Saint Nick finished

I had almost finished this icon at the end of my class in April (the left is a previous stage and the right is where the icon was at at the end of the course). I needed to do a little shading on the book and add gold to the edges as well as put a white line between the light color and green and a red line around the outer edge.

Most importantly I had to inscribe the icon. The icon becomes an icon when you have finished inscribing it. The instructors were Russian and instructed us on how to inscribe the icon in Russian(see previous post). I did not want to do that for several reasons. One, I am not Russian and unlike Bruce Hansen, do not even read Russian(although I am supposedly going to learn enough Russian to read icons). Second the inscription in Russian is very cultural and does not make that much sense to me. Third, I wanted the icon to read in a meaningful way to me and 99% of the people who would ever see it. So, while many of my classmates were diligently working on the Russian script, I pondered how I would inscribe it. And, of course asked the American director of the course a lot of questions (hey, I'm an external processor). BTW, the Russian translation is Saint Nicholas, Wonder Worker by the head of St. Nicholas and the translation of the text in the book of the gospels is "at that time, Jesus was standing in a flat place...", the introduction to the sermon on the plains, referencing the fact that people were coming to Jesus because of the healings and miraculous works he was performing. And, St. Nicholas is known most prominently in Russia as a wonder worker or miracle worker.

I talked with Charles the next week about how to inscribe it. Charles of course had painted St. Nicholas before. It was a very helpful conversation. He said at this time, since I was painting it for use in my own private worship, the inscription in the book and the saint's name should be meaningful to me. When he painted an icon of St. Nicholas for a congregation in Alaska he inscribed it in English and Klingot (Native Alaskan dialect) with the inscription in the book of the gospels of "let your light shine so they will see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven" or something like that.

St. Nicholas came from a wealthy family and was very devout. His parents died suddenly when he was a teenager and he sold all that he had and became a priest. He was led by the Spirit in a miraculous way to a church and region and was made Bishop of Myra at a very young age. His life was marked by acts of compassion and justice. Of course, the modern day Santa Claus was loosely modeled after him. The story that is most associated with him and where the whole Santa Claus present thing comes from is that there were these three daughters in a poor family. Saint Nicholas found out that two daughters were going to be sold into slavery so the third would have a dowry. In the middle of the night, Saint Nicholas delivered anonymously a sack of gold. He subsequently delivered two sacks of gold for each other daughter.

After some prayer, the inscription that seemed most meaningful to me for his name was descriptive Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra. Also, he was a bishop but acted on the behalf of the poor and disenfranchised. The inscription on the book of the gospels, I felt, should also reflect that compassion and Christlike virtue I hope to acquire and embody someday. So, I chose, or rather the Spirit chose for me Matthew 25:37-40

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

I boiled it down to "whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did it for Me" Below is the finished icon of St. Nicholas- thank you for your prayers.