In Praise of Holy Women

forged a richly innovative, iconographic style aimed to ‘reduce the image to its
essentials,’ following precedents set by Andrei Rublev 6 and pre-14 th century
iconographers; she, who though intelligent, tall and handsome and a woman
of high standing, never married, becoming instead a nun, taking the name
Sister Joanna (after John the Baptist, Friend of the Bridegroom), and lived not
in a convent but in the world, under obedience in spite of her predilection
for independence; she, who identified as an artist, came to understand
iconography not only as an art form but also, more importantly, as theology
(another field reserved exclusively for men), and herself as a theologian;
she, who after a midlife crisis, disillusioned by a discrepancy between the
Christian ideal and its actual practice, left the church and paradoxically, if
not hypocritically, allowed herself, she writes enigmatically, to be ‘carried
away in a way that did not fit with either my age or my status’ 7 ; she, who had
devoted her life’s work to art, gave away her paints and brushes and took
up work decorating silk shawls at a far flung factory in Uzbekistan; she, who
then, in the twilight of her life, returned to the Church and under obedience
took up icon painting once again, turning out more icons during the next 15
years than she had in all the previous years of her life; she, who though in
dire need financially, never accepted payment for her icons 8 , but freely gave
them away to hundreds who requested them; she, who was forced into exile
by Russian atheists, returned to her motherland (actually to Uzbekistan, a
Russian satellite – another forced exile) and lived to see the first signs of
the downfall of the atheistic Russian government – the hidden life of Sister
Joanna [Reitlinger], whose Christian witness coincided with some of the
most turbulent religio-political events of the twentieth century might well
stand out in sharp relief as an example of perseverance towards holiness in
a world slow to discern the ‘signs of the times’.
* * *
What does Sr Joanna mean by referring to the soul as icon 9 and why is it
‘the most important icon’? In Greek, ‘icon’ means ‘image’. In the book of
Genesis, it states categorically (as well as mystically), that human beings
were created in the image and likeness of God:
‘Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image (eikona), after our
likeness. … God created humankind in his image (eikona); in the image
(eikona) of God he created them; male and female he created them.’ (Genesis
1:26-27).
6
Think of his ‘The Hospitality of Abraham,’ a complex image from Genesis 18 redacted to
three angels, in what has become known as the icon of the ‘The Holy Trinity’.
7
Sister Joanna [Reitlinger], Autobiography, originally in Vestnik RSCM, No 159, 1990, pp 84-
116; in BOUL, 330
8
Ibid, BOUL, 376
9
See excerpt at beginning of this article.
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