Saint Meletius icon, Handmade Greek Orthodox icon St Meletios the Younger, Byzantine art wall hanging on wood plaque icon, religious decor

Bring the spiritual elegance of Byzantine art into your home with this exquisite, handmade Greek Orthodox icon of Saint Meletius. Crafted with reverence, this piece makes a profound addition to any prayer corner or a deeply meaningful religious gift.

Product Specifications

• Origin: 100% Handmade in Greece
• Mounting: Includes a built-in wall hook for easy hanging

This wonderful icon has been created with the technique of lithography and has a double varnish with gold tones for water resistance and long-lasting durability. The creator of this icon learned the canon of iconography in the workshops of the monasteries of Mount Athos, where he was taught both lithography and hand-ageing.

The Significance of Saint Meletius

Meletios the Younger (c. 1035 – c. 1105), also called Meletios of Myoupolis, was a Byzantine Greek monk, pilgrim and priest. He is venerated as a saint in Eastern Orthodoxy and his feast is celebrated on 1 September.

Meletios was born in the Cappadocian village of Moutalaske, which was also the birthplace of Sabbas the Sanctified. At fifteen or sixteen years of age, he ran away from home to Constantinople, the capital of Byzantine Empire, where he became a monk. He lived there for three years, before setting out on a pilgrimage. He quickly halted his pilgrimage, however, to join the eukterion (oratory) of Saint George near Thebes. After ten years and aged about 28, he left Saint George on a series of pilgrimages that brought him to the Holy Land, Rome and possibly Santiago de Compostela. He stayed in the Holy Land for three years, visiting Jerusalem, Galilee and both sides of the river Jordan. He visited several monasteries, including that of Saint Sabbas, his compatriot. Upon his return to Greece, he settled on Mount Myoupolis and Patriarch Nicholas III of Constantinople consecrated him a priest. By around 1081 he had acquired the nearby monastery of the Symboulon, which came to be known as Hosios Meletios after him. There he introduced Palestinian monastic practices, including combining monks with anchorites in paralauria. In his later years, he received an annual donation of 422 hyperpyra from the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. He died in his monastery around 1105 or 1110.