Holy Icon

St Demetrios and St George, south apse, St Maximus Church in Kostolac, Serbia; Wall-Painting by Stamatis Skliris, 2006-2010.

The frescoe painting begun in 2006 and completed in 2010. It is a pictorial cycle, which relates to the theological teaching of St. Maximus the Confessor. Later there will be painted other topics. The hard part was to artistically perceive something from the teaching of the Holy Father. The idea was of Bishop Ignatius (Mintits) of Branicevo, who is a specialist in Saint Maximus, since he wrote a thesis on Ecclesiology of St. Maximus the Confessor at the University of Athens.

To understand the spirit of the wall-paintings of the sum referred to in the theology of Saint Maximus, we need to look at it as a whole, where all its three parts (three niches of triconch temple) combined to lead one to the other. The interpretation starts from the side niches and niche leads to the sanctuary. Each side represents one historical fact, which will find the ultimate meaning of the eschaton, i.e. in the after-history, which is depicted in the apse of the sanctuary. The north niche denoted by Alpha1 and Alpha2 south because describe the principle and prefiguring the end. The middle niche is above the Sanctuary and is denoted by Ω (Omega), because it represents the eschaton, which lead the other two niches.