| The icon of Our Lady of Ostra Brama provides a focal point of devotion for Byzantine (or Eastern) Catholics, Roman Catholics, and Russian Orthodox. The original Ostra Brama image can be seen from the street below in its chapel over the Ostra Brama gate in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. In World War II, Byzantine Catholics concealed Jews at the chapel but were executed by the Nazi's for their efforts. Roman Catholic monks were more successful in hiding Jews and even set up a synagogue behind the icon. Where Catholicism meets Orthodoxy There are several things about the Virgin of the Gate of Dawn worth noting. One of the most unusual aspects are the crossed hands. In similar icons where Mary is depicted without the Child Jesus, she is normally in an oran position, the attitude of prayer, with arms and hands extended upward or towards Christ. Unusual too are the relatively large robe and veil. Since early Byzantine times, the Virgin has been depicted covered by a flowing floor length robe with a veil showing her hands, face, neck, and sometimes a small part of one ear. In the Ostra Brama icon though, the robe is unusually large. It can be said that the iconography of the image of Our Lady of Ostra Brama is Western, but with strong Eastern Orthodox influences. This is quite common in the Eastern European region, where there is often no clear division between Catholic and Orthodox Christian art. Maria Regina The presence of a crown on the jewel cover of the picture, indicating the Virgin as Queen of Heaven, is not an iconographic form originating from St. Luke, the alleged progenitor of Christian icon painting. Crowing statues of the Virgin came into practice only after the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD, when the Virgin Mary was declared Mother of God or Theotokos (God-bearer). On the earliest Christian images, neither the Virgin nor Christ is portrayed with a crown. According to Marina Warner* (1983), the Virgin has historically been crowned as the Queen of Heaven in order to establish a heavenly counterpart of earthly monarchs. She argues that this contributed significantly to the authority, power and charisma of Christian kings and queens. One of the earliest examples of Jesus and Mary depicted as the King and Queen of Heaven can be seen in the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, or Saint Mary Major, in Rome. This church is dedicated to Mary's divine motherhood (Theotokos). The Virgin of Ostra Brama was crowned in 1927 by Pope Pius XI. He also gave her the title taken from the prayer Salve Regina: 'Mother of Mercy'. The title is written above the Sharp Gate in Latin: 'Mater Misericordiae'. Rays of light Finally, the radiating lines in the background are an iconographic element from the last few centuries. This stylistic element is typically Western; it is unknown in Byzantine iconography. There are various interpretations of the rays of light, some of which relate to the glory of God in the universe. According to new research, the image of Our Lady of Ostra Brama was probably painted in Vilnius between 1620 and 1630 by an unknown artist. It was part of a folding diptych (a two-part painting) showing Christ the Saviour on the inside and the Mother of God on the outside. This diptych was copied from a painting in Krakow, Poland. The image of Christ was painted by the Dutch painter Martin DeVos in the Italian style. DeVos' painting was later taken off the diptych and kept first in the Sharp Gate Monastery. Later it was moved to the Cathedral of Vilnius. In 1953 it was placed in the local art museum. *Marina Warner (1983) "Alone of All Her Sex: Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary" Random House publishers; ISBN: 0394711556 HOME |
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| The Ostra Brama icon |