Icon of Christ of Latomos

[1] The later legend of this mosaic goes back even earlier, to the late third century AD when Maximian and Diocletian reigned jointly over the Roman Empire.

[3] According to tradition, the Icon of Christ of Latomos was discovered by Princess Flavia Maximiana Theodora, the Christian daughter of Emperor Maximian.

[5] Sometime before the Ottoman occupation and prior to the twelfth century, the mosaic icon was rediscovered by a monk from Lower Egypt.

[1] Thematically and artistically, the Icon of Christ of Latomos is likely the first of its type, depicting an apocalyptic scene with imagery from the Book of Ezekiel which communicates important theological ideas about the apocalypse.

It was written by Abbott Ignatius of Lotomos monastery,[8][9] and describes the rediscovery of the icon by Saint Sennuphius of Nitria (venerated March 25[10]).

[1][11] The origin of the mosaic icon most likely dates back to the late third century in the metropolis of Thessaloniki in modern-day Greece.

[1][4] Theodora lived slightly before the time of the Diocletianic Persecution, when Christianity was officially pronounced illegal by the imperial government.

One day, to her surprise, the image of the Mother of God was no longer present, and instead on the apse there was a mosaic of an apocalyptic scene featuring Jesus at the center.

[13] The Icon of Christ of Latomos remained hidden underneath the plaster for a period of time after Theodora's death.

[1] Some time after Christianity was made legal in 313 by Constantine I's Edict of Milan, the bathhouse of Theodora was converted into a church and eventually into a monastery.

[8][11] Sometime after 820, this monk lived as an austere ascetic of the Nitrian Desert (Lower Egypt) where Christian monasticism had been established by Anthony the Great and Pachomius.

Regardless, the Diegesis states that Sennuphius the monk constantly prayed to God to receive a vision of how Christ would appear at his Second Coming.

While he was in the nave, an earthquake purportedly shook which caused all of the plaster to fall off of the mosaic icon that had been sealed up by Theodora.

[1][13][5] The discovery that Sennuphius made entered into Thessalonikan lore, causing Abbott Ignatius to write about it later in the twelfth century.

[4] In 1988, the church and mosaic icon were designated as one of the Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of the Thessaloniki UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

[6] In form, the mosaic icon presents an image of Christ in the center, surrounded by an aureole of light and sitting upon a rainbow.

On either side of the image of Christ are two figures; one standing with hands raised and the other sitting with his chin in his palm and an open book in his lap.

In Christ's hand is a scroll which reads Isaiah 25:9 in Greek : ἰδοὺ ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν ἐφ᾽ ᾧ ἐλπίζομεν καὶ ἠγαλλιώμεθα ἐπὶ τῇ σωτηρίᾳ ἡμῶν ὅτι ἀνάπαυσιν δώσει ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον τοῦτον[13]The English translation is, "Behold our God in whom we hope and rejoice in our salvation, he will give rest to this house.

This leads researchers who assume a natural origin for the icon to theorize that it was made because of the popularity that Saint Gregory brought to Habakkuk.

Another theological explanation of the icon comes from the presence of the light in the mosaic.The Hosios David mosaic, with its radical translucent treatment of divine light, could perhaps be described as a Hesychast image before Hesychasm, so that the Latomos motif on the Poganovo icon would have been a highly appropriate choice for a donor steeped in Palamas' theology.

[4]After the Text: Byzantine Enquiries in Honour of Margaret Mullett points out that this Hesychast imagery would have come from the theology of Saint Gregory Palamas (1296–1359).

The theology of Hesychasm maintains that humans can, through extreme purification and constant prayer, come to see with their bodily eyes the Uncreated Light of God that appeared on Mount Tabor in Luke chapter 24.

[19] The Uncreated Light is present in the Icon of Christ of Latomos, especially since it is interpreted by André Grabar to be an image of the Ascension of Jesus, or at least an Old Testament type of it.