important orders. In Samara, the Cathedral Cathedral of Christ the Savior was consecrated, in which there was an icon of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow by Grigory Zhuravlev.
Soon rumors about the unusual master reached the Royal House. Zhuravlev was invited to St. Petersburg and surprised everyone there with his art. He stayed in the capital for three years. For the last family to reign in Russia, Zhuravlev painted a group portrait, with which Nicholas II was pleased. He returned to his homeland with a pension assigned by the Tsar in the amount of 25 rubles in gold monthly. And the Samara governor was ordered to give the icon painter a pacer with winter and summer travel.
Although Gregory had the means, he did not start an icon-painting workshop; he still painted the images himself. The students helped him grind paints, prepare icon boards, and prime them. People came from the distant outskirts of Russia to buy the icons of Grigory Zhuravlev. In life, he was always in an even, peaceful mood, nothing shook or darkened his soul. Always cheerful, cheerful, he shone like a light to people, supporting them as best he could in difficult times. He did not give people the impression of a man deprived of fate. On the contrary, he was distinguished by his extraordinary strength of spirit, everyone respected and loved him.
One of Zhuravlev’s modern biographers, V. Lyalin, writes: “Year after year, ice flowed along the river, carrying times and dates into Eternity. And now, the new twentieth century has come, a century in which humanity has known the horror of unheard of bloody wars, monstrous atrocities of self-destruction, generated by arrogant and proud fight against God. In the year when there was a difficult, bloody war with Germany, Gregory became bored and began to get sick often. During one particularly serious illness, he had a revelation: that hard times would soon come when both he and his icons would not be available to anyone. will be needed. And three years later it happened. And thank God, Gregory did not see this, because he was already in the grave at the end of the year, before the revolution. They buried him in the church fence of the Utev Trinity Church. a simple cross."
After the revolution, the temple painted by Grigory Zhuravlev was closed. However, in the 90s. it was returned to the Church. Repairs have begun. The restorers tried as much as possible to preserve the painting by Grigory Zhuravlev. The cross on the icon painter’s grave was also restored.
Literature
- V. Lyalin. "Last hope". /From "Satis", St. Petersburg. 2000.
- A. Malinovsky. "A joyful meeting." / Samara branch of the Literary Fund of Russia. 1997
- Letter from Z. Kaimakovich to the head of the local history circle of the Utev school (copy). Samara Museum of Local Lore.
- A. Malinovsky. "Icons not made by hands by Grigory Zhuravlev." Magazine "Vzor", 2001, no. 2, pp. 84-91. / LLC "Publishing House "Agni" Samara.
- R. Ulitskaya. "Inspired by the Volga." Newspaper "Volzhskaya Zarya" 1996, January 19. Samara Museum of Local Lore.
- A. Zhogolev. "Icon painter". Newspaper "Moscow Church Bulletin". 1992, No. 10-11, July.
- A. Holidays. "Fortitude and talent." Newspaper "Soviet Culture". 1991, July 27.
For several decades, his name has been considered a true symbol of the inflexibility of human character in the face of the most difficult trials. A boy from the Trans-Volga village of Utyovki, who was born virtually without arms and legs in the mid-19th century, showed such a will to live as he grew up that he soon became a famous icon painter throughout the region. At the same time, the armless creator created his works by holding his brushes with his teeth. Grigory Zhuravlev proved throughout his biography that the strength of spirit and strength of character of a person can overcome any, the most terrible obstacles presented to him by fate (Fig. 1).
“He had neither arms nor legs... God created him that way...”
Having first heard a song-parable from Svetlana Kopylova (a famous Moscow Orthodox bard) about a crippled icon painter who from birth “had neither arms nor legs, he himself could neither eat nor drink, he was a piece of a man, that’s how he was created God…”, and, amazed by the meaning of the song, he still perceived it as a symbol, but later learned that, it turns out, behind this parable there was a real person, whose life and its meaning cannot be described in one song.
2008 marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of the remarkable icon painter Grigory Zhuravlev, an armless and legless artist from the village of Utyovka, Samara province.
