Icons, or holy images, are a beloved and sacred tradition handed down through the centuries in the Christian East. They are very different from secular painting in that they embody innermost spiritual experience.

An icon is not a portrait; it is intentionally non-realistic. It is considered not so much a picture as a presence. The icon painter seeks to arouse in the beholder a spirit of prayer and contemplation. An icon reveals what it represents.

Traditionally, the icon painter fasted and prayed in preparation for the painting. He prepared first of all a board of birch or pine. He made the paint using various elements of creation, soil and sand, vegetable matter and minerals, using egg yolk as a base. Then he outlined on the board the subject to be painted, following not only his won artistic inspiration, but also the patterns established and fixed by traditions of the Church. On a plain background free of ornamentation, he expressed a spiritualized being. He intentionally did not express a third dimension in depth so as to give the icon an appearance of flatness. This expressed symbolically that the world of the spirit is not imprisoned within the three dimensions of matter.

The finished icon was then solemnly blessed by the priest according to the ritual of the Byzantine Church. After this blessing, it became something different than what it was in the artist's workshop. It became the object of special veneration and was given a respect comparable to that given to relics or the Gospel book. In western theology the icon would be called sacramental, that is, something the Church uses in partial imitation of the Sacraments, to raise the heart and mind to God.

This powerful and uniquely Christian art was born in the first century of the Church and continues to this day to teach and inspire the faithful.

Contributed by Michael O'Brien