First ever icon of St Domitian

My icon of St Domitian of Carantania (no relation to to the nasty Roman emperor) is at last quietly glowing in the dark transept of Millstatt Abbey, my own parish church. He's a little outshone by the baroque bling in other parts of the church, but properly dignified all the same, and about time too, Domitian, our church founder and saint by acclamation, was the Slavic ruler under Charlemagne who established Christianity in what is now Carinthia. For centuries he was greatly venerated in the region - older parishioners tell me about the three-day devotion for his feast day in February: no one had cars in those days - they used sleds to get down the mountain for the services and trudged all the way back up again in the dark and snow. In the early 1900s a dilettante historian from Vienna wrote an essay pronouncing the saint to be just a legend invented by the Benedictines of Millstatt Abbey in order to pad out their business plan. And so poor Domitian was ignored, if not derided, until  archaeological excavations in 1992 uncovered part of his original tombstone and epitaph, clearly inscribed with his name and title, and tradition was vindicated.. Our historic Chapel of Domitian with his reliquary is not normally open to pilgrims and visitors, so my icon will be his chief representation in the main church, other than a worn late-medieval fresco on a pillar.
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I had to chuckle when the young chap who helped with the hanging asked in all innocence how I'd got the gold colour - had to explain that only real gold looks like real gold! Given all the trouble the gilding gave me this time around, I could wish there actually were some acceptable shortcut.