Saints Raphael, Nicholas & Irene – Serigraph on Naturally Aged Wood – Mount Athos

Description

Saints Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene on Naturally Aged Wood

This beautiful serigraph on naturally aged wood depicts the newly revealed Saints Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene.

Saints Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene are among the group of newly revealed saints, specifically those who martyred almost immediately after the fall of Constantinople.

We know little about their lives. The first information about the existence of the saints was revealed in a miraculous and revelatory way in 1959. During an excavation in Thermi, Lesbos, after continuous visions, the tomb of Saint Hieromartyr Raphael was discovered. He had martyred along with Saint Osio-martyr Nicholas and Saint Irene.

It is known that before becoming a clergyman, Saint Raphael had served in the Byzantine army and reached a high rank. After taking monastic vows, he was ordained as a priest and was also honored with the title of archimandrite and protosyncellus. A few years before the fall of Constantinople, Saint Raphael lived as a monk in Macedonia, with his deacon being the monk Nicholas.

Once Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks, the fear of general persecutions against Christians led Saint Raphael and other monks to seek refuge in the old monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos on Mount Karyes, near the village of Thermi in Mytilene, where he was elected abbot.

In 1463, Lesbos fell into Turkish hands, and after a raid on the monastery, Saint Raphael and Saint Nicholas were captured on Holy Thursday of that same year. They underwent harsh and relentless tortures, and Saint Raphael martyred through a brutal execution. They dragged him by his hair and beard, hanged him from a tree, beat him savagely, pierced him with their weapons, after heating them in a strong fire, and finally slaughtered him by sawing him from his mouth.

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

Along with the saints, the twelve-year-old Irene, daughter of Vasilios, the leader of Thermi, martyred. The infidels cut off one of her hands, placed her in a jar, and burned her before the eyes of her parents.

Also martyred were the father of Saint Irene, Vasilios, his wife Maria, their five-year-old child Raphael, their niece Helen, the teacher Theodore, and the doctor Alexander. Their bones were found near the tombs of the saints.

Their martyrdom took place on the Tuesday of Pascha, April 9, 1463 AD.

Through the miraculous revelations of Saints Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene in the visions of devout residents of the area, the location of their relics became known, and the spots where their tombs were found were pointed out.

Their feast day is two days after Pascha, on the Tuesday of Bright Week (Lambrotriti).

As the icon is handmade and the wood is processed by hand, there may be slight variations in the wood, but not in the depiction.

The icon is available upon request.

Dimensions: 25 x 35 x 2.5 cm