Saint Joseph the Hesychast – Serigraph on Naturally Aged Wood – Mount Athos

Description

Icon of Saint Joseph the Hesychast on Naturally Aged Wood

The canonization of Elder Joseph the Hesychast was announced by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on March 10, 2020. His feast day is celebrated on August 16.

Elder Joseph the Hesychast was born in 1898 in the village of Lefkes on the island of Paros. When young Francisco – this was his secular name – left to become a monk, his mother told her relatives: “I knew he would become a monk from the time of his birth. When I gave birth to Francisco and was still lying in bed with the baby swaddled beside me, I saw the roof of the house open, and a winged, very handsome young man, whose brightness was so intense that I could hardly look at him, descended and stood beside my baby, beginning to uncover him with the intention of taking him. When I protested, saying, ‘What are you doing? You are taking my baby!’ He insisted that this was the purpose for which he had come, and it was the decision. To reassure me, he showed me a note with a written command that he must take the child. When I resisted, the angel gave me a precious cross-shaped jewel and took the baby. From that moment, I believed, said his mother Maria, that Francisco would one day follow Christ.”

At the age of 23, he decided to become a monk after the following vision: “One night, I dreamed that I was walking outside the palace when two officers from the royal guard immediately took me inside the palace. I didn’t understand why, and I protested. They kindly replied that I should not be afraid, but that I should go up because it was the King’s will. We ascended to a very magnificent palace, greater than any earthly one. They dressed me in a white, precious garment and told me, ‘From now on, you will serve here.’ Then, they took me to venerate the King.”

After a particular journey, in January 1938, he moved to the rugged caves of Little Saint Anna, where he stayed until 1947. In 1951, he was transferred to the Monastery of the Annunciation of the Theotokos until his repose. He was a man of prayer, and he practiced fasting and vigil to the utmost. Indeed, the Virgin Mary, for whom his love was “beyond description”—as he would cry just by mentioning Her name—had informed him days before that She would take him to be with Her on Her feast day, the Dormition of the Theotokos. Elder Joseph passed away on the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos in 1959, saying: “All is finished, I depart, I leave, bless me.”

This is a magnificent icon, distinguished not only by its subject and the creator’s stunning serigraphy, but also by the wood used as its base. The monk who crafted it used naturally aged wood from a cell on Mount Athos. This extraordinary work of art carries with it a small piece of the history of this sacred place, as it was once part of it.

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

The icon is available upon order.

Dimensions: 19 x 24.5 x 1.5 cm.

Origin: Mount Athos