#Exhibit of the Month

The history of this icon traces back to the 10th century at the Protaton Monastery on Mount Athos. In one of the cells named "The Dormition of the Mother of God," an elderly hieromonk lived with his disciple. They preserved a superb depiction of the Virgin Mary. This old icon became renowned through the revelation of the prayer "It Is Truly Meet."
Between the years 980-982, on a Saturday evening before an all-night vigil, the elder monk left for the nearby church, instructing his disciple to continue the religious routine in the cell. Being obedient, the disciple followed the instructions. When he reached the 9th Ode of the Canons, "More Honorable Than the Cherubim...," he suddenly heard someone beginning to chant alongside him: "It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos..." It was a mysterious pilgrim monk who had appeared unexpectedly and joined in the prayers. At that moment, the icon began to radiate light, as if it were broad daylight. Astonished by the events, the disciple asked the mysterious monk to write down the verses. The monk wrote them on a tile with his finger as if it were soft wax and said, "From now on, this is how you Orthodox Christians should chant," and, saying this, he vanished. Left alone, the disciple realized he had witnessed a great miracle. Enlightened, he understood that the pilgrim was none other than the Archangel Gabriel, who had come, as he had before, to deliver the word of the Highest to humanity.

The icon was transferred from the cell to the Holy Altar of the Protaton Church, where a similar icon is preserved to this day. The tile with the divine hymn was taken to Constantinople and included in the Orthodox Church's liturgical books. Soon after, Archangel Gabriel's prayer was incorporated into the Divine Liturgy, immediately following the Consecration of the Gifts of Bread and Wine. The valley with the cells has since been called Adin, meaning "to chant," "chanting."

The icon "It Is Truly Meet" is of inestimable value and has become the protector of Mount Athos. The icon is celebrated on June 11/24, commemorating the miraculous appearance of the Archangel, and on July 13/26, in honor of the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel.

This icon, of the Eleusa type, portrays gentleness and tenderness in its central figures. The Virgin holds the Child with her right hand, while her left hand, placed beneath His feet, grips the hem of His tunic. The small Jesus wears a short tunic reaching His knees and holds a scroll in His right hand inscribed with the words of the Axion hymn. His left-hand slips under the veil of the Virgin towards her left shoulder. Both figures are crowned with golden halos. Two angels flank the Virgin's halo, while the Almighty in an open heaven blesses with both hands.

Crafted using tempera on wood, the icon is adorned with gold leaf and multicolored enamel, giving the image a unique delicacy. The inscription on the lower frame indicates that the icon was created by the painter Ioasaf in 1905.

The painter monk Ioasaf Berghie (1862-?) of the New Neamț Monastery resided there between 1887 and the 1940s, occupying three rooms to set up his studio, where he worked continuously on icons and church artworks. Born into the family of a church teacher in Jabca village, Ștefan Berghie, Ioan Berghie developed a passion for sacred iconography from an early age. In 1890, Andronic, the abbot of the New Neamț Monastery, blessed him to paint icons. Taking monastic vows in 1895 under the name Ioasaf, he traveled by foot to visit major ecclesiastical centers nearby and further afield, learning the art of iconography. Starting with naive-style interpretations, he eventually mastered professional painting techniques and acquired new decorative skills. His works became highly popular throughout Bessarabia and abroad. Painting a significant number of icons, they were often mistakenly sold as coming from major artisan workshops. To prevent such confusion, he received the abbot's blessing to sign his works, earning recognition and fame for his name.

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Exhibitions

"Enemies of the People"

2 – 30 April 2024

On Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at 14:00, "Enemies of the people", an exhibition of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance in Romania, will open in Chisinau, at the National Museum of History of Moldova.

The event in Chisinau is organized by the Civic Academy Foundation - Memorial to the Victims of Communism and Resistance in partnership with the National Museum of History of Moldova, with the support of the Hans Seidel Foundation Romania and the Hans Seidel Foundation Moldova.

