The splotch on Jesus' face has tripled in size in just over a year, Kostaris said. After the structural repairs are finished, the church hopes to hire Nikos Bissias, an iconographer who divides his time between Greece and North Carolina. Bissias has done 90 percent of the church's icons. He painted the original icons in 1970 and did some more in the early 1980s. He was called upon again after a portion of the church's ceiling collapsed in 1997, Kostaris said.
Icons vary, from iconographer to iconographer, who each imprint their own style.
The religious symbols use a special kind of paint, which includes egg yolk, Xenick said. Each icon has its own special meaning, Kostaris said. The icons tell scriptural stories in pictures, Xenick said. Icons are important because they help set a spiritual tone, Xenick said. The sacred images also offer encouragement and inspiration, Kostaris said, because they depict people who walked in faith.