Christ the (reluctant) Judge

Above is what I see as one of the most beautiful icons I know. I have a number of other (reproductions of) icons in different parts of the house, and many are beautiful in a perhaps more conventional way; but this has a different feel to it - one which makes me wonder if there is an influence, as in Greece for more than two thousand years there has so often been, of the Oriental.

I am a shamefully poor Christian, but in my own way I think I can say devoted. I came from a casually irreligious family; but was in my teens so captured by the depth of meaning I found in the liturgy, the story and sayings of Christ and of some of his saints, as well as in the prayers, the music, the poetry, the art and the architecture of Christianity, that I intended to follow the contemplative life and enter a monastery. In any case, I didn’t – probably wisely … but the enrapture has never waned. At this end of life I can only cast myself on the mercy of God, no doubt like many another, believing he understands and accepts me, frail as I am.

Anyway this is not a religious posting, it’s a plea for help in tracking down a good reproduction of this icon! I have it as a postcard - this is a photograph of the postcard taken by Caro Ross, who was visiting recently - and it sits in pride of place in my kitchen, where I can see it several times every day. Over the years it has got a little fragile, being only a postcard. I want to replace it before it gets any worse. Does anyone know where I could get another, perhaps even better, reproduction of it?

On the back it says: ‘Ioannina, Byzantine Museum. Ioannis Athanasiou: Christ the Judge. Icon. From the Zosimaia School, Ioannina, 1773.’ I wrote to the Byzantine Museum at Ioannina, but did not get a reply. It also contains this information: ‘Photography E Eliadis. Printed by PERGAMOS S.A.’ I couldn’t track down Mr Eliadis, and I got no response from Pergamos. I tried doing a Google search of the image, but without luck.

There are so many things in this glorious icon to love, but for me one is the posture and the expression on the face of this ‘Judge of all men’. It is possibly formulaic, as icons usually are, and yet it says everything to me. It reminds me of the line from a favourite prayer by Dietrich Bonhoeffer: ‘in me there is grief, in thee long-suffering.’* And if the card falls apart as I fall apart, we will go down together.

Thanks for any clues!

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*The prayer was written while he was imprisoned by the Nazis, some time before they took him out and hanged him naked for the crime of having sheltered Jews. Since the translation is my own, and a search might not bring it up, I append the prayer here:

At the beginning of the day, O God, I call to thee.

Help me to pray and to gather my thoughts to thee;

For of myself I am not able.

Within me all is dark, but in thee is light;

I am alone, but thou wilt not abandon me;

I am weak, but thou wilt help me;

I am troubled, but in thee is peace;

In me there is grief, in thee longsuffering.

I do not understand thy ways,

But thou, O God, knowest which is my path.

Father of heaven, thine be praise and thanks for the quiet of the night, Thine be praise and thanks for the new day.

Lord, whatever thou givest this day, thy name be praised. Amen