His name became widely known in Russia and abroad after in 1963 in Yugoslavia, the art historian Zdravko Kaimanovich, while taking inventory of the cultural monuments of the Serbian Orthodox Church, discovered an icon in the village of Purachin, on which was written in Russian: “This icon is painted in the Samara province, Buzuluk district, Utevskaya volost of the same village, with the teeth of the peasant Grigory Zhuravlev, armless and legless, 1885, July 2.” The State Archive later confirmed this information: there was such an icon painter.
Grigory Zhuravlev was born into a large peasant family in the rich village of Utyovka, near Samara in 1858. The parents were shocked when they saw that the baby was crippled. He had no arms or legs. The mother was crying, the father was looking gloomy, the neighbors were whispering: “I’m offended by God.” According to recollections, Gregory’s mother wanted to commit suicide out of great grief (drown herself), killing the baby along with herself, but his grandfather, Pyotr Vasilyevich Traikin, prevented this, “proving the harmfulness of his daughter’s plan.” He said that he would raise Grisha himself.
Time passed, and the boy, despite his injury, grew up cheerful and inquisitive. “God has looked upon His servant” - this was the judgment expressed by the residents of Utyovka. The crippled child evoked not so much pity as surprise: crawling around the yard, he took a twig in his teeth and spent a long time drawing people, houses, and animals in the sand. Yes, he did it so cleverly - it’s a sight to behold.
It turned out that Grisha was not offended by God, but was especially noted for his talent. When the boy grew up, his grandfather began taking him to school. In winter on a sled, and in summer on a cart. After the death of Pyotr Vasilyevich, he had to leave school, but the teacher of the Zemstvo school, Troitsky, taught the smart child at home.
One summer, some village children went with a crippled boy to the river. Everyone went swimming, but Grisha was left on the hill. It was then that an eagle swooped down on him, and an unusual one - two-headed. In front of the confused children, the bird raised its stumped body into the sky. The piercing cry of the child apparently frightened the eagle - it released its prey. “No way, the Angels spread straw,” they reasoned in the village when they lifted Grisha from the ground unharmed!
The boy learned to write by holding a pen in his teeth. And his handwriting was very good. Fellow villagers flocked to Gregory’s house asking them to write a letter to their relatives or a petition to an official. Natural abilities allowed the disabled person to graduate (externally and with honors) from the Samara Men's Gymnasium at the age of 22. God helped him in his studies, and in everyday life - his elder brother Athanasius. After the death of his mother, he became his nanny, or rather, his arms and legs: he carried him, fed him, washed him. Gregory loved to visit the temple, where his brother brought him to services. The artist had stumps instead of legs just below the knees, and he could still walk on his knees. He tied leather stilts to his knees with straps and moved, according to the Samara Vedomosti newspaper in 1880: the arms were atrophied from the hand to the shoulder and the legs from the foot to the knee, but he could still walk on his knees. So they either carried it, or it slowly moved on its own.
Returning home, Gregory began to independently study drawing, human anatomy, painting, and iconography. And later he began to paint icons. In 1885, the newspaper “Samara Provincial Gazette” wrote: “Zhuravlev decided to learn to paint “real images” with oil paints at all costs.” And so, at the age of 15, he, who had never left his native village, arrived in the provincial town and turned to the painter Travkin, who lived here, with a request to show him how to paint images. He kindly received the unusual student, left him in his apartment for several days and introduced him to the first techniques of painting. This was enough for Zhuravlev. Having purchased paints, brushes and other things in Samara, he returned to his native Utyovka, and, having ordered himself a table with special devices, began to study painting.”
Five years later, the young icon painter decided to give several icons to high-ranking officials of Samara. People paid attention to his “living” icons and orders began to arrive. And soon the Provincial Zemstvo Assembly, taking into account the plight of the Zhuravlev family, assigned him an annual pension of 60 rubles.
