A church is a lot like a person ... you can't always
tell what a person is like just by their outside appearance. The same is true of
a church, especially an Orthodox Christian Church ... its what happens inside that counts.
The interior of St.
Nicholas, like any Orthodox church is an entire world, and
one can learn how to take one's bearings in it. The altar is located in
the eastern part of the church, for Christ is the Light to the world.
This part also symbolizes the Holy Land: Bethlehem, Nazareth,
Jerusalem, the places where Christ was born, lived, suffered and rose from the
dead. The very form of the altar apse, which is semicircular, resembles a cave;
in fact, there are two sacred caves in Christian tradition:
The western side of the church, as opposed to the eastern, symbolizes the
sunset. It is there where in the narthex the repentants and
unchristened stand.
The church and its icons are a book to be read. One
should read it from top downward, as the church comes from above, from heaven.
The church's top, indeed, is called heaven, while the bottom is called
earth. Heaven and earth make up the cosmos, which means
"embellished" in Greek. And, indeed, the church's interior is decorated with
icons wherever possible, even in those corners that are inaccessible to
men's eyes. The work is performed with great care and diligence, because the
main Spectator of everything is God, All-seeing and Almighty. One can find His
image inside the cupola, the highest point of the church. In keeping
with Orthodox tradition, God is depicted as Jesus Christ the Pantocrator,
holding a book in His left hand and blessing the universe with His right hand.
The cupola is linked to the main volume of the church by
means of hemispherical surfaces, on which the four Evangelists delivering the
Good Message are depicted. Vaults and arches are the place where heaven and
earth meet each other. The former are used to represent main events of the
evangelical history; the latter, apostles, prophets and saints, who help people
to ascend to Heaven. The walls are decorated with scenes from the Sacred
History, including the Old and New Testaments, lives of saints, or even the
history of the specific State and locality. However limited and standard the
scope of themes may seem at first, the interior of any church is unique due to
the choice of paintings, which is always original.
The Orthodox church may be called an
encyclopedia. Each comprises the entire history of mankind from the fall of Adam
and Eve up to the present day, the times of the twentieth-century saints. The
culmination of the world's history as well as the acme of the Creation is
Golgotha, where Christ was crucified and where His Sacrifice and His
Victory over death in the act of Resurrection took place. One can find
all this in the eastern part of the church, where the altar is located. The
prologue and the epilogue of the world are represented in the opposite part of
the church, the western wall. Here one can find scenes from the Creation of
the world and the image of Paradise, where the souls of the
righteous enjoy beatitude. But most often the western wall is used to depict the
scene of the Last Judgment, so as the worshipper, exiting through the western
doors, could recall the hour when his earthly life would be over and he would
appear before the Judgment. However, the Last Judgment serves to remind men of
their responsibility for the past life rather than frighten them.
Perhaps a photo of the Eucharist could
work nicely here.
The church is a cosmos comprising all
those who lived, is still living and will live, since all of them are included
into God's plan for this world. The vaults of the church rest upon mighty
columns decorated with figures of saints - martyrs and warriors -- usually
called "the pillars of the Church." With their spiritual exploits they
support the spiritual building of the Church just like the columns support its
physical building. Holy monks such as hermits, founders of monasteries, and
teachers of spirituality are usually depicted in the slants of the windows. The
walls of ancient Russian churches used to be very thick, so there was plenty of
room to place icons in those slants. The church's windows are like eyes; they
let in light, and through them the church watches the world. The saints are "the
eyes of the Church"; they look at the world and see things that are invisible to
others.
The "Oranta" (Praying) image
of the Mother of God is often placed inside the apse. The Eucharist,
the scene of the Apostles receiving Communion with Christ as a priest, is
depicted right below, at the second tier. The lowest tier is set aside for the
Fathers of the Church: theologians, authors of Liturgy and dogmas, teachers, who
can be called the intellectual foundation of the Church. One can see St. John
Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. Nicholas of
Myra in Lycia among them.
It is also customary to depict
life-sized figures of saints on walls, roughly at the same level with the
worshippers standing at the church. This means to indicate that the saints, too,
take part in divine service, being invisibly present among us.
