Every Saturday for the 12th consecutive year now, the crypt of the Sofia-based Orthodox church of Pokrov Bogorodichen (The Intercession of the Theotokos) is filled with surprisingly young icon-painters. Immediately after the lesson in religion and the Lord's Prayer, children of different ages gathered in the crypt open their souls to the images of the saints they are trying to paint in order to remember, to the tiniest detail, everything that they learned about them during the lesson. In order for an Orthodox icon to be authentic, it has to comply with the precepts of the Orthodox Church, for this reason, in addition to a compulsory course the catechesis, children learn iconography and theology. They are also introduced to the specific technique of drawing and the overall process from priming the board to the application of paint. They use egg tempera and at the end, lay a gold finish on the wooden board.
This children’s school is named after the famous Bulgarian 19th century icon painter Zahari Zograf and is the first of its kind in Bulgaria. It was founded by longtime art teacher Mladenka Landzheva. Before she started teaching courses in icon painting in the parish center at the church of Pokrov Bogorodichen, she taught iconography in a Sofia-based school. Following an exhibition of children's icons at the Russian Cultural Institute in Sofia, the parish center offered her to create a children’s school at the church.

“Children are different – some of them are orphans and some from ordinary families, they come here and grow up in the church, " Mladenka Landzheva explains. "There are many youths who have completed the three-year course, but continue to come to paint. Some of them are university students and some already have families and bring here their children. At first, they come here very anxious and distrustful. Gradually they grow an understanding of faith and of the holy images, and I reveal the secrets of iconography to them, they relax and become kinder. The icons we paint here are completely canonical and we choose high-quality holy images of Bulgarian, Russian or Greek authors. I acquaint them with the history of Orthodoxy and Christian art in general. We draw not only Bulgarian icons from the National Revival period but also any other icons especially those that appeal to children most. I myself have quite a rich collection of stories about saints. I tell each child about the saint whom he or she has chosen, we read the life of the saint and the children decide what to paint on their own.”

Ten-year-old Yana-Kalina is one of the students in the icon-painting school and this activity fills her with a warm, overwhelming feeling. 
“The first thing I do when I go home is to find the biography of the saint and read it to learn what he experienced, why he became a saint and how the Lord helped him. You need to know all this before you start painting. Also, every saint helps you. When I was painting Saint Mina, I had lost one of my textbooks, I prayed for his help and I found it.”
While drawing, you fill your senses with good feelings, says 13-year-old Ilian Iliev who has been painting icons in the school for a second year now.
“You should think about good things. I’ve been feeling really good since I started painting, I'm curious how the saint lived, how he chose isolation from secular life”, the young boy says.
The radiant eyes of the children in the icon-painting school show us that this activity has become their favorite pastime, which makes them not only kinder at heart but also wiser and more balanced. Vladina Deneva is a happy, balanced teenager who studies piano at the Music School in Sofia. 

“I like it here a lot and I come eagerly almost every Saturday. I am now drawing my third or fourth icon. Here I learned to look at things with different eyes, to delve into everything I do. When I am painting, I am inspired by the feeling of humility and peace. One can really communicate with the saints and with God. These are things that can only be felt with the heart, and only in the church. “
Mira Nencheva is 18 and has been painting icons for five years now. She will soon enter university but icon-painting will remain her favorite pastime.

“I first came here because of the religious instruction and gradually I developed an interest in icons. I have attended various courses in painting, but what I like here is that painting icons is very spiritual. Usually when we pray, somehow we seem to forget the saints. When we paint their icons and read their biographies, we begin to pray to the saint and find his protection not only during the actual painting of the icon, but in life”.
Some of the icons painted in the children’s school are sold at charity shows. The parish center at the church Pokrov Bogorodichen also develops broad educational and social activities and helps parentless children. Therefore, the school of iconography is free for children deprived of parental care. They are received with love and attention from their peers. 

“The icons painted by children are full of purity, simplicity and love”, Mladenka Landzheva says. “When children are brought to church at an early age, they grow as different and more compassionate people. Therefore, their icons might be more awkward in artistic terms but what really matters is the purity, sincerity and love that children express. For this reason, children's icons are very valuable and very spiritual”, art teacher Mladenka Landzheva told Radio Bulgaria.

Translated by Rossitsa Petcova