The whole family helped Gregory in his work. Brother Afanasy made wooden blanks for icons, prepared paints, grandmother selected brushes, and father delivered icons to Samara. Later, Zhuravlev had students - Mikhail Khmelev and Vasily Popov.
Grigory loved to study, read a lot, fortunately there was a large library in the house. In 1884, Zhuravlev turned to the Samara governor, who had always taken part in his life, with a request to present the painted icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker to Tsarevich Nicholas, the future Emperor. In the personal archive of Governor General A.D. Sverbeev has preserved a letter addressed by Zhuravlev to the Tsarevich: “To His Imperial Highness the Sovereign Heir Tsarevich. Your Imperial Highness, I humbly and earnestly ask Your Imperial Highness that I, a peasant of the Samara province of Buzuluk district. Utyovka Grigory Zhuravlev, with all my heart I wish to present to Your Imperial Highness the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which I painted with my mouth and not with my hands for the reason that by nature I do not have strength and movement in my arms and legs. Your Imperial Highness, I humbly ask Your Highest Name to accept this icon, which I offer to Your Imperial Highness with all my soul and love. Your Imperial Highness! I humbly ask you to allow this icon to be conveyed to your Most High name because I do not have arms or legs. And he painted this icon at the admonition of Almighty God, who allowed me into the Light of God. And he gave me a gift. Then the movement of my mouth opened, with which I control my mastery at the command of God.”
The Tsarevich graciously accepted the icon. Soon Emperor Alexander III invited Zhuravlev to the palace. Here a peasant painter painted a portrait of the Romanov family. There is a legend that on the way back, Gregory, against his will, ended up in a traveling circus on wheels. They took it around Russia for six months and showed it to the public as a curiosity. It was with great difficulty that I managed to return to my homeland.
There is also this version of the story: at the beginning of the 20th century, rumors about the peasant god reached Tsar Nicholas II. The Tsar called Gregory to him and ordered him to paint a portrait of the entire royal family. The Utev icon painter lived in St. Petersburg for a whole year. He completed the work, and the king was pleased. Although that portrait has not been found, it is reliably known that the sovereign granted the Samara peasant a lifetime monthly pension of 25 rubles in gold. At that time it was a lot of money. And the Samara governor was ordered to “give Zhuravlev a pacer with summer and winter travel.”
In memory of the miraculous rescue of the Imperial family during a train crash from a terrorist bomb in October 1888, Samara nobles ordered an icon from Grigory Zhuravlev to present to Alexander III, as evidenced by documents stored in the State Archives of the Samara Region.
The image of the patron saint of Samara, Saint Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow, Samara Governor A.D. Sverbeev also instructed to write to Zhuravlev.
According to the surviving memories of the residents of Utyovka, Grigory was of a cheerful disposition, very approachable, and loved to make vigorous, peasant jokes. He was very energetic, loved fishing, and sang ditties fervently. To amuse the children, he took a shepherd's whip in his teeth, waved and slammed it with a deafening whistle.
In 1885, construction of a new stone church began in Utyovka. The church in honor of the Holy Trinity was built according to the drawings and under the direct supervision of Grigory Zhuravlev (thus we can say that he also had architectural talent!). All the frescoes were painted according to his sketches. And his church turned out to be squat, spreading wide, as if holding tightly to the ground. As the artist’s fellow countrymen say, it is somewhat similar to Gregory himself. And the artist painted the ten-meter-diameter dome of the temple himself. He lay down in a special cradle and worked while lying down.
After two or three hours of such work, a spasm of the jaw muscles occurred so that Grisha could not remove his hand from his mouth. He was able to open his mouth only after wet hot towels were placed on his cheekbones. And so day after day, month after month, year after year. As a result of this work, bleeding ulcers formed on the artist’s shoulder blades and the back of his head. The leather straps dug into his body. Constantly looking at the drawing almost completely ruined my vision. Her lips were cracked and bleeding, her front teeth were worn away. Finally, in 1892, the work was completed. It was a feat...
These images have survived to this day: the Holy Trinity and the seven Archangels are depicted on the dome. On the frescoes are the apostles John the Theologian and Andrew the First-Called, Metropolitans of Moscow Peter and Alexy. Quite recently the face of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye.
