The Royal Doors were gifted to us by my brother, Hank Ecroyd, when his marriage to Mercedes, a Venezuelan, was dissolved. She was from an old Venezuelan oil family and brought the gates and one section of the fence with her. They had been in her family since the late 1800's, but she thought they might be older. She left them with my brother and stated that she did not want them. Hank asked me if I wanted them to which I answered, "Yes." He paid to have the three pieces (gates and fence section) freighted from Louisiana to our monastery.
I'm not sure how many years they were stored outside leaning against the garage wall at Hank's. Nor am I sure how long they were stored outside here. One day I noticed rust pocked-marks on the bottom bars and had the gates sand blasted, painted, and fired. After that they were stored in our warehouse (the long metal building behind the candle shop).
When the time came to plan and build the iconostasis, I contacted Philip Simmons Artist Blacksmith Guild of South Carolina. Their secretary sent out an email with some pictures of the gates and my sketch and description of the iconostasis that I envisioned. Mike du Bois who owns du Bois Metal Works of Charleston (https://duboismetalworks.com/) responded, met with me, incorporated the gates into the design and built the rest of the iconostasis.
While the gates needed some work, the rest of the iconostasis had to be designed using the fence section as a template. Marilyne Hodge and I decided that there needed to be a grapevine design that mimicked the gold grapevine design that encircles the altar. Leaving the space blank in the eight panels rather than mirroring the fence section made it weigh less and cost less. The curve above the icons and the "G" design along the bottom matched the fence section as well as the Royal Doors. The grapevine at the top follows the curve above the eight icons. All this was a collaborated effort of Marilyne Hodge (the interior designer), Michael duBois (the blacksmith), Cheryl Ann Pituch (the iconographer) and myself.
When Mike and his men came to install the iconostasis a large angle iron was installed below the floor and anchored to three sets of 2" x 10" x 30' total boards that stand on end, nailed to the floor and nailed together with the floor of the solea and altar area nailed to them. This involved our contractor Dale Mast who spent several hours under the altar floor making sure that the bolts, washers and nuts were in place. Then they drilled holes through the wood and angle iron and attached the feet of the iconostasis to this. Once the iconostasis was built, we started to weld the curtain rod to it. Mike pointed out to me that if he did this, we wouldn't be able to open the doors. At this point, I took the curtain rod, turned around, walked over to the servers table in the altar area, laid it on the table and walked out of the room.. All that planing and the posts weren't high enough. - Details!
Well, it was a happy fault. Mike designed the top that is welded to the panel of the Theotokos on one side and to the panel of Christ on the other and has a curtain rod that is above the Royal Doors. This piece gives the whole iconostasis more stability.
With many decisions made and knowing the exact sizes of the openings for the icons, our iconographer was able to purchase three- quarter inch plywood, good two sides with the outer layers being made from Russian birch. Given that the Russian/Ukrainian war was and still is raging, she was told that this was the last he had and doubted he could get any more.
Having the exact size of each opening and the Royal Doors, Cheryl Ann was able to sketch the ten icons. Except for the Deacon's Door on the left, I knew who was going to be where. Since the Archangel Gabriel was already on the Royal Doors, I was thinking about the Archangel Rafael, but that did not seem to work. Cheryl Ann suggested Saint Romanos the Melodist. Mother Helena and I knew his story, liked his poetry, and due to the fact that he was gifted with a voice by the Theotokos, it seemed fitting. Cheryl Ann suggested the words of Christ and St. Romanos that are on their respective scrolls. I had just read an account of the Archangel Michael in which his words are now on his scroll. Cheryl Ann suggested the "Theotokos Eleousa" as a model for her icon. I wanted the Archangel Michael in full Roman general regalia with drawn sword. She stated that she thought Saint Martha should have a serving cloth and bowl of bread in the crook of her arm, and I wanted a rolled scroll in each of Saint Martha's and Saint Peters right hands to represent their professions of faith. Back and forth the ideas, suggestions and critiques traversed to the final results you now see.
Cheryl Ann used palladium leaf for the silver metallic color in the icons, i.e., edging on Saint John's robes, Saint Mary's cruet of spikenard, fleur-de-lys like design on Saint Romanos' vestment, and the edging of Saint Martha's bread bowl. Gold leaf was extensively employed in all of these icons. Tooling the palladium leaf and gold leaf added rich beauty to these icons.
As an aside, it required much explaining on my part about how spinning with a dropped spindle should look and what type of spindle was used in Israel two thousand years ago. After seeing her sketch, I said that the thread she was spinning should fall in a straight line downward. She responded with, "Icons are other worldly and do not follow the laws of physics." Touché!
The icons of Christ, the Theotokos, Archangel Michael and Saint Romanos the Melodist were delivered about a year ago by Cheryl Ann and Gene, her husband. John Bret Barnard installed them. About a month ago Mother Helena and Valerie Selby made a trip to Robert, Louisiana, to pick up the remaining six. Gregory Hayda installed these. Installing these icons was challenging for both men.