I went to Church with my mom and grandma this evening. I had never been to this particular church before tonight, and it was a surprise to discover the style and age of it. Most churches are new, but this one is very old for being in Texas, and it shows. The decoration of the church reminded me more of Europe than of US churches, as those clearly had a strong influence on it when it was built. It was, of course, beautiful. But it also was uncommon for here.
One of the things that was very not-US was that icons were painted all over the back wall of the alter. It was cool and bizarre all at once. Almost all the icons had the saint’s name written somewhere on the painting (or stained glass window). But one of the icons in particular had no clear name on it. This bugged me slightly, because, of course, I really liked it and, so, wanted to know who it was.
Instead of a name, there was, I believe, some Greek written on the painting. Oftentimes, the writing gives enough information to know who’s in the painting, even without clear names. So, I thought I’d check with Google Translate to see if I could find a translation of the words. (Don’t worry: I am certainly going to check with the Greek teacher on Monday about this, but Google Translate was my only chance in the moment.)
I kid you not, my mom and I were cracking up in Church the moment I was given a translation for the letters I had drawn out based on what I could read at the time from our pew.
Here’s the painting:
And here’s the given translation:
I promise I actually wrote the letters just as they are on the painting. However, that clearly didn’t clear up anything. I still have no idea what the words actually read, but I am always going to remember and appreciate the time we saw that “The Frisbees” icon in Church. 😛
One other wonderful bizarre part of this church (still to do with the icon paintings, of course), is that the representation of Jesus (and, I think, John the Baptist) genuinely looks like the cover of a superhero magazine or movie. Instead of the Marvel or DC universe, we had the JC Universe. Check it out.
Thank you, God, for that tidbit of humor to respond to my natural nerdiness and inquisitiveness. And thank you for the superhero painting of Jesus, too. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2023
hannah ananas 