An icon of the late Russian dictator Joseph Stalin appears in Moscow in Saint Nicholas Church, apparently the donation of a parishioner. The icon depicts the life of Matriona, the blind saint, in an alleged meeting between her and Stalin, the Asia News website reports today (October 22, 2010).
What makes this icon even more grotesque, is that Matriona (1885-1952) was forced to live in hiding to avoid arrest by Stalin's communist regime.
According to legend -- which has been rejected by the Orthodox Church -- Stalin visited Matriona in 1941, and she predicted a Russian victory over the German Nazis in World War II. Of course, her prediction was correct.
Nevertheless, a church is a strange place to find an icon of Stalin, who -- despite studying at a seminary before being expelled in 1899 for revolutionary activities -- was responsible for a brutal religious repression in the Soviet Union during his dictatorship, which began in 1924 and lasted until his death in 1953.
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