The temple has excellent acoustics; the builders built special pots (voices) into the walls. The church was consecrated in 1892. She had a school and a small library.
In 1934, Soviet authorities began to destroy the bell tower. Fires were lit under wooden supports. Icons were torn off the walls with hooks. The most valuable ones were sent to Samara, the rest were brought at night to the collective farm apiary - for the manufacture of beehives. But beekeeper Dmitry Lobachev secretly distributed the icons to the village residents. In exchange, they brought him the required number of boards.
The authorities began to destroy the temple itself more than once. But unexpected circumstances forced the God-fighters to postpone their plans every now and then. Thus, by the Providence of God, the church has been preserved to this day.
It was returned to believers in 1989. Two years later the temple was consecrated. The administration of the Neftegorsky district allocated 100 thousand rubles for the construction of the destroyed bell tower. Eight bells were brought from Voronezh. On the largest of them, in honor of the Utyov artist, the inscription “Gregory” was made. In 2006, a new carved iconostasis was installed in the church. An unquenchable lamp glows in the temple (Fig. 2, 3).
And miraculous images of Zhuravlev were found in almost every Utyovsk hut and in neighboring villages. The peasants were unable to buy a cheap icon, so the artist painted images for them on wood and without gilding. But after a trip to St. Petersburg, when wealth appeared in the family, he increasingly painted images on gold and signed with his own hand on the back side: “This icon was painted with his teeth by the peasant Grigory Zhuravlev of the village of Utyovka, Samara province, armless and legless.”
In recent years, local residents have returned to the temple icons of Zhuravlev’s letters “Lord of Hosts”, “Myrrh-Bearing Women”, “Blessing Savior”, “King David”, “Baptism of the Lord”, “Resurrection of Christ”. The icon “Saints Cyril and Methodius” was brought from Kazakhstan. A message came from Moscow that Zhuravlev’s image “St. Leo - Pope of Rome” is in the church-historical office of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra along with works by Viktor Vasnetsov, Vasily Surikov and Mikhail Nesterov. Another Zhuravlev icon was recently discovered in the Urals.
The Samara diocese, together with the provincial authorities, is doing a lot to revive the memory of the amazing icon painter. In the Diocesan Church History Museum and in the Samara Regional Museum of History and Local Lore named after P.V. Alabin has been exhibiting his miraculous images for several years.
“Thank God that in our time historical justice is being restored and tribute is paid to such talents as the painter Grigory Zhuravlev,” said Archbishop Sergius of Samara and Syzran. – Born with an illness, but having deep faith and fortitude, he worked in the name of God and for people. His icons bring Divine light and help people.
Grigory Zhuravlev died on February 15 (new style) 1916. With the blessing of the ruling bishop, he was buried in the fence of the village church. After the revolution, the grave was razed to the ground, and for many years no one even remembered the self-taught artist, who amazed the Tsar with his talent. It was possible to determine the burial place of Zhuravlev, in the fence of the Utyovsky temple, indicated by a resident of the village, Maria Emelyanovna Pestimenina, the granddaughter of the trustee of the temple, Ion Timofeevich Bogomolov. At the resting place of the icon painter, with the blessing of Archbishop Sergius of Samara and Syzran, an Orthodox cross was installed - this is how his grave was marked. The house of the master icon painter has been preserved (Fig. 4).
It is unknown how many icons Grigory Zhuravlev painted. We hope that the fates of many of them will be revealed to us over time. One work by Zhuravlev stands out in particular - “The Utevskaya Madonna”. This is not a canonical icon. It depicts a simple peasant woman. The work was kept for many years in the house of an Utyov resident. And when she died in the late 90s, her nephews refused to return the icon to the temple. According to the rector of the temple, Father Anatoly, they decided to sell the valuable relic and sent it to Samara. The further fate of the Utevskaya Madonna is unknown.
