About DONA DEI
Says Vytautas Meištas, founder of DONA DEI Vytautas Meištas. The beginning of DONA DEI is very “accidental” and symbolic. “In 2014, during a pilgrimage to Lourdes, I saw a cross pendant of unreal beauty in the possession of a fellow traveler. She mentioned that it was the work of Yuri Fedorov, a master jeweler from St. Petersburg. Almost a year later, on the eve of my birthday, I asked my wife for a cross by this artist as a birthday present. It was not easy for us to organize the delivery of this cross from Russia to Lithuania. As soon as I started wearing the cross, I had the idea of making it possible for Western customers to buy this jewelry. I contacted Mr. Fedorov and he enthusiastically supported the idea. So, at the end of 2015, the company DONA DEI was founded, which is Latin for God’s gifts.
Three years later, in order to offer our customers a wider range of products, we agreed to cooperate with Anastasia Atelje. A few years later, at the beginning of 2021, the cooperation with Akimov Jewelry Workshops began.
DONA DEI carefully selects original jewelry of the highest quality, reflecting Christian values and traditions. The company creates a professional range of top quality products for those who appreciate jewelry designed and manufactured with the utmost precision, and is a reliable partner for jewelry workshops that create religious works of art.
About Master Jeweler Yuri Fedorov
Yuri Fedorov, an outstanding jeweler and member of the Union of Russian Artists, was born in St. Petersburg on September 28, 1953. While studying at the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, he attended evening classes in drawing at the Ilya Repin State Academy Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. After graduation he worked as an engineering physicist at the Prof. N. Petrov Research Institute of Oncology.
Y. Fedorov has been creating Orthodox icons since 1979. From 1980 to 1988 he worked on commissions from Antoni (Melnikov), the Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod. He carved miniature icons, crosses, panagia and Easter eggs. In 1989 he began to work individually, to study ancient Russian and Byzantine art, to participate in archaeological expeditions and Orthodox thematic exhibitions. In 1995 he took part in the First World Exhibition of Miniature Art in London. In 1996 Y. Fedorov began to create personal Orthodox sacred objects, which are now produced in series using a special casting technology. For this purpose he founded several jewelry companies. At the same time, the artist conducted research on stavrography, which resulted in his publication “The Image of the Cross”.
Yuri Fedorov’s work has received numerous awards, including several commissions from the Carl Faberge Memorial Foundation. Currently, Yuri Fedorov is the founder and director of the jewelry company “Yuri Fedorov’s Artistic Workshops”. The company is the sole owner of exclusive rights and patents for all the artist’s works. In addition to running the company, Yuri Fedorov continues to research ecclesiastical art and stavrography.
In addition to running the company, Yuri Fedorov continues his research in the field of ecclesiastical art and stavrography, which serves as a basis for his new works.
About Anastasia Atelier
Anastasia Atelier was founded in 2005. A team of professionals quickly won the love and trust of Orthodox Christians. Each product has an individual approach to design and manufacture. It is the handwork that makes the product unique and of high quality. There are no mechanised operations in the workshop and no “automatic” assembly. Everything is done by hand. All products are registered according to the canons of the Russian Orthodox Church. Jewelry is mainly made of silver, plated with gold and platinum and hot enamel. For all time, the existence of the company constantly surprises and delights us with its new products.
About Akimov Jewelry Workshops
The Akimov Jewelry Workshops of St. Petersburg were founded in 1997 by Sergey Akimov, an artist, jeweler and technologist. The best Russian jewelers have always considered it an honor to work for the Orthodox Church. The Akimov Jewelry Workshops had chosen the same direction. Since its foundation, the company has specialized in the production of highly artistic jewelry with Orthodox themes. These are crosses, icons, shrine crosses, rings, bracelets with embossed images of saints, cast in gold and gilded silver, with precious stones and enamel. The name of the company, widely known in Russia and abroad, became a symbol of strict and exquisite style in the market of Orthodox jewelry. For many years the team of “Akimov Company” has been constantly maintaining the highest level of all produced collections. This, of course, requires a serious approach to artistic images and iconic programs. Only spiritual understanding of the work can create a warm response in the soul of the believer.
The main artistic principle of the company is the creation of a new image in the context of the Orthodox canon. In all the works, the faces of the saints are certainly canonical, but they are always turned towards a contemporary. They are all newly created works of art. The creation of new images is not easy because it requires serious historical and iconographic knowledge. Archbishop Nazarius, Father Superior of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, vouches for the canonicity of the output collections.
According to the Russian tradition, a part of the proceeds of the enterprise will be used for philanthropy. They are transferred to the Orthodox Radio “Grad Petrov” of the Saint-Petersburg Diocese, the Center for Social Adaptation of Orphaned and Handicapped Children under the Nikolskoye Parish, the Children’s Charitable Foundation “Mercy for Children” and “Christian Host”, a charitable foundation for aid and assistance under the Special Department of the Saint-Petersburg Diocese for Cooperation with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies. The company is also a permanent sponsor of Nevskye Kolokola, the annual International Festival of Modern Spiritual Songs.
