Saint Paul the Apostle Orthodox Monastery
Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
- Our Work -
We offer an extensive collection of museum-quality mounted icon prints, crafted by monks and volunteers. Each piece is made in Wisconsin with prayer and obedience. Our icons are small batch crafted and assembled by hand with great care, each with a final border of red paint applied by hand. By purchasing from our workshop, you are directly supporting Orthodox monasticism in America. We pray that our icons enrich your spiritual life and bear witness to the beauty of our faith.
The word "icon" comes from the Greek word “εἰκών” which means image. The first chapter of the Bible describes God making man in His own image. Man becomes the first icon, and God the first iconographer.
+ Saint Joseph: Who Has Helped Shape Our Way of Life
We now have a new series of icons to offer you, and we are honored to begin the unveiling with this icon of our illustrious father, the new ascetic Saint Joseph the Hesychast.
We often hear saints referred to as "new martyr," by way of indicating that they bore the same witness to Christ that those of the first centuries did. In the same way, it is fitting to refer to Saint Joseph as the "new ascetic." His remarkable life effectively nullifies the contemporary excuse that "people of our times are too weak to follow the spiritual practices of the Fathers of old." After he finished his earthly course in 1959, his influence, through his disciples with whom we lived and labored, initiated a tsunami of spiritual rejuvenation on Athos and throughout the world.
And how did he accomplish this? What was the secret behind his miraculous life? No secret--he simply wanted God that much more than we do.