Anthony’s Cell
YouTube
The Seven Functions of Holy Icons in Orthodox Teaching
12:38
The audio reading presents Dr. Constantine Cavarnos' essay "The Functions of Icons" from his work Orthodox Iconography. Cavarnos identifies seven functions of holy icons: they beautify the church with spiritual depth, instruct the faithful more vividly than words, remind believers of the faith they forget, lift the mind from the visible to the invisible prototypes, stir imitation of the virtues of the saints, help transform and sanctify the soul, and serve as a liturgical means of veneration.
The reading cites a Triodion hymn for the Sunday of Orthodoxy and Nikitas Stethatos' account of St. Simeon adorning his monastery church. St. John Damascene notes icons teach the illiterate; St. Photios says they imprint knowledge on the soul more vividly than written accounts, as in compositions like the Nativity or Crucifixion.
John Damascene calls icons concise memorials that recall Christ's saving suffering. The anagogic function makes icons authentic symbols leading from the physical to the spiritual. The Seventh Ecumenical Council decreed that continual sight of holy personages in icons lifts beholders to memory of the prototypes and aspiration toward them.
The primary liturgical function involves the faithful lighting candles, bowing, crossing themselves, kissing the icon, and praying, offering honorable reverence that passes to the prototype, not worship of the icon itself, as Basil the Great states. Ignoring this distinction led to the iconoclast edict of Emperor Leo the Isaurian in 726, which condemned icons as idolatry, showing ignorance of the icon's symbolic nature.
The practice of honoring sacred images is rooted in Mosaic veneration of the tabernacle and Christian veneration of the cross.
Key moments
- Holy icons serve seven purposes: they enhance the beauty of a church, instruct in the Christian faith, remind of that faith, lift us to the prototypes, arouse imitation of the virtues of the holy personages depicted, help transform and sanctify us, and serve as a means of worship and veneration.
- The most obvious function is enhancing the beauty of a church, attested by a Triodion hymn for the Sunday of Orthodoxy and by Nikitas Stethatos' account of St. Simeon adorning the monastery church with icons and marbles.
- Icons instruct the faithful; St. John Damascene notes they teach the illiterate, and St. Photios says they imprint knowledge on the soul more vividly than written accounts, as seen in compositions like the Nativity or Crucifixion that present many elements simultaneously.
- Icons remind us of the faith we tend to forget; John Damascene calls them concise memorials, and the icon of Christ's crucifixion recalls his saving suffering when the passion is not in mind.
- Icons lift us to the prototypes in an anagogic function: seeing icons of Christ, the Theotokos, and the saints raises our thought and feeling to a higher plane, making the icon a symbol that leads from the physical to the spiritual, a pattern of something heavenly.
- Icons stir us to imitate the virtues of the holy personages; the Seventh Ecumenical Council decreed that the more continually holy personages are seen in icons, the more beholders are lifted to the memory of the prototypes and to aspiration after them.
- The primary liturgical function is worship and veneration: the faithful light candles, bow, cross themselves, kiss the icon, and pray, offering honorable reverence that passes to the prototype, not worship of the icon itself, as Basil the Great states that honor given to the icon passes to the prototype.
- Ignoring the functions and the distinction between veneration and worship leads to iconoclasm, as in 726 when Emperor Leo the Isaurian condemned icons as idolatry, showing ignorance of the icon's symbolic power to lead to the prototype.