Archangel Michael Panormitis – Sandblasting Gold Printing – Mount Athos

Description

Sandblasted gold printing with Archangel Michael Panormitis

One of the largest pilgrimages of the Dodecanese with pan-Hellenic and pan-Orthodox radiance is the Monastery of Taxiarchis Michael Panormitis in Symi. The name of Panormos bay, to which the monastery owes its name, has ancient origin. For etymology, two versions are possible, one related to the bay (pan-ormos) and the other to the deserted location (pan-ermos) where the Monastery was built. In Symi, apart from Panormitis, there are eight other monasteries, dedicated to Taxiarchis Michael, corresponding to the nine angelic orders. These are Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Powers, Authorities, Lordships, Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim.

Folk tradition connects the foundation of the Monastery of Panormitis with the devotion of the Symian people. The name of a God-fearing woman, Mario of Proteni, who found while digging her field in Panormos a small icon of Panormitis at the root of a schnauzer. She carried it to her home and placed it among her other icons. The next day, however, the icon disappeared. Going back to Panormos he found it again in the same spot. She took it back to her house and this time it disappeared. Sadness seized her. In her sleep, the Archangel himself appeared “bright and shining” and expressed his desire to stay in Panormos. The pious woman the next day went to her spiritual father and he advised her to build a chapel in the place where she found the icon.

The people of Symia received from the Christians of Asia Minor the honorary veneration and reverence to the Archangel Michael, but their souls filtered the face of the Archangel as they saw fit. To the will of this lively soul fit other “colors”.
They identified him with a carrier of joy and a guardian of happiness! They disconnected him from the concept of entertainer, although the Archangel Michael -in his monasteries and chapels on Symi- is depicted stepping on a breathless body, whose soul he lifts with his left hand to transfer it to God. Symiakos knows that the Archangel is characterized as a psychopomp, but stubbornly refuses to accept his patron saint’s relationship with death. Stubbornness deep is this! He is adamant that the Archangel is always connected to life and only to it. That is why he attributes death to the absence of Archangel Michael Panormitis.

Sandblasted Gold Printing: Features

In the icon with the representation of Archangel Michael Panormitis, the hagiographer monk used the technique of gold printing creating a work of unique beauty. Gold-stamping is a kind of hot-stamping technique. Hot-stamping is the method by which very thin metal foil is glued on surfaces such as wood, leather, cardboard, plastic by pressing a heated embossed plate (plate) on our surface. Around the image you also use the technique of sandblasting, it is the technical treatment that achieves the corrosion of part or all of a surface by pouring sand under pressure.

Dimensions: 14,5 x 18 x 0,5 cm.
Origin: Mount Athos