The painter's fellow countrymen - Doctor of Technical Sciences, professor, Alexander Malinovsky and local history teacher, member of the Union of Writers of Russia, Kuzma Danilov, collected a lot of historical material about the genius artist. In those schools in the Samara region where the “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture” are taught, teachers also tell children about the peasant icon painter Grigory Zhuravlev.
The icons he painted were valued by the people because they emanated special grace and purity; they were considered not made by hands: without the help of the Lord, a person without arms and without legs, holding a brush in his teeth, cannot do this work. More than half of the icons made by Gregory were in gold, and many were signed by him on the back with his own hand.
In our time, one artist painted his portrait from a photograph of Grigory Zhuravlev (Fig. 5).
There are even people who would like to canonize Grigory Zhuravlev. But for canonization, miracles are needed through prayers to the ascetic. Or miracles from Zhuravlev’s icons. Not many such facts are known, but they exist.
In addition to the icons, a pencil portrait of a young man by Grigory Zhuravlev has been preserved; it is kept in the Utyov Museum. According to the former owner of the portrait, it depicts Ivan Solovyov, who arrived in the village of Kryazh with his wife from the village of Kinel-Cherkassy. It is known that Zhuravlev painted two more portraits. But we have not yet been able to find them.
Four icons are in the Samara Church and Historical Diocesan Museum. These are the icons of the Mother of God “Mammal” of Smolensk, Saints Cyril and Methodius, “Myrrh-Bearing Women”. The last icon is not signed by Zhuravlev, so it cannot be said that it is his work, but it is attributed to him. There is also a sketch of the head of a child in Zhuravlev’s letter. The icon “St. Leo – Pope of Rome” is located in the church-archaeological office of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra. The icon of the Savior, known to many, is kept in the Utevsky Holy Trinity Church. There are also icons of “Jesus Christ with Those Coming”, “Beheading of John the Baptist”, “Recovery of the Lost”, “Quick to Hear”, and others. There is also an icon of “St. George the Victorious” in the Pukhtitsa Monastery (Estonia).
In the icons of Grigory Zhuravlev there is silence, peace and tranquility; they call for true repentance, which is so necessary for us (Fig. 6-13).
Literature
Grigory Zhuravlev. – From the book: Dobrusin V.A., Karasev V.N., Nokhrin A.A. Biographical encyclopedia "Samara Fates-2010". Samara. Publishing house "Agni", 2011. Pp. 152-153.
Having heard about such an extraordinary painter, journalists and a photographer arrived from St. Petersburg. Standing near the cathedral, they asked the working plasterers: “How does Gregory paint the cathedral without any limbs?”
The name of the icon painter Grigory Zhuravlev became widely known in Russia and abroad after in 1963 in Yugoslavia, the art historian Zdravko Kaimanovich, while taking inventory of the cultural monuments of the Serbian Orthodox Church, discovered an icon in the village of Purachin on which was written in Russian:
“This icon was painted in the Samara province, Buzuluk district, Utev volost of the same village, with the teeth of the peasant Grigory Zhuravlev, armless and legless, 1885, July 2.”
The State Archive later confirmed this information: there was such an icon painter.
Grigory Zhuravlev was born into a large peasant family in the wealthy village of Utevka, near Samara in 1858. The parents were shocked when they saw that the baby was crippled. He had no arms or legs. The mother was crying, the father was looking gloomy, the neighbors were whispering: “I’m offended by God.”
mother of God
According to recollections, Gregory’s mother wanted to commit suicide (drown herself) out of great grief, killing the baby along with herself, but his grandfather, Pyotr Vasilyevich Traikin, prevented this, “proving the harmfulness of his daughter’s plan.” He said that he would raise Grisha himself.
Saints Cosmas and Damian are healers. The icon was painted in 1885
Time passed, and the boy, despite his injury, grew up cheerful and inquisitive. “God has looked upon His servant” - this was the judgment expressed by the residents of Utevka. The crippled child evoked not so much pity as surprise: crawling around the yard, he took a twig in his teeth and spent a long time drawing people, houses, and animals in the sand. Yes, he did it so cleverly - it’s a sight to behold.
