1924 - 2011
Shown below is an icon of Panaghia Myrtidiotissa (“Panaghia of the Myrtle”), so named because the icon was found in the condition shown, i.e. with a darkened or black face, among the myrtle trees, on the island of Kythera. The icon shown was painstakingly executed in mosaic by Jim Leonis, whose family hailed from Kythera. It is on permanent display in the vestibule of the Cathedral’s Bishop Anthony Hall and Chapel. The Cathedral’s Kytherian Room, the gift of the late Calliope Calokerinos, was named after this southernmost of Greek islands, where the Panaghia Myrtidiotissa icon was found, and where a monastery by this name was built over the site of discovery.
Reprinted from the Annunciation Cathedral, Herald November 2007
Panagia Myrtidiotissa Icon
created by James Theodore Leonis
James Leonis was the son of
Theodore Demetrios Leonis (1889 - 1971) of Potamos, and
Maria Panagiotis Chlentzos "Yiotamilis" (1900 - 1997)
of Christoforianika.
Theodore Demetrios Leonis was one of the founders of the
Kytherian Society of Calfornia in 1950.
Notable Kytherians
