Description
This icon of St. Dimitri shows many scenes from his life beginning with his monastic tonsure in the upper left hand corner. It was painted in a.d. 1503 in Moscow by the famous iconographer Dionisiy. St. Dimitri was a native of the city of Pereyslavl Zaleesky, and became a beloved monastic disciple of St. Sergius of Radonez (a.d. 1313-1392). St. Dimitri went to found the Spaso-Prilutski Monastery between a.d. 1377-1392, and it is named after the main church dedicated to the Saviour (Spaso) and to the bend in the river where it is located, just north of the City of Vologda.
The life of St. Sergius had profound significance on Russian monasticism, and there was a great flowering of monasteries in a monastic revival during and immediately following his death in a.d. 1392. Many famous saints were his disciples, and they went out as did St. Dimitri to found many monasteries over northern Russia. The Spaso-Prilutski Monastery became an important part of Moscow’s political and economic reach northward towards Novgorod, and to Belozersk, Veliky Ustyug, and Perm. Full of years, St. Dimitri went to the Lord in the early 15th century.