Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene – Sandblasting Gold Printing – Mount Athos

Description

Sandblasting gold printing with Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene

An amazing gold print with the newcomers Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene.

Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene are among the chorus of New Saints, especially those who were martyred almost immediately after the fall of Constantinople.

We know little about their lives. The first information about the existence of the Saints is narrated in a miraculous and revealing way from the year 1959 A.D. From an excavation that took place in Thermi, Lesvos, the tomb of Saint Hieromartyr Raphael, who was martyred together with Saint Martyr Nicholas and Saint Irene, was discovered, after continuous visions.

It is known that Saint Raphael, before becoming a clergyman, had a career in the Byzantine army and even reached a great extent. After his tonsure as a monk, he was ordained an elder, but was also honored with the rank of archimandrite and chancellor. A few years before the fall of Constantinople, the Saint found himself a monk somewhere in Macedonia with the monk Nicholas as a deacon.

As soon as Constantinople fell to the Turks, the fear of general persecution against Christians prompted Saint Raphael to flee with other monks to the old monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on Karyes hill, near the village of Thermi in Mytilene, where he was elected abbot.

In 1463 AD Lesvos fell into the hands of the Turks and after a raid on the monastery, they arrested Saint Raphael and Saint Nicholas on Holy Thursday of the same year. Cruel and merciless tortures followed, and Saint Raphael was martyred by slaughter in a very cruel way. They forcibly dragged him by the hair and beard, hung him from a tree, beat him brutally, pierced him with their instruments of war, after burning them in a strong fire, and finally slaughtered him by sawing him through the mouth.

Saint Nicholas died after torture, from a heart attack, tied to a tree.

Along with the Saints, twelve-year-old Irene, daughter of Basil, provost of Thermi, was martyred. The non-believers, after cutting off one of her arms, put her in a jar and burned her in front of her parents’ eyes.

They were joined by Saint Irene’s father, Vasilios, his wife Maria, their five-year-old child Raphael, their niece Eleni, the teacher Theodore and the doctor Alexander, whose bones were found near the tombs of the Saints.

Their martyrdom occurred on Easter Tuesday, April 9, 1463 A.D.

After miraculous suggestions of Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene, in visions of pious inhabitants of the area, the existence of their relics became known and the places where their tombs were located were indicated.

Their feast day is two days after Easter, i.e. on Easter Tuesday or Lambrotrite.

Sandblasted Gold Printing: Features

In the icon with the representation of Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene, 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 gold sheet is placed 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