I am a Consecrated Hermit of the Roman Catholic Church. I have been writing Icons since 1997. I use traditional techniques and materials—natural pigments, egg tempera and 23-karat gold leaf—the same elements used in Byzantine and Medieval art. Animal, mineral, and vegetable are united in the icon to glorify God. Also as is traditional, I model my icons on the ancient originals, those images that the Church has over the centuries accepted and revered as “windows on heaven.”