The Function Of Icons [ back to Icon Main Page ]

Holy icons serve a number of purposes. (1) They enhance the beauty of a church; (2) They instruct us in matters pertaining to the Christian faith; (3) They remind us of this faith; (4) they lift us up to the prototypes which they symbolize, to higher level of thought and feeling; (5) they arouse us to imitate the virtues of the holy personages depicted on them; (6) they help to transform us, to sanctify us; (7) they serve us as a means of worship and veneration.

1. They enhance the beauty of the church. Attention to this fact is called by the hymn from the Triodion that is chanted on the eve of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, when victory over Iconoclasm is commemorated. As a 'house of God' and a 'house of prayer,' the church should be rendered as beautiful as possible, especially in the interior, where the faithful gather fro worship.
2. They instruct the faithful. This is a point, which is duly emphasized by the Greek Church Fathers. St. John of Damascene remarked that since not every one is literate, nor has leisure for reading, the Fathers agreed that such things as the Incarnation of our Lord, His association with men, His miracles, His Crucifixion, His Resurrection, and so on, should be represented on icons. The icon presents simultaneously and concisely many things - a place, persons and objects - that would take an appreciable period of time to describe in words.
3. They remind us of this faith. We have a tendency to forget, to forget even things that are of vital importance to us, to fall asleep spiritually. So even though we may know many things about the Christian faith, such as the commandment of love, the teaching about the spiritual realm, the exemplary character and noble deeds of many holy personages, we tend to forget them, as we become preoccupied with everyday worldly matters and pursuits. Icons serve to remind us of these things to awaken us with respect to them.
4. They lift us up to the prototypes, to a higher level of consciousness, of thought and feeling. This is their function. The prototypes of the icons, i.e. Christ, the Theotokos, the Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Saints in general, enjoy a higher level of being than we do in our ordinary, distracted everyday life. When we see their icons, we recall their superior character and deeds; and as we recall them, we think pure, sublime thoughts, and experience higher feelings.
5. They stir us up to imitate the virtues of such personages. One of the decrees of the Seventh Ecumenical Synod-the Synod that was convoked specially to settle the dispute between the iconoclasts and those who defended the veneration of holy icons-says: "the more continually holy personages are seen in icons, the more are the beholders lifted up to the memory of the prototypes and to an aspiration after them."
6. They help transform us, to sanctify us. They affect this by instructing us, reminding us, uplifting us, and stirring us up morally and spiritually. True icons focus the distracted, dispersed soul of man on spiritual perfection, on the divine.
7. They serve as a means of worship and veneration. This is one of its primary functions, more important than the first. Like sacred hymns and music, the icon is used as a means of worshipping God and venerating His saints.

The following remark of John Damascene calls attention and bearing on several of the functions served by icons: "I enter by the thorns of worldly thoughts. The bloom of painting attracts me, it delights my sight like a meadow, and secretly evokes in my soul the desire to glorify God, I behold the fortitude of the martyr, the crowns awarded, and my zeal is aroused like fire; I fall down and worship God through the martyr, and receive salvation."

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