Saint Nektarios of Aegina
Acrylic and 23K golf leaf on wood panel
8.75"x11.25"

This is one of the latest commissions, prepared for St. Nektarios Orthodox Church in Waxahachie, Texas.   

Saint Nektarios (1846-1920) was known as a great miracle worker, particularly as a healer. He was also a prolific writer, theologist, philosopher, moralist, educator, poet, ascetic and mystic. Above all Saint Nektarios was a man of deep prayer, and a hard worker. (1)

St. Nektarios says these words about the Saints of the Church: 

Our Church honors saints not as gods, but as faithful servants, as holy men and friends of God. It extols the struggles they engaged in and the deeds they performed for the glory of God with the action of His grace, in such a way that all the honor that the Church gives them refers to the Supreme Being, Who has viewed their life on earth with gratification. The Church honors them by commemorating them annually through public celebrations and through the erection of Churches in honor of their name.

The holy men of God, who were magnified on earth by the Lord, have been honored by God's holy Church from the very time it was founded by the Savior Christ. (2)