Icon attributed to Grigory Zhuravlev
Grigory Zhuravlev rolled out of the house: he lay down on his side and rolled along the green grass to the temple. Gregory's mother was very embarrassed when her son went to church like that - rolling on the grass.
It turned out that Grisha was not offended by God, but was especially noted for his talent. When the boy grew up, his grandfather began taking him to school. In winter on a sled, and in summer on a cart. After the death of Pyotr Vasilyevich, he had to leave school, but the teacher of the Zemstvo school, Troitsky, taught the smart child at home.
Nicholas the Wonderworker (fragment of the icon "Seven Saints")
One summer, some village children went with a crippled boy to the river. Everyone went swimming, but Grisha was left on the hill. It was then that an eagle swooped down on him, and an unusual one - two-headed. In front of the confused children, the bird raised its stumped body into the sky. The piercing cry of the child apparently frightened the eagle - it released its prey. “No way, the Angels spread straw,” they reasoned in the village when they lifted Grisha from the ground unharmed!
The boy learned to write by holding a pen in his teeth. And his handwriting was very good. Fellow villagers flocked to Gregory’s house asking them to write a letter to their relatives or a petition to an official. Natural abilities allowed the disabled person to graduate (externally and with honors) from the Samara Men's Gymnasium at the age of 22. God helped him in his studies, and in everyday life - his elder brother Athanasius.
Belt icon of Alexander Nevsky
After the death of his mother, he became his nanny, or rather, his arms and legs: he carried him, fed him, washed him. Gregory loved to visit the temple, where his brother brought him to services. The artist had stumps instead of legs just below the knees, and he could still walk on his knees. He tied leather stilts to his knees with straps and walked
Evangelist
Gregory began to independently study drawing, human anatomy, painting, and iconography. And later he began to paint icons.
People paid attention to his “living” icons and orders began to arrive. And soon the Provincial Zemstvo Assembly, taking into account the plight of the Zhuravlev family, assigned him an annual pension of 60 rubles.
In 1884, Zhuravlev turned to the Samara governor, who had always taken part in his life, with a request to present the painted icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker to Tsarevich Nicholas, the future Emperor. In the personal archive of Governor General A.D. Sverbeev, a letter addressed by Zhuravlev to Tsesarevich was preserved:
Setting of the icon "Pantocrator-1886"
“To His Imperial Highness the Sovereign Heir Tsarevich.
Your Imperial Highness, I humbly and earnestly ask Your Imperial Highness that I, a peasant of the Samara province of Buzuluk district. Utevka Grigory Zhuravlev, with all my heart I wish to present to Your Imperial Highness the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which I painted with my mouth and not with my hands for the reason that by nature I do not have strength and movement in my arms and legs.
Your Imperial Highness, I humbly ask Your Highest Name to accept this icon, which I offer to Your Imperial Highness with all my soul and love.
Your Imperial Highness! I humbly ask you to allow this icon to be conveyed to your Most High name because I do not have arms or legs. And he painted this icon at the admonition of Almighty God, who allowed me into the Light of God. And he gave me a gift. Then the movement of my mouth opened, with which I control my mastery at the command of God."
Icon of Zhuravlev "Selected Saints". Stored in St. Petersburg
The Tsarevich graciously accepted the icon. Soon Emperor Alexander III invited Zhuravlev to the palace. Here a peasant painter painted a portrait of the Romanov family. There is a legend that on the way back, Gregory, against his will, ended up in a traveling circus on wheels. They took it around Russia for six months and showed it to the public as a curiosity. It was with great difficulty that I managed to return to my homeland.
There is also this version of the story: at the beginning of the 20th century, rumors about the peasant god reached Tsar Nicholas II. The Tsar summoned Gregory and ordered him to paint a portrait of the entire royal family. The Utev icon painter lived in St. Petersburg for a whole year. He completed the work, and the king was pleased. Although the portrait has not been found, it is reliably known that the sovereign granted the Samara peasant a lifetime monthly pension of 25 rubles in gold. At that time it was a lot of money. And the Samara governor was ordered to “give Zhuravlev a pacer with summer and winter travel.”
