Άγιος Ιωάννης o Βαπτιστής - Saint Jonh the Forerunner and Baptist

22x30cm / 8.6x11.8inch.
Egg tempera.

+ Την επομένη ημέρα των Θεοφανίων καθιερώθηκε να εορτάζουμε, τη μνήμη του πανίερου προφήτη Ιωάννη Προδρόμου. Ο Ιωάννης ήταν γιος του ιερέα Ζαχαρία και της Ελισάβετ. Μέχρι τα τριάντα του χρόνια, ζει ασκητική ζωή στην έρημο της Ιουδαίας, αφιερωμένη ολοκληρωτικά στην προσευχή, τη μελέτη και την πνευματική και ηθική τελειοποίηση. Το ρούχο του ήταν από τρίχες καμήλας, στη μέση του είχε δερμάτινη ζώνη και την τροφή του αποτελούσαν ακρίδες και άγριο μέλι. Με μορφή ηλιοκαμένη, σοβαρός, αξιοπρεπής και δυναμικός, ο Ιωάννης φανέρωνε αμέσως φυσιογνωμία έκτακτη και υπέροχη. Είχε όλα τα προσόντα μεγάλου και επιβλητικού κήρυκα του θείου λόγου. Έτσι, με μεγάλη χάρη κήρυττε «τα πλήθη». Κατακεραύνωνε και χτυπούσε σκληρά τη φαρισαϊκή αλαζονική έπαρση, που κάτω από το εξωτερικό ένδυμα της ψευτοαγιότητας έκρυβε τις πιο αηδιαστικές πληγές ψυχικής σκληρότητας και ακαθαρσίας. Γενικά, η διδασκαλία του συνοψίζεται στη χαρακτηριστική φράση του: «Μετανοείτε· ήγγικε γαρ ή βασιλεία των ουρανών», προετοιμάζοντας, έτσι, το δρόμο του Κυρίου μας Ιησού Χριστού για το σωτήριο έργο Του. Όταν ο Χριστός άρχισε τη δημόσια δράση του, ο κόσμος άφηνε σιγά-σιγά τον Ιωάννη και ακολουθούσε Αυτόν. Η αντιστροφή αύτη, βέβαια, θα προκαλούσε μεγάλη πίκρα και θα γεννούσε αγκάθια ζήλειας και φθόνου σ' έναν, εκτός χριστιανικού πνεύματος, διδάσκαλο ή φιλόσοφο. Αντίθετα, στον Ιωάννη προκάλεσε μεγάλη χαρά και ευφροσύνη. Η γιορτή αυτή του Ιωάννου του Προδρόμου, για τον όποιο ο Κύριος είπε ότι κανείς άνθρωπος δε στάθηκε μεγαλύτερος του, καθιερώθηκε τον 5ο μ.Χ. αιώνα.

Επίσης, σήμερα εορτάζουμε και το γεγονός της μεταφοράς στην Κωνσταντινούπολη της τιμίας Χειρός του Αγίου Ιωάννου του Προδρόμου, που έγινε κατά τον ακόλουθο τρόπο: Όταν ο Ευαγγελιστής Λουκάς πήγε στην πόλη Σεβαστή, όπου τάφηκε ο Πρόδρομος, παρέλαβε από τον τάφο του το δεξί του χέρι, το μετέφερε στην Αντιόχεια, όπου χάριτι Θεού επιτελούσε πολλά θαύματα. Από την Αντιόχεια, το Ιερό χέρι, μετακομίστηκε στην Κωνσταντινούπολη το 957, από τον διάκονο Ιώβ. Εκεί ο φιλόχριστος αυτοκράτορας, αφού την ασπάστηκε με πολύ σεβασμό, την τοποθέτησε στα βασιλικά ανάκτορα. Η σύναξη των πιστών, σε ανάμνηση του γεγονότος της μετακομιδής της τιμίας Χείρας του Προδρόμου στην Κωνσταντινούπολη, ετελείτο στην περιοχή του Φορακίου (ή Σφωρακίου).

