Saint Ioannis Prodromos – Handmade Hagiography – Mount Athos

Description

Handmade Hagiography On natural linden wood by the hands of the hagiographer, the saintly monk Father Vasileios, who is buried in the Holy Cell of Agios Anthony of the Holy Monastery of Philotheus.
An exceptional iconography depicting Saint Ioannis Prodromos , entirely hand-crafted.

This specific iconography has been crafted by the Agiorite Father Vasilios, based on Byzantine iconography standards. The depiction of the Saint has been painted entirely by hand. Coating the hagiography with pure beeswax ensures that the colors of the image remain unchanged over time.

Amazing icon painting with Saint John the Baptist or Saint John the Forerunner (August 29), who with his teaching prepared the world to receive the Messiah Jesus, hence the designation “Forerunner”.

According to the Evangelist Luke, John was the son of the priest Zacharias and Elizabeth, who was a relative of the Virgin. About his conception and birth, which happened 6 months before the birth of Jesus Christ, the Evangelist recounts miraculous events. Although Elizabeth was considered barren, the archangel Gabriel told Zacharias that eventually his wife would give birth to a boy and name him John.

At first Zacharias allegedly did not believe Gabriel’s words and probably suffered some shock during which he lost his speech (an event interpreted as a punishment) where he remained mute until the day of the child’s naming. Eight days after the infant’s birth, when he was asked to reveal the child’s name, he wrote the name “John” on a sign and immediately his voice was restored.

According to a report by the Evangelist Luke, John now appears at the age of 30 “by divine command”, in the region around Jordan “in the Judean desert”, preaching: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come” and “baptizing those who come to him”. Jesus Christ also met him there and asked him to baptize him. He initially refused, saying that he is not worthy to baptize the Messiah, but the Messiah must baptize him. But Christ persisted, and so Saint John the Forerunner baptized Him in the waters of the Jordan River. Both his appearance and John’s ascetic life (he wore a woolen garment “made of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his loins”, while his diet was wild honey and locusts), alongside the sermons and baptisms of repentance that occurred, it was next to cause a multitude of listeners and admirers as well as the envy of so many others.

He openly disapproved of the relationship of the then tetrarch of Galilee, Herod Antipas, with Herodias, his brother’s wife. This resulted in the imprisonment and subsequent beheading of John when, at some birthday celebration, Herod asked his daughter Salome to dance for him and promised her on oath to give her whatever she asked for. Herodias, her mother, who hated John, then found the opportunity she was looking for where she then urged her daughter to ask for the head of the prophet John in a plate (dish).

As a biblical figure, he is considered to be at the crossroads between the Old and New Testaments. In the Old he is considered as a “Prophet” and messenger of God and in the New as a “Forerunner”.