Biographical and Theological Strands Reflected in the Correspondence of Fr Sergii Bulgakov and Fr Aleksander Meň with Sr Johanna Reitlinger
2015
Abstract
This article considers some biographical and theological strands in the correspondence of Sr Johanna Reitlinger (1898-1988), a renowned 20th-century iconographer and Orthodox Christian consecrated person, with her two spiritual fathers, Fr Sergii Bulgakov (1877-1944) and Fr Aleksander Meň (1935-1990). Since her life experience included flight from the Bolshevik revolution and years of living in the Russian diaspora in the West (Czechoslovakia and France), upon her eventual return to the Soviet Union in her final years, Sr Johanna served as a symbolic living bridge connecting the diasporic and the domestic aspects of one and the same Russian Orthodox tradition.