Fresco of the Archangel Gabriel that Has Travelled in Space and Become Famous throughout the World!

On the day following the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Orthodox Church commemorates the memory of the Archangel Gabriel. Today we would like to talk about a fresco called The White Angel, which has become famous all over the world. It is located in the Ascension Church of the Mileseva Serbian Orthodox Monastery. Truly amazing is God’s Providence about this image with its amazing story of an unexpected acquisition, a flight into space, and a miraculous rescue of the monastery from destruction.

The Holy King Stefan Vladislav I founded the Mileseva Monastery in 1218-1219. It is one of Serbia’s oldest and most famous monasteries, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, and visited by many pilgrims from all over the world.  The frescoes of the Mileseva Ascension Church are valuable monuments of the Serbian Middle Ages and unique examples of church art, dating back to the European Palaeologan Renaissance. These images, full of inner concentration and spirituality, are distinguished by tenderness and soft beauty.

The White Angel is a fragment of one of the frescoes depicting the gospel story of the Archangel Gabriel’s appearance to the myrrh-bearing women at the Holy Sepulcher. It depicts an angel in a white chiton sitting on a stone and pointing with his hand at the empty tomb of Christ, announcing His Resurrection. 

The mural is symbolically located above the tomb of the church’s founder, the Holy King Stefan Vladislav I. Together with the other murals of the church, this realistic image was painted in the 13th century by an unknown artist. Possibly, the murals were painted by Greek artisans, who at that time studied art in Nicaea and Constantinople.