Saint Joseph the Hesychast – Aged Lithograph – Mount Athos

Description

Antique Lithograph of St. Joseph the Hesychast

The glorification of Elder Joseph the Hesychast was announced by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on March 10, 2020. His memory is celebrated on August 16.
Elder Joseph the Hesychast was born in 1898 in the village of Lefkes on Paros. When the young Francis—this was his secular name—left to become a monk, his mother told her relatives: “I knew he would become a monk from the moment of his birth. When I gave birth to my Francis and was still in bed with the swaddled baby beside me, I saw the roof of the house open, and a winged and very beautiful young man, whom I could barely look at due to his brightness, descended and stood next to my baby, beginning to uncover him to take him. When I protested, saying, ‘What are you doing? Are you going to take my baby?’ He insisted that this was his purpose and that this was the decision. To reassure me, he showed me a note in a notebook written with an order that he must definitely take the child. When I resisted, the angel gave me a precious jewel in the shape of a cross and took the baby. From that moment, I believed,” said his mother, Maria, “that one day Francis would follow Christ.”

At the age of 23, he decided to become a monk after the following vision: “One night I dreamed that I was passing by the palace when two officers of the palace guard took me and brought me into the palace. I didn’t understand why and protested. They kindly replied that I should not be afraid but should go up, as it was the King’s will. We ascended to a magnificent palace, superior to any earthly one; they dressed me in a pure white and valuable robe and told me, ‘From now on, you will serve here.’ Then they took me to venerate the King.

After a unique journey, in January 1938 he moved to the steep caves of Little St. Anna until 1947, and in 1951 he was transferred to the Skete of the Annunciation of the Theotokos until his repose. He was a man of prayer, exercising extreme fasting and vigilance. The Virgin Mary, for whom his love was “greater than any description,” since he would weep at the mere mention of her name, had informed him days before that she would take him to be with her on her feast day, August 15. Elder Joseph indeed fell asleep on the day of the Dormition of the Theotokos in 1959, saying, “All is finished, I am leaving, I depart, bless me.”

A wonderful icon that stands out not only for its theme and the creator’s stunning silkscreen work but also for the wood used as a base. The monk who crafted it used naturally aged wood from a cell on Mount Athos. This remarkable piece of art carries with it a small piece of the history of this sacred place, as it was once part of it.

Antique Lithograph: Characteristics

In this particular icon, the iconographer monk used the lithography technique to create a work of unique beauty. Specifically, by using a lithographed copy of Byzantine art, the monk crafted this piece following the traditional method of artificial aging, as taught to him in the iconography workshops of the Athonite State. In fact, the artificial aging of the iconography is handcrafted, a process to which the monks of Mount Athos give particular importance.
 

Origin: Mount Athos