Επίσης, αυτή τη μέρα, εορτάζετε και το Θαύμα του Προδρόμου στη Χίο κατά των Αγαρηνών.


Ἀπολυτίκιον 
Ἦχος β’.
Μνήμη δικαίου μετ᾽ ἐγκωμίων· σοί δέ ἀρκέσει ἡ μαρτυρία τοῦ Κυρίου Πρόδρομε· ἀνεδείχθης γάρ ὄντως καί Προφητῶν σεβασμιώτερος, ὅτι καί ἐν ῥείθροις βαπτίσαι κατηξιώθης τόν κηρυττόμενον· ὅθεν τῆς ἀληθείας ὑπεραθλήσας, χαίρων εὐηγγελίσω καί τοῖς ἐν ᾅδῃ, Θεόν φανερωθέντα ἐν σαρκί, τόν αἴροντα τήν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου, καί παρέχοντα ἡμῖν τό μέγα ἔλεος.

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+In the Orthodox Church it is customary, on the day following the Great Feasts of the Lord and the Mother of God, to remember those saints who participated directly in the sacred event. So, on the day following the Theophany of the Lord, the Church honors the one who participated directly in the Baptism of Christ, placing his own hand upon the head of the Savior.
Saint John, the holy Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, whom the Lord called the greatest of the prophets, concludes the history of the Old Testament and opens the era of the New Testament. The holy Prophet John bore witness to the Only-Begotten Son of God, incarnate in the flesh. Saint John was accounted worthy to baptize Him in the waters of the Jordan, and he was a witness of the Theophany of the Most Holy Trinity on the day of the Savior’s Baptism.
The holy Prophet John was related to the Lord on His mother’s side, the son of the Priest Zachariah and Righteous Elizabeth. The holy Forerunner, John, was born six months before Christ. The Archangel Gabriel announced his birth in the Temple at Jerusalem, revealing to Zachariah that a son was to be born to him.
Through the prayers offered beforehand, the child was filled with the Holy Spirit. Saint John prepared himself in the wilds of the desert for his great service by a strict life, by fasting, prayer and sympathy for the fate of God’s people.
At the age of thirty, he came forth preaching repentance. He appeared on the banks of the Jordan, to prepare the people by his preaching to accept the Savior of the world. In church hymnology, Saint John is called a “bright morning star,” whose gleaming outshone the brilliance of all the other stars, announcing the coming dawn of the day of grace, illumined with the light of the spiritual Sun, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Having baptized the sinless Lamb of God, Saint John soon died a martyr’s death, beheaded by the sword on orders of King Herod at the request of his daughter Salome. (On Saint John the Baptist, see Mt.3:1-16, 11:1-19, 14:1-12; Mark 1:2-8, 6:14-29; Luke 1:5-25, 39-80, 3:1-20, 7:18-35, 9:7-9; John 1:19-34, 3:22-26). The Transfer of the Right Hand of the holy Forerunner from Antioch to Constantinople (956) and the Miracle of Saint John the Forerunner against the Hagarenes (Moslems) at Chios:
The body of Saint John the Baptist was buried in the Samaritan city of Sebaste. The holy Evangelist Luke, who went preaching Christ in various cities and towns, came to Sebaste, where they gave him the right hand of the holy Prophet John, the very hand with which he had baptized the Savior. The Evangelist Luke took it with him to his native city of Antioch.
When the Moslems seized Antioch centuries later, a deacon named Job brought the holy hand of the Forerunner from Antioch to Chalcedon. From there, on the eve of the Theophany of the Lord, it was transferred to Constantinople (956) and kept thereafter.
In the year 1200, the Russian pilgrim Dobrynya, who later became Saint Anthony, Archbishop of Novgorod (February 10), saw the right hand of the Forerunner in the imperial palace. From the Lives of the Saints we learn that in the year 1263, during the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders, the emperor Baldwin gave one bone from the wrist of Saint John the Baptist to Ottonus de Cichon, who then gave it to a Cistercian abbey in France.
The right hand continued to be kept in Constantinople. And at the end of the fourteenth to the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, the holy relic was seen at Constantinople in the Peribleptos monastery by the Russian pilgrims Stephen of Novgorod, the deacon Ignatius, the cantor Alexander and the deacon Zosimus. When Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, sacred objects were gathered up at the the conqueror’s orders and kept under lock in the imperial treasury.
In the Lives of the Saints is clear testimony that in the year 1484 the right hand of the holy Forerunner was given away by the son of the Moslem sultan Bayazet to the knights of Rhodes to gain their good will, since a dangerous rival for Bayazet, his own brother, had allied himself with them. A contemporary participant, the vice-chancellor of Rhodes, Wilhelm Gaorsan Gallo, also speaks of this event. The knights of Rhodes, having established their base on the island of Malta (in the Mediterranean Sea), then transferred the sacred relic they had received to Malta.
When the Russian Tsar Paul I (1796-1801) became Grand Master of the Maltese Order in honor of the holy Prophet John, the right hand of the Baptist, part of the Life-Creating Cross and the Philermos Icon (October 12) of the Mother of God (from Mt Philermos on the island of Rhodes) were transferred in 1799 from the island of Malta to Russia [because of the Napoleonic threat], to the chapel at Gatchina (October 12). In the same year these sacred items were transferred into the church dedicated to the Icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands at the Winter Palace. A special service was composed for this Feast.
Besides the Synaxis of the honorable, glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates his memory on the following days: September 23, his Conception; June 24, his Nativity; August 29, his Beheading; February 24, the First and Second Finding of his Head; May 25, the Third Finding of his Head; October 12, the Transfer of his Right Hand from Malta to Gatchina (1799).

