Mike and Judith Panuline marveled Sunday over the new icon screen at their Tarentum church.
Making their way from the sanctuary at Saints Peter and Paul Byzantine Catholic Church to the basement for a parish luncheon, the Panulines of Plum admitted being awe-struck by the screen's artistry.
"It's beautiful," Mike Panuline said of the roughly 100-year-old iconostasis, hand-carved in Hungary before being sent to St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Church in South Fork, where it stood until the church's closing last year.
"We're blessed to have this," Judith Panuline said.
Without revealing details of the transfer, Rev. Wesley Mash, pastor of Saints Peter and Paul, said he worked out an agreement to have the screen moved to Tarentum.
Metropolitan Archbishop William Skurla of the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh blessed the iconostasis on Sunday. "By some miracle, it fit right in," he joked before explaining that Byzantine Catholic churches follow a standard design.
The screen, carved from linden wood, stretches from floor to ceiling in front of the altar and features thematic paintings.
"The screen isn't a point of separation but of meeting," Mash said. He said it represents the meeting point between heaven and earth as represented in the sanctuary and nave of the church.
Old Testament prophets are painted at the top of the screen. Other paintings include those of deacons such as St. Lawrence and St. Stephen. The writers of the gospels are painted on the "royal doors," the screen's central doors used by the priest during the service. Paintings of the feasts of Jesus and Mary also are featured.
"This is something that's a central part of Byzantine architecture and worship," Mash said. "It's like having the whole Bible in front of you."
