Holy Trinity – Lithograph – Mount Athos

Description

The Hospitality of Abraham

The Hospitality of Abraham depicts the three angels who visited Abraham and received his warm hospitality. This biblical event serves as a typology of the Holy Trinity.

Regarding the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, besides the explicit testimonies in the New Testament, there are also allusions to it in the Old Testament. One such allusion is the appearance of God to Abraham in the form of three men.

In Genesis (18:1), while Abraham was sitting near the oak of Mamre, where he had set up his tent, he was visited by three unknown men. Abraham welcomed them warmly and lovingly, despite not knowing them. He then offered them a rich meal. During their conversation, the unknown visitors announced to Abraham that his wife Sarah, despite her old age, would bear a child within a year, as indeed happened.

The Fathers of the Church saw in this biblical event a foreshadowing of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which was fully revealed in the New Testament. For this reason, the hospitality of Abraham has been depicted in the related icon. Since, later in the biblical narrative, two of the three men appear as Angels, it became customary to depict all three in the angelic form. Such an image existed and was venerated in ancient times at the site where the hospitality of Abraham took place, according to the testimony of Eusebius of Caesarea.

Lithograph of the Holy Trinity – The Hospitality of Abraham

Using a lithographed replica of Byzantine art, the gifted monk iconographer created this work following the traditional method of artificial aging, as taught on Mount Athos. In the four corners, the image is decorated with gold finishing, nestled between the carvings of the artificial aging.

Origin: Mount Athos