Troparion — Tone 2

The memory of the righteous is celebrated with hymns of praise, / but the Lord’s testimony is sufficient for you, O Forerunner. / You were shown in truth to be the most honorable of the prophets, / for you were deemed worthy to baptize in the streams of the Jordan Him whom they foretold. / Therefore, having suffered for the truth with joy, / you proclaimed to those in hell God who appeared in the flesh, / who takes away the sin of the world, and grants us great mercy.

Άγγελος Κυρίου - Angel

11x7cm - 4.3x2.7inch
Traditional stucco evened on a surface of a medium size oval rock.
Egg tempera and gold leaf 22k on background.

+ Ζωγραφισμένος σε στοκαρισμένη και γυαλισμένη πέτρα θαλάσσης. 

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 + The word angel means "messenger" and this word expresses the nature of angelic service to the human race. Angels are also referred to as "bodiless Powers of Heaven". Angels are organized into several orders, or Angelic Choirs. The most influential of these classifications was that put forward by pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (not to be confused with Dionysius the Areopagite, who was baptized by Saint Paul and lived in the first century, and from whom pseudo-Dionysius took his name) in the fourth or fifth century in his book The Celestial Hierarchy.
In this work, the author interpolated several ambiguous passages from the New Testament, specifically Ephesians 6:12 and Colossians 1:16, to construct a schema of three Hierarchies, Spheres or Triads of angels, with each Hierarchy containing three Orders or Choirs. In descending order of power, these were:

• First Hierarchy:
  • Seraphim
  • Cherubim
  • Thrones
• Second Hierarchy:
  • Powers
  • Dominions
  • Principalities
• Third Hierarchy:
  • Virtues
  • Archangels
  • Angels

Άγιοι Απόστολοι Πέτρος και Παύλος - Apostles Peter and Paul

30x 40 cm - 11.8 x 15.7inch.
Handmade linden wood curved.
Egg tempera and gold leaf 22k.

