Saint Demetrius – Serigraph on Naturally Aged Wood – Mount Athos

Description

Image of Saint Demetrius on Naturally Aged Wood

A serigraph on naturally aged wood featuring the depiction of Saint Demetrius, the protector and patron saint of Thessaloniki. His feast is celebrated with grandeur in the city on October 26th.

In the person of Saint Demetrius, Thessaloniki sees its protector and liberator. Not only because the city’s liberation from the Turks in 1912 coincided with his feast day, but also because, according to tradition, before the liberation, the people of Thessaloniki saw the Saint on horseback atop the White Tower, encouraging them.

Demetrius was born into an aristocratic family in Thessaloniki. He quickly rose through the ranks of the Roman army and, at the age of 22, held the rank of a tribune. As an officer in the Roman army under the tetrarch (and later emperor) Galerius Maximian, during the reign of Emperor Diocletian, he became a Christian and was imprisoned in Thessaloniki in 303 AD for defying the emperor’s edict “on the denial of Christianity.”

In prison, he met a young Christian, Nestor (feast day on October 27), who was about to face the fearsome gladiator of the time, Lyaeus, in combat. Saint Demetrius blessed him, and Nestor went on to defeat Lyaeus, angering the emperor. Both Demetrius and Nestor were sentenced to death—Demetrius by being pierced with spears and Nestor by beheading. The body of Saint Demetrius was buried at the site of his martyrdom, where a magnificent church was later built in his honor. The tomb became a deep well that oozed myrrh, which led to his epithet “Myrovlytos” (the Myrrh-streaming).

In Byzantine iconography, as well as in modern depictions, Saint Demetrius is often portrayed as a horseman on a red horse (in contrast to Saint George, who is depicted on a white horse) striking down the unbelieving Lyaeus.

This exceptional serigraph, like all the images in this collection, is crafted on naturally aged wood, which comes from a renovated cell of Mount Athos.

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

The image is available by special order.

Origin: Mount Athos

Dimensions: 20 x 24 x 2 cm