Archangel Michael – Silkscreen on Naturally Aged Wood – Mount Athos

Description

Silk print with Archangel Michael on Natural Aging Wood

An exceptional silkscreen depicting the Archangel Michael, crafted on wood from a cell renovation on Mount Athos.

One of the largest pilgrimages in the Dodecanese with pan-Hellenic and pan-Orthodox influence is the Monastery of Taxiarch Michael of Panormitis in Symi. The name of Panormos bay, to which the monastery owes its name, has ancient origins. For the 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, in addition to Panormitis, there are eight other monasteries, dedicated to Taxiarchis Michael, which correspond to the nine angelic orders. These are Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Powers, Principalities, Dominions, Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim.

Folk tradition links the foundation of the Panormitis Monastery with the piety of the Simian people. The name of a God-fearing woman of Marios of Protenios is mentioned, who found while digging her field in Panormos a small icon of Panormite at the root of a rope. She took it home and placed it among her other icons.The next day, however, the icon disappeared. Going again to Panormos he found it again in the same place. She took it back to her house and this time it disappeared. Sadness took over her. In her sleep, the “brilliant and sparkling” Archangel himself appeared to her and expressed to her his desire to stay in Panormos. The pious woman went to her spiritual the other day and he advised her to build a small church in the place where she found the icon.

The Simiotes received from the Christians of Asia Minor the honorable worship and reverent respect towards the Archangel Michael, but their soul filtered through the face of the Taxiarch. Other “colors” suited the will of this lively soul.They identified him with a bearer of joy and a guardian of happiness! They disconnected him from the concept of an entertainer, even though the Archangel Michael – in his monasteries and chapels in Symi – is depicted stepping on a breathless body, whose soul he lifts with his left hand to take it to God. Symiakos knows that the Archangel is characterized as a psychic, but he stubbornly refuses to accept his patron’s relationship with death.
Stubbornness is deep! He is adamant in his position that the Taxiarchis is always connected to life and only to it. That is why he attributes death to the absence of the Archangel Michael of Panormite.