Alexander Kosterin

History has left us many examples of personalities who harmoniously combined service to religious worship and passion for the visual arts. Suffice it to recall such names as Theophanes the Greek, Andrei Rublev, Fra Angelico and, as a recent example from Russian history, Archimandrite Alypy (from 1959 to 1975 abbot of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery) – a clergyman, iconographer, artist and restorer. The continuation of this historical tradition includes the work of Alexander Kosterin, who graduated from the Shadr Art College (Sverdlovsk), studied at the Academy of Architecture, and is now a cleric of the Church of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers in the village of Studenchesky, Beloyarsk District, and an artist.