Contemporary Holy Elders – Handmade Iconography – Mount Athos

Description

Iconography with gold leaf on a natural piece of wood, handcrafted by the monks of Mount Athos.

An exceptional icon depicting Saint Paisios, Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia, and Saint Iakovos of Evia.

Saint Paisios

Arsenios Eznepidis, his secular name, was born in Farasa, Cappadocia. On August 7, 1924, one week before they left for Greece as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, he was baptized by the priest of his parish, Saint Arsenius, who was recognized as a saint by the Orthodox Church in 1988.

The classification of Agios Paisios as a saint of the Orthodox Church was carried out by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on January 13, 2015, while the Orthodox Church celebrates his memory on July 12. In 2017, he was declared the patron saint of the military weapon of the Transmissions, by decision of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. He spent his last years in the cell of Panagouda on Mount Athos, where crowds of people visited him to listen to him and receive his blessing. He lived an intense ascetic life, with minimal rest of 2 to 3 hours a day. After his death, he was buried in the Holy Hermitage of Saint John the Theologian in Souroti, Thessaloniki.

Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia

He was canonized as a saint by the Orthodox Church in 2013. Elder Porphyrios was born in 1906 in Evia, and at the age of 12, he secretly left for Mount Athos. He became a monk at the age of 14 and took the name Nikitas, but after a few years, he fell seriously ill, which forced him to leave Mount Athos.

He returned to Evia, where he settled at the Monastery of Saint Charalambos in Lefkés. In 1926, he was ordained a priest by Porphyrios III, the Archbishop of Sinai, who gave him the name Porphyrios. At the age of 22, he became a spiritual father – confessor, and shortly after, he was made archimandrite. In 1940, on the eve of World War II, he took on the duties of chaplain and spiritual father at the Polyclinic of Athens, where he remained for many years. In June 1991, sensing his imminent end, he left for his cell at the Monastery of Saint George in Kavsokalyvia on Mount Athos, where he peacefully passed away on December 2 of the same year.

Saint Iakovos of Evia

He was born in 1920 AD in Minor Asia, specifically in Livisi of Makri. Saint Iakovos had the desire to go to the Holy Land and live in the desert as a hermit. However, he considered it good to visit the Monastery of Saint David before embarking on his journey to the Holy Land, to ask for the help and intercession of the Blessed Saint. There, he ultimately remained.

Saint Iakovos, in all his trials and temptations, demonstrated unwavering faith in God and in Saint David. His ordination as a deacon took place on December 18, 1952, in the chapel of Saint Barbara in Chalkida, and the following day, on December 19, he was ordained as a priest in the chapel of the Bishop’s Residence. His blessed life was fittingly followed by his peaceful repose, which he had foreseen, on November 21, 1991.

The icon is available upon request.

Dimensions: 39.5 x 30 x 1.5