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In
the village of St Thomas, Limassol, lived three
men from Eptakomi: Nicolas Yiannoullis, Antonis
Antorkas & Christos Kasiouris who in 1974
guarded & preserved a treasure beyond price. It
is a beautiful copy of the Gospels which is
hundreds of years old & handwritten on pergamini
(kidskin).
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IN MEMORIUM OF: |
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 |
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Nicolas Yannoulis |
Antonis Antorkas |
Christos Kasiouris |
The penmanship is remarkably fine & regular. The
title page of each Gospel has a decorative
heading in colour, with a design of flowers &
leafs. On the opposite page is an icon, a sacred
painting of the saint whose name the gospel
bears; every chapter starts with a capital
letter in gold, & similar capitals are used to
stress important words in the text. The writing
is in brown ink, and musical notes in the
Byzantine scale are indicated for the cantor in
red above the appropriate word. Facing the first
page is an index of contents, showing where the
most important events of Christ's ministry are
to be found. The icon introducing St Luke's
Gospel shows the saint sitting on an elaborately
carved stool with a low circular back support.
Near him is a reading desk on a stand shaped
like a fish, an early Christian symbol. The
saint with a calm serious face, dark hair &
beard sits deep in thought, his feet resting on
a low footstool.
There is a similar painting of St Mark prefacing
the Gospel attributed to him, but the icons of
St Matthew & St John are missing. It is
miraculous after so many centuries and so much
devastation that the Eptakomi Gospel has managed
to survive. It has unfortunately sustained
damage, the beginning and the end of two Gospels
has been destroyed. |
