Panayiotis and Matoula Christodoulou

Demetrios and Evangelea Christodoulou

Iconographers

We at St. Demetrios are blessed to have employed the masterful talents of Panayiotis and Dimitrios Christodoulou to create and install the iconography for our Church. They (with the assistance of their wives Matoula and Evangelea) are responsible for all iconography, including those for the iconostasis currently being carved in Romania.

By the Grace of God, these brothers are living their ministry as full-time, professional iconographers in their home city of Thessalonika in Greece.

Panayiotis and Dimitrios began this project by travelling to Saco in the Fall of 2005 to survey our Church, take measurements, and to meet the parish. Returning to their studios, they created the icons on canvas pieces, laboring for months and months to do so. They shipped the completed canvasses to us, rolled up in long plastic tubes, to await their return in 2006 for installation.

Our patience (and theirs) were put to the test as our State Department took months to approve their visa request. Finally, the brothers returned to Maine, this time with their wives, in early summer 2006 to install the Pantokrator and the Prophets in the dome, the Platytera and remaining east wall altar icons, St. John baptizing in the Baptistry, and the Life Giving Spring in the chapel. Laboring from 6:00 a.m. to midnight, often on scaffolding at heights up to 35 feet for hours at a time, the four installed the completed canvasses by gluing them to the sheetrock walls, then painstakingly installing 4"x4" gold leaf squares one at a time. The two couples lived on the Church grounds during their three weeks of labor, their home-cooked meals brought to them by many of our parishioners.

Second Installation

From mid-November to early December, 2008, Panagiotis and Demetrios (without the able assistance of their wives this time) returned to St. Demetrios (this time 'armed' with 10 year visas) to complete the second installation. Before departing, they had installed all ceiling panels (8 scenes from the earthly life of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ), the North wall (female saints), the West wall (The Koimisis, or Dormition, of the Mother of God), the Evangelists on the East wall, and, the Hospitality of Abraham and the Sacrifice of Isaac in the Sanctuary, and several other icons. The final installation will include: the lower north and south walls of the Sanctuary, the South walls (male saints), the pendentives and spandrels, and two scenes from the life of St. Demetrios.

Please enjoy the accompanying photographs that chronicle the installations.

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© 2010 St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church Saco, Maine