Mother of God "Merciful"
In memory of the miraculous rescue of the Imperial family during a train crash from a terrorist bomb in October 1888, Samara nobles ordered an icon from Grigory Zhuravlev to present to Alexander III, as evidenced by documents stored in the State Archives of the Samara Region.
The image of the patron saint of Samara, Saint Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow, Samara Governor A.D. Sverbeev also commissioned Zhuravlev to paint.
According to the surviving memories of the residents of Utevka, Grigory was of a cheerful disposition, very approachable, and loved to make vigorous, peasant jokes. He was very energetic, loved fishing, and sang ditties fervently. To amuse the children, he took a shepherd's whip in his teeth, waved and slammed it with a deafening whistle.
Church in the village of Utyovka, where Zhuravlev painted the walls and painted icons. Here he is buried near the church.
In 1885, construction of a new stone church began in Utevka. The church in honor of the Holy Trinity was built according to the drawings and under the direct supervision of Grigory Zhuravlev (thus we can say that he also had architectural talent!). All the frescoes were painted according to his sketches. And his church turned out to be squat, spreading wide, as if holding tightly to the ground. As the artist’s fellow countrymen say, it is somewhat similar to Gregory himself.
Our Lady of the Mammal. Written in 1910
And the artist painted the ten-meter-diameter dome of the temple himself. He lay down in a special cradle and worked while lying down. After two or three hours of such work, a spasm of the jaw muscles occurred so that Grisha could not remove his hand from his mouth. He was able to open his mouth only after wet hot towels were placed on his cheekbones. And so day after day, month after month, year after year. As a result of this work, bleeding ulcers formed on the artist’s shoulder blades and the back of his head. The leather straps dug into his body... Constantly looking at the drawing almost completely ruined his vision. Her lips were cracked and bleeding, her front teeth were worn away. Finally, in 1892, the work was completed. It was a feat...
In 1934, Soviet authorities began to destroy the bell tower. Fires were lit under wooden supports. Icons were torn off the walls with hooks. The most valuable ones were sent to Samara, the rest were brought at night to the collective farm apiary - for the manufacture of beehives. But beekeeper Dmitry Lobachev secretly distributed the icons to the village residents. In exchange, they brought him the required number of boards.
Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky.
The authorities began to destroy the temple itself more than once. But unexpected circumstances forced the God-fighters to postpone their plans every now and then. Thus, by the Providence of God, the church has been preserved to this day.
"Utevskaya Madonna"
It was returned to believers in 1989. Two years later the temple was consecrated. The administration of the Neftegorsky district allocated 100 thousand rubles for the construction of the destroyed bell tower. Eight bells were brought from Voronezh. On the largest of them, in honor of the Utev artist, the inscription “Gregory” was made.
Icon of Zhuravlev "Lord Pantocrator", painted in 1886
In 2006, a new carved iconostasis was installed in the church. An unquenchable lamp glows in the temple...
And miraculous images of Zhuravlev were found in almost every Utevsk hut and in neighboring villages. The peasants were unable to buy a cheap icon, so the artist painted images for them on wood and without gilding. But after a trip to St. Petersburg, when wealth appeared in the family, he increasingly painted images on gold and signed with his own hand on the back side: “This icon was painted with his teeth by the peasant Grigory Zhuravlev of the village of Utevka, Samara province, armless and legless.”
After all, Grigory could not sin - he had no arms or legs, he did not go anywhere. He lived in purity, which is why his icons shine with purity. A monk must fast and pray in order to paint an icon, and Gregory, apparently, was in this state all the time, and his icons are distinguished by their spirituality and childlike joy.
Grigory Zhuravlev is buried in a place of honor near the temple into which he put so much effort, behind the altar, on the cross there is an inscription:
“The icon painter Grigory Nikolaevich Zhuravlev, 1858-1916, is buried here.”
