{"id":5592,"date":"2021-05-07T19:14:26","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T19:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bokoros.com\/virgin-mary-keriotissa\/"},"modified":"2021-06-29T19:15:32","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T19:15:32","slug":"virgin-mary-keriotissa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bokoros.com\/en\/virgin-mary-keriotissa\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Mary, Keriotissa"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4285″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1610909272660{border-bottom-width: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text]About a month ago, Nikos Xidakis of \u2018Kathimerini\u2019 , called me and requested that I give in to the challenge of a Holy Mother.\u00a0 He asked me to paint her for her name-day, 15th <\/sup>of August. I hurriedly replied that I was deeply caught up in the creation of artworks for my exhibition at the Benaki Museum in December, and that I had neither the time nor the mental focus for anything else. As if painting requires merely time and mental focus!<\/p>\n

Those days I had been talking to \u2018Samos-lad\u2019, the well-learned Vaggelis Zournatzis, and he sent me digital files of various Holy Mothers from his valued archives \u2013 each of them thoroughly annotated. The Praying Holy Mothers, I thought at the outset, or possibly one of the archetypal Guiding Virgins, but the Kardiotissa, that Holy Lady of the Heart, secretly beckoned me, my gaze continually turning to her: to the loveliness of the mother, and the passionate turning of the child\u2019s head. I took her in my hands one night, in despair over my other artworks and my misfortunes\u2014a deep night; I turned her to the other side, humbled her glowing garment, and eradicated her son from her arms. She is left a praying shadow, empty and alone. May I be forgiven by the great Aggelos Kotandos, precentor of Handakas and arch historiographer of the entire empire, that ablest of artists, who painted her with great adequacy both dogmatically and technically, but it seemed to me that what I\u2019d changed her into suited our condition more. \u00a0Introvertedly \u00a0heartrending , with a void in her arms, anticipating in a desperate plea on behalf of us all, and sending us what is most vital, her \u00a0tenderness. \u00a0The next day I caressed her cheek to make the mark go away and filled her dark embrace and her cloak with bright flames. \u00a0And the holy mother of candles shone, illuminated. A flaming woman in black.\u00a0\u00a0 I \u2014 a well-intentioned scoundrel\u2014named her\u00a0 \u2018Keriotissa\u2019:\u00a0 Our Holy Lady of Candles, and I pray to her grace in repentance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

C.B.<\/p>\n

Kastella, the difficult summer of 2013.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]