                    
+Ο Πέτρος καταγόταν από τη Βηθσαϊδά της Γαλιλαίας και ήταν γιος του Ιωνά, αδελφός του Αποστόλου Ανδρέα του Πρωτόκλητου. Ο Πέτρος και ο Ανδρέας ήταν ψαράδες στη λίμνη Γεννησαρέτ. Είχε νυμφευθεί στην Καπερναούμ, όπου έμενε οικογενειακά μαζί με την πεθερά του. Όπως μας πληροφορεί το Ευαγγέλιο, όταν ο Ιησούς έφθασε στη λίμνη της Γεννησαρέτ συνάντησε τους δυο αδελφούς Πέτρο και Ανδρέα οι οποίοι έριχναν τα δίχτυα τους. Αμέσως μετά την κλήση τους, άφησαν τα δίχτυα και τις οικογένειές τους και τον ακολούθησαν. Ψαράς στο επάγγελμα, ήταν τύπος αυθόρμητος, ορμητικός, και τη ζωή του κοντά στο Χριστό τη μαθαίνουμε από τα τέσσερα Ευαγγέλια, ενώ την αποστολική του δράση, από τις πράξεις των Αποστόλων. Έγραψε και δύο Καθολικές Επιστολές, μέσα στις οποίες να τι προτρέπει τους χριστιανούς: «Νήψατε, γρηγορήσατε, ο αντίδικος υμών διάβολος ως λέων ωρυόμενος περιπατεί ζητών τίνα καταπίη» (Α΄ Πέτρου, ε΄ 8). Δηλαδή εγκρατευθείτε, γίνετε άγρυπνοι και προσεκτικοί. Διότι ο αντίπαλος και κατήγορός σας ο διάβολος, σαν λιοντάρι που βρυχάται, περιπατεί με μανία και ζητάει ποιον να τραβήξει μακριά από την πίστη και να τον καταπιεί. Μετά την Ανάληψη του Κυρίου, ο Πέτρος, δίδαξε το Ευαγγέλιο στην Ιουδαία, στην Αντιόχεια, στον Πόντο, στην Γαλατία, στην Καππαδοκία, στην Ασία και τη Βιθυνία. Κατά την παράδοση (που σημαίνει ότι δεν είναι απόλυτα ιστορικά διασταυρωμένο) έφτασε μέχρι την Ρώμη, όπου επί Νέρωνος (54-68μ.Χ.) υπέστη μαρτυρικό θάνατο, αφού τον σταύρωσαν χιαστί, με το κεφάλι προς τα κάτω περί το έτος 64 μ.Χ.

Ο δε Παύλος γεννήθηκε στην Ταρσό της Κιλικίας σε ένα χωρίο που ονομάζεται Γίσχαλα και στην αρχή ήταν σκληρός διώκτης του Χριστιανισμού. Το 36 μ.Χ. περίπου, όταν κάποτε μετέβαινε στη Δαμασκό για να διώξει και εκεί χριστιανούς, έγινε θαύμα στο οποίο φανερώθηκε ο Χριστός, ο οποίος τον πρόσταξε να πάει στον Ανανία ο οποίος τον κατήχησε και τον βάπτισε. Έτσι, έγινε ο μεγαλύτερος κήρυκας του Ευαγγελίου, θυσιάζοντας μάλιστα και την ζωή του γι’ αυτό. Ονομάστηκε ο πρώτος μετά τον Ένα και Απόστολος των Εθνών, λόγω των τεσσάρων μεγάλων αποστολικών περιοδειών του. Είναι ο ιδρυτής της Εκκλησίας της Ελλάδος. Συνέγραψε 14 επιστολές προς τις Εκκλησίες τις οποίες εκείνος ίδρυσε. Τη ζωή του με τις περιπέτειές του θα τα δει κανείς, αν μελετήσει τις Πράξεις των Αποστόλων, αλλά και τις 14 Επιστολές του στην Καινή Διαθήκη. Ο Απόστολος Παύλος θέλει κάθε χριστιανός, όπως και ο ίδιος, να αισθάνεται και να λέει: «ζω δε ουκέτι εγώ, ζη δε εν εμοί Χριστός» (Προς Γαλάτας β΄ 20). Δηλαδή, δε ζω πλέον εγώ, ο παλαιός άνθρωπος, αλλά ζει μέσα μου ο Χριστός. Και ακόμα, «τα πάντα και εν πάσι Χριστός» (Προς Κολασσαείς γ΄ 11). Να διευθύνει, δηλαδή, όλες τις εκδηλώσεις τις ανθρώπινης ζωής μας ο Χριστός. Ο Απόστολος Παύλος υπέστη μαρτυρικό θάνατο (χωρίς να είναι απόλυτα ιστορικά διασταυρωμένο) δι’ αποκεφαλισμού στη Ρώμη μεταξύ των ετών 64 - 67 μ.Χ.


