Icon of Christ and Abbot Mena

[1] The icon is an encaustic painting on wood and was brought from the Apollo monastery in Bawit, Egypt.

[1] The icon has been damaged over the years with some of the pigment missing and it has two vertical cracks running through the image, but it can still be readily made out.

[2] The identification of the figures in the icon as Jesus Christ and the abbot is established by inscriptions above their heads, which read "ΨΟΤΕΡ (Savior)" and "ΑΠΑ ΜΗΝΑ ΠΡΟΕΙCΤΟC (Father Mena, guardian)".

[2] Christ, with his arm around the abbot is giving a sort of "introduction to the people" as he takes his place with the angels.

The color gradients where the background has green and brown hills that blend into an apricot-hued sky are clearly 6th century design, indicative of the Coptic, the largest Christian group in the region.