'Real' icons and veneration?

[Sunny]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My husband and I are looking for icons for our prayer area. We had thought to purchase festal icon prints and put them in glass frames, and change them out according to the time of the year. As I was searching for icon prints I came across an article by an Archimandrite who said that icons that are from prints are not true icons and should not be venerated. With all due respect, I would rather not have opinions, but if anyone knows the stand of the church on this issue I would very much appreciate the information.
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Sunny

[Father David Moser]

Sunny,

I can only tell you that I know of a number of parishes that have icon prints adorning the iconostasis and the analoi of their Churches and these icons are regularly venerated by the faithful. My Archbishop gave me a particularly well executed print on cloth which has been mounted and placed in the Church (similar to a tapestry) which again is venerated by the faithful (including his Eminence when he visited). I also can tell you that I know of more than one instance where a print of a miraculous icon has exhibited the same miraculous properties as the original (for example streaming myrrh). So although the opinion of this particular monastic may be that prints are "not real icons" and "not worthy of veneration" it seems that the experience of the Church is that they are.

Fr David Moser

[Sunny]

Father David, bless,
Thank you for your very helpful response; you answered many questions for me. Do you know of a source for buying just the prints to mount yourself? I came upon an online source a few years ago, but now I can't seem to find it.
Thank you for your assistance.
Sunny

[Elena]

http://users.sisqtel.net/cse/icons/index.html

[Nicolaj]

Dear Sunny!

I can tell you that Father David hits the point perfectly. I read myself on the pages of the holy Patriarch in Moskow that many miraculous Icons are reported that are printed and many that are photocopies!
Sure it can be good over the years to see that you get as many 'real' icons as possible but as I myself was in the Jerusalem of the East, Kiyw, I saw with my own eyes that in the church we visited many of the Icons there were printed and all most honoured by the flock and the priests. The Bishop here also gives us to special occasions such printed icons, and I can tell you he don't expect us to use it as a flycatcher!

In Christ-Nicolaj

[Trudy]

The Bishop here also gives us to special occasions such printed icons, and I can tell you he don't expect us to use it as a flycatcher! In Christ-Nicolaj


When the Myrrh Weeping icon of St. Anna visited, the priest passed out blessed photographs of the icon, which I framed and have in my icon corner. I also printed out a copy of my patron saint, St. Athanasius, framed it and asked my priest to bless it, which he did. He told me the same exact thing Fr. David did.

In Christ,
Athanasia

PS: Nicolaj, I love your sense of humor! Thank you for making me smile today through my worry for Fr. Seraphim who had surgery yesterday.

[Andreas Moran]

Dear All,

Use of icon prints is surely universal. I've just seen any number of them in Russian churches and monasteries (including St Nikita's in Pereslavl!). Of course they may be venerated in the usual way.

In Christ,

Andreas.

[Scott Pierson]

Thats good because not everyone can afford "real icons". They usually cost a pretty penny. Even for a Church to have a "real" icon for every single feast can be really expensive and I doubt many of the small mission Churches out there could afford them.

[Herman Blaydoe]

I will go out on a limb here, and will happily accept correction from those who know better, in that we do not honor the wood and paint, nor the image itself, but the OBJECT of the icon, then a print of an authentic icon is just as relevant and worthy a "pointer" as the original icon itself, or so it seems to this simple mind. Of course, in many ways, a "real" icon, being itself an act of prayer, is certainly more appropriate and respectful, particularly in public worship. But a 'humble" print in a poor icon corner is in nowise less so. To imply otherwise, could tend (to this bear of little brain) towards idolatry.

[Andreas Moran]

I agree with you, Herman. One might even venture to say that an icon print, venerated with great devotion by a simple soul, may be a very ready conduit of grace.

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

The argument that we do not honour the material from which the icon is made but rather that to which it refers was made in reference to the iconoclast argument. An essential part of this iconoclast argument of course was that those who venerate icons are really only venerating wood or paint; essential because the iconoclasts' main point is that the material is not a suitable means within the Church for venerating the Divine.

Once we accept though that the material can be a means for venerating the Divine then I think we can very well say that that we do in fact honour the material. This is because the Holy Spirit is at work in that material as for example in Holy Water.

The Church has other traditions which follow in this line such as the faithful keeping pieces of cloth which have touched relics or taking earth from the graves of holy ones.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Ken Scherer]

Dear Fr. David,

I like to paint and draw and would love to write icons, but I lack the skill and discipline to do so. Before learning about Eastern Orthodoxy - I am a catechumen at a Greek Orthodox Church - my subject matter was superheroes and cartoon characters for my kids, and the medium has been ink and crayon on cardboard and acrylics on painted drywall.

Brought up on comic books and science fiction, I am more attracted to overtly symbolic icons (e.g., Christ surrounded by the Heavenly Hosts, Theotokos of the Sign, the Seven Archangels). Now, instead of Spiderman and Sponge Bob, I want to sketch and paint Saints. I would love to use my projector to draw pictures of the Seven Archangels, Christ, Theotokos, and St. Michael the Archangel (my Patron Saint) standing behind Saints Thekla (wife's PS), Luke the Evangelist (son's PS), and Barbara (daughter's PS), etc., on cardboard, and make life-sized plywood cutouts of Saints, using acrylics and painting them in Byzantine style. I find myself spending hours a day looking at icons Online and sketching icons in pencil and ink.

Is it wrong to create such artwork? Would such art be considered sacrilegious? Is it okay to make and display Byzantine-style artwork of Saint made of cardboard, plywood, crayon, ink, etc., that I create for my own enjoyment and reflection? I would compare my limited art abilities to a child's drawing of a Saint. Can such things be called icons? Can they be venerated?

Thank you for your time and any comments.