"Christ" (Nicholas Rupsys, 2006)

"Christ" is a life-sized icon of the Crucified Christ, mounted on a unique tree structure in the Quiet Garden.

The Quiet Garden at Worth Abbey is the unlikely setting for a large new icon “The Christ” created by Brother Nicholas Rupsys, a novice monk of the monastery, who was born and who studied art and furniture design in Lithuania.

He describes the making and painting of “The Christ” as “some sort of prayer, as I followed some of the icon painting traditions of the Orthodox Church. I find the style of orthodox icon painting very powerful and leading to prayer. The images may appear slightly simplistic but there is a lot of beauty and mystery in it all. This figure is human life-size. The figures of Mary, the Mother of Christ, on the left and St. John on the right are much smaller to show the higher significance of the Son of God. At first glance, Jesus appears to be crucified but if you look more carefully there are no nails in his body and it should be seen as a free transition to the glory of Easter. It signifies God’s freedom and independence from human decisions and shows the physical body given to us by Him as His love’s message to us.”

The icon is mounted on a unique structure based on a distorted oak tree that needed to be cut back. In autumn 2005, the three novices were helping Father Patrick in the garden when he mentioned that the tree needed cutting and was thinking of using the trunk as a base for a bench. Brother Nicholas made an inspired suggestion of using it instead for a cross which could be built and fixed to the trunk so that it would provide a visual focus that would help people to pray in the Quiet Garden.

The roof above “The Christ” has a visual/esthetical function and, when fully finished, will have a protective function as well. The idea was to give the roof a natural appearance that would ‘blend’ with the nature of the Quiet Garden. It has a unique shape and texture which symbolises the crown of thorns.

The Benedictine monks of Worth Abbey, who feature in BBC TWO’s 'The Monastery' in May 2005 and 'The Monastery Revisited' in June 2006, were very supportive of the project. The Novice Master, Father Luke, granted permission for the project and allowed Brother Nicholas to spend his ‘creative time’ on it; Father Bede supplied the oak planks; Father Patrick provided tools, materials, working-space and structural advice and other monks expressed their helpful opinion about the style and colouring of the painting - Father James and Abbot Christopher in particular.

Click on the following images for larger, more detailed versons:

The 'banner' in Lithuanian, Greek and Hebrew.

"Christ" in the Quiet Garden

The Hand

The Face

Brother Nicholas Rupsys (left)
and Father Patrick Fludder