Ἀπολυτίκιον
Ἦχος δ’.
Οἱ τῶν Ἀποστόλων πρωτόθρονοι, καὶ τῆς Οἰκουμένης διδάσκαλοι, τῷ Δεσπότῃ τῶν ὅλων πρεσβεύσατε, εἰρήνην τῆ οἰκουμένῃ δωρήσασθαι, καὶ ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἡμῶν τὸ μέγα ἔλεος.

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+ St. Peter.

A visiting dignitary is honoured with a symbolic key to the city as a token of respect, but for eternity the keys to the kingdom of Heaven have been placed by the Messiah himself, out of respect to one of his greatest disciples, into the hand of a man called Peter,the constant companion and beloved friend of Jesus Christ. This magnificent disciple, whom trust places at the gates of heaven to examine the credentials of those who would enter, had a master key in his lifetime which unlocked the hearts of men to admit the Saviour, and his wisdom was the key to men's minds which in turn admitted the intelligence to give meaning to the Christian faith.
Brought to Jesus by his brother Andrew, a fisherman like himself, Peter forthwith acknowledged the Master and undertook a lifetime of casting his fisherman's nets for the sake of Jesus Christ and so excelled himself in his personal and total dedication to the Saviour that in the two thousand years that have elapsed any roll call of the disciples finds the name of Peter among the most prominent. He ranks with St. Paul as one without whom the new Faith could not have survived the whips and scorns of the pagan era of superstition and spiritual darkness.
Several accounts are given in the New Testament about St, Peter and his strong bond with the Nazarene, but the stirring passage in Matthew should be etched in the mind of every Christian, that which says "And I say to thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I will give thee the keys of the Kingdom of the Heavens, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in the heavens, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in the heavens." This divine authority vested in Peter as well as to all of the disciples of Christ, placed a sacred trust in Peter, whose name means, "rock" from the Greek word petra.
It was upon this rock of faith, as depicted in holy Scripture, that the formation of the Christian Church, the disciples' handywork, was not only a success but a triumph as well. Peter, the redoubtable fisherman who had never strayed far from his home in Capernaum on the shores of Galilee, was at the side of Jesus in his ministry throughout the Holy Land and as one of his closest apostles planned the campaigns for the winning of converts.
In the course of this spiritual campaign, he came to witness the many miracles of the Master, such as the walking on water, the miracle of the loaves and fishes and, many others which were to lend an aura of divine authority to all of the apostles in the stewardship of the Church.
Peter, together with many others, was privileged to witness the glorious resurrection of Christ, an event which all Christendom views with such reverence as to regard the first followers of Christ, as next to divine.
Peter struck out on his own in the missionary work of renewed dedication after the death of Jesus, but he favoured Jerusalem and together with other followers of Christ assisted diligently in the formation of the Christian community in Jerusalem.
Peter, whose presence at Gethsemane had further fuelled the fires of Christian zeal in his heart, joined John in Samaria, Lydda, Joppa, and Caesaria in a propagation of the truth of the Messiah, but returning to Jerusalem found that a famine had set in and that the Christian community was somehow being blamed for the economic woes that ravaged the land. With the help of Paul and Barnabas they restored thconfidence of the people and led them out of their hapless state to an era of new prosperity. Ultimately Peter established the first church in the ancient city of Antioch and became its first bishop. Later in Rome, he was sentenced by Nero to be crucified, a manner of death in which he emulated the Messiah.

