Description
This 15th century Russian icon of St. Paul was originally on the top row of an iconostasis, or altar icon screen, from Novgorod. The Deisis represents the Lord with His Holy Saints and Angels supplicating towards Him in these matching icons?J27: Christ Enthroned, with T36: The Theotokos Supplicat-ing, S150: The Archangel Michael, and S162: St. Peter, (all standing on Christ’s right hand), and S133: St. John the Baptist, and S120: The Archangel Gabriel, (all standing on Christ’s left). Their hands are outstretched and their heads are bowed towards Christ sitting on the Throne of His Kingdom which will never end.
St. Paul was a Pharisee and the foremost early persecutor of the Church of Christ. On the road to Damascus, Saul (his Hebrew name) saw a Heavenly Light that blinded him and he heard Christ speak to him, converting his misguided heart. Baptized and renamed Paul, he earned the title “Apostle to the Gentiles” by his superhuman labors and suffering. He continuously preached the Gospel from Arabia to Spain among the Jews and Gentiles from all lands, until he was beheaded in Rome about the year a.d. 64.