The monk-painter Irenaeus Protcenco and his famous icon "Our Lady of Sorrows"

The name of Irenaeus Protcenco (1888-1953), whose icons were in great demand in the interwar period and whose mural painting once adorned famous churches and chapels of Bessarabia, the Ukraine, and Romania, are now little known. The famous icon painter created his works in great love for God. Although he did not sign his icons, they can be unmistakably recognized through the unique style. Born in Ukraine in a noble family and named Ioan, he graduated from the Kiev Academy of Fine Arts and his graduate work was painting of the Suruceni monastery (1907-1909). Later he worked in Chişinău, where he became great religious painter, the author of highly artistic miniatures, engravings with enamel, and icons for iconostases. The last years of his life he spent in Romania, at the Sihăstria Monastery, where he created probably the most beautiful and significant of his works. Here he died in the summer of 1953, three days after the adoption of the monastic vows under the name of Irenaeus. Those who know his works suggest that the most beautiful icons created by this great painter are dedicated to the Virgin. Of these the most significant are “Axion Estin”, “Prodromiţa”, and “Sweet Kiss”. But the most valuable icon of the painter is “Our Lady of Sorrows” from the chapel of Sts. Joachim and Anna at Sihăstria. In the collection of the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova there is kept a similar icon painted by Irenaeus Protcenco. It recalls the endless grief of the Mother about Her Son crucified on the cross.