Saint Paul.


Whenever the storms of controversy within the Christian Church have cast a shadow on the Cross of Jesus Christ, the clouds have been rolled back by the spiritual brighteness, undiminished by the centuries, of the magnificent St. Paul. Most Christians agree that were it not for St. Paul, the new faith of Jesus Christ would have never taken hold to become the mainstay of Western civilization, The total commitment of St. Paul to the Messiah, for which he ultimately sacrificed his life, brought the message of Jesus to the nucleus of Christians over a period of thirty years and assured the permanency of the truth of the Savior. It was Christ, of course, who planted the seeds, but it was St. Paul who nourished the garden of Christendom.
St. Paul was born in Tarsus, a flourishing crossroads city in Cilicia, Asia Minor. He received his religious training in Jerusalem under the renowned rabbinical tutor Gamaliel, from whom he absorbed the teaching of the Pharisees with intensity and sincerity. He deplored the acceptance of the Messiah as heresy to his religion and as an affront to the Law of the ancient covenant. Armed with articles of condemnation from his council, he set out for Damascus with an avowed purpose of wiping out this new belief in Jesus Christ.
On the road to Damascus he met Jesus. This is perhaps the most dramatic turnabout in history, one that was destined to alter the course of the world. St. Paul embraced as the Messiah the man whom he had set out to destroy; thereafter he devoted himself with deep conviction to the truth of Christianity. The conversion alone of this profoundly religious man is in itself testimony to the reality of the Messiah's divinity.
Although not one of the twelve disciples of Christ, Paul linked himself with the apostles and became the greatest apostolic missionary of all time. A brilliant orator and writer, he was sensitive to the needs and moods of the various tribes of both Greek and Near Eastern backgrounds. Furthermore, he was intelligent enough to cope with the problems that beset the new faith at every turn.
St. Paul, a man of small physical stature, cast a giant shadow upon the missionary scene as he traveled the length and breadth of the ancient Eastern world. He had success following success in the vast areas of Asia, Greece, Cyprus, Macedonia, and eventually Rome, where his most noble purpose was to prove his undoing. He had a fondness for Jerusalem, for whose poor he continually solicited funds. Moreover, he envisioned a union of the Jewish and Christian communities, a project which was to prove dangerous. He met James in Jerusalem and together they sought a means to bring this laudable plan into being. However, he encountered not love but outright hostility. In fact, he had to be saved from an angry mob by the Roman authorities, who placed him aboard a ship bound for Rome, where he arrived after a tossed voyage.
St. Paul had always wanted to use the eternal city with its strategic position in the empire, from which the spread of Christianity could be projected. Although he preached in Rome for two years, his ambitions were never completely realized, except for the production of his masterful Pastoral Letters.
Despite his frail health he continued his work for Christ at an accelerated pace, but his enthusiastic love for the Savior also brought him the resentment of certain influential elements in Rome. When his enemies had done their worst, he was brought to trial and met a marytr's death about A.D. 67.
The true greatness of Paul is discerned in his writings, particularly his epistles. As author of almost half of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, he has influenced Christianity as no other man with the exception of Jesus himself. Even after nearly two thousand years, St. Paul's candor, freshness, clarity, and perceptiveness in his writings are as welcome as sunrise.
Orthodox Christianity remembers St. Paul each year on 29th June and as one of the Apostles on June 30.