Recently, Evangeline Layne presented St. Luke Greek Orthodox Church in East Longmeadow with a large egg tempera and guilded painting of the “Three Hierarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church,” more than 50 years after she started working on it.

Layne, a lifelong artist, began working on the 36-by-36-inch painting shortly after she got out of school in approximately 1954.

She had been asked to do the painting by the late Rev. Joseph Zanthopoulos, a priest at St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Springfield. She had been attending St. George’s at the time.

“I was quite nervous because he had asked me to do some painting work on the altar, and then I started this painting,” Layne said. “Then, I guess I got busy with other things because I never finished it. I put it in the closet.”

The painting was all but forgotten until 2004, when Layne’s son, Evan, was cleaning out her home after her husband, Michael Layne, passed away in 2002. Her son discovered the unfinished work and asked her about it.

“It was my idea to finish it,” she said. “I did it in memory of my husband and my son (Michael, who also died in 2002).”

Layne began working on the painting, and had it largely completed by 2007.

The egg tempera technique, which utilizes a fast drying painting medium consisting of colored pigment and a binder medium, was commonly used in the Byzantine period.

Layne’s painting consists of several layers of medium, then 23-karat gold leaf, relief on linen wrapped board. She used an antique frame to frame the piece.

Layne, who was an art teacher at Cathedral High School and also worked at the Springfield Museums, said she enjoyed completing the painting and presenting it to St. Luke’s.

“Father Michael has just been exceptional to me and he’s just a gem,” she said.

“I had to do my own research; the painting is not a copy of another painting. We did our own research, and he was very good about helping me with that.”

The painting, an icon of The Three Hierarchs, includes St. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea, St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, and St. Gregory The Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople.

The Three Hierarchs are honored every Jan. 30 in the Greek Orthodox Church because of their faith, guidance and spiritual brilliance.

"Three Hierarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church," by East Longmeadow resident Evangeline K. Layne.
Fr. Michael Sitaras of the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Luke said the painting is beautiful.

“It’s in a Byzantine style but it’s also her style,” he said. “It’s a nice painting that we display in the narthex at church.”

Layne had a piece of glass placed over the painting due to concerns that parishioners may kiss the icon.