The exhibition will be opened at the National History Museum of Moldova, str. 31 August 1989, no. 121 A, between April 2-30.

Like any totalitarian regime, communism did not take into account the age, sex, health or cultural level of the people against whom it directed its repression. "Enemies of the people" were not only adults but also children, not only men but also women. Peasants and aristocrats, intellectuals and simple women, elderly women, teenagers or even little girls, pregnant women, lehuze and women with breast-feeding children experienced communist detention, being considered a potential danger to the regime. The reasons for their incarceration varied. Some were themselves considered dangerous to the social order of the communist state; others suffered imprisonment as mothers, wives or daughters of male prisoners.

"Enemies of the people" is an exhibition dedicated to Romanian women victims of communism. It brings before the public the portraits of 71 women who were detained during the communist period for political reasons and who were categorized by the communist regime as "enemies of the people" for the most varied reasons: because they had ties with the West, being accused of "high treason", because they had been part of the anti-communist resistance in the mountains or because they had opposed the confiscation of their land during the collectivization process, and some of them became victims simply because they were mothers, wives, daughters or the sisters of people considered dangerous by the regime.

In addition to the 71 female victims, in a section called "The Youngest Detainees" several cases of little girls who experienced political detention during the communist period, either because they were born in prison or because their mothers were pregnant, are presented at the time of arrest, either because they were detained together with their parents.

At the same time, with the help of fragments from the detention memorials or objects made in prisons, the exhibition also reproduces aspects of the prison regime, showing the ordeal these women went through.

The "Enemies of the People" exhibition is a project of the Civic Academy Foundation - Memorial to the Victims of Communism and Resistance, Romania. The curator of the exhibition is Virginia Ion, and the exhibition design was made by Zeppelin Design (coordinating architects Constantin Goagea and Cosmina Goagea).

The exhibition was made in 2021 and opened between October 2021 and October 2022 at the Sighet Memorial Exhibition Space in Bucharest, str. JL Calderon no. 66. In 2023, it toured Timișoara, the Revolution Memorial and the Carol I Museum in Brăila.

The exhibition "Enemies of the people" received the award of the "Architecture of interior design / exhibitions, stands and scenography" section awarded at the Annual Architecture gala organized by the Bucharest Branch of the Order of Architects, gala which took place on December 7, 2021 at the Romanian Athenaeum.

The Memorial to the Victims of Communism and Resistance was established in 1993 from the initiative of the writers Ana Blandiana and Romulus Rusan, being the first memorial in the world dedicated to the victims of communism. The general aim of the memorial is civic education through a good knowledge of Romania's and Eastern Europe's recent past. The legal entity established to realize and administer the Memorial is the Civic Academy Foundation.

The memorial has two components: the Memorial Museum, located in Sighetu Marmaţiei, and the International Center for Studies on Communism, located in Bucharest. The museum was created in the building of the former prison in Sighet, where between 1950-1955 the political, economic and religious elite of interwar Romania were imprisoned. It has 60 rooms, each cell of the former communist prison being transformed into an exhibition space. The main themes addressed are communist repression, the deconstruction of the rule of law and its replacement with a totalitarian system. The International Studies Center includes: the Department of Oral History, the Archive, the Research Department, the Department for Exhibitions and the Editorial Department (Academia Civică Foundation Publishing House).

In the 31 years of activity, the Memorial had hundreds of actions (touring exhibitions in the country and abroad, symposia, publications, educational activities, European projects, oral history recordings, book launches, etc.) through which it provided the general public with information to better understand what happened in Romania and in other Eastern European countries during the almost five decades of totalitarian communist regime, but also the complexity of the traumas of this historical period.

#Exhibit of the Month

The Mother of God “It Is Truly Meet” (“Axion Estin”)

"Enemies of the People"

2 – 30 April 2024

#Exhibit of the Month