Sacred Imagery
If you've never been in an Orthodox church before, the icons can feel intense. The walls are full of faces — saints, the Theotokos, Christ — and people light candles in front of them, kiss them, bow before them. To someone unfamiliar, this can look like idol worship. It isn't.
Think of an icon less as a religious painting and more as a kind of sacred photograph. When you keep a picture of someone you love on your desk, you don't worship the photograph. You honor the person it shows. You might touch it, or talk to it, or carry it with you when you travel. The photograph isn't the person — but it brings them close to you. An icon does the same thing for the saints and for Christ Himself.
Orthodox Christians venerate icons. We do not worship them. Worship belongs to God alone. Veneration is something different — closer to the honor a child gives a parent, or the respect we show at the grave of someone we love. We honor what the icon depicts, not the wood and paint.
This distinction matters because icons aren't decorative in Orthodox life. They are how we remember that the saints are not gone — they are alive in Christ, and they pray for us. They are how we hold the mystery of the Incarnation in front of our eyes: God became visible in Christ, and so He can be depicted. To deny that He can be drawn is to forget that He took on flesh.
If you visit our parish and find yourself uncertain about what to do with the icons, that's perfectly fine. Watch, listen, and ask questions. Father Antonios welcomes them. There is no test, no expectation that you understand it all at once. The icons have been waiting a long time. They will wait for you, too.
The use of icons was not always uncontested. In the 8th and 9th centuries, the Christian world experienced what is now called the Iconoclast Controversy — a sustained effort, often violent, to destroy icons and prohibit their use. The defense of icons came largely from monks, bishops, and theologians who argued that to forbid images of Christ was to deny that He had truly become man. The Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787 AD affirmed the veneration of icons as theologically sound and necessary. To this day, Orthodox Christians celebrate the Sunday of Orthodoxy on the first Sunday of Great Lent, commemorating this restoration. What you see in our churches today is the inheritance of that defense.
The icons used throughout this website are written in the Orthodox tradition and presented here with respect for their iconographers and the parishes and archives that have shared them. This catalog lists every icon you'll find on the site, where it appears, and who created it where known.
A canonical depiction of Christ harrowing Hades and raising Adam and Eve. The visual companion to the Paschal troparion: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.”
If something on this page raised more questions than it answered — good. That's how the Orthodox faith tends to work. You're welcome to contact Father Antonios or visit the parish in person. We'd be glad to talk.