In the history of the Church, especially in the subject of mission, catechism and religious instruction, the icons had a decisive role. The icon has:
- A didactic function, the iconography being considered the catechism of the learned, as well as of those unlearned;
- A contemplative function, because it suggests and attracts the spirit towards a transfigured world;
- A function of intercession because it imparts the invisible power of the person depicted.
In this sense the icons must be embraced and kissed with the greatest piety. In the history of Orthodoxy are known miracle working icons, whose mystery remains veiled. Be it that they were painted by the saints, be it because of the strong faith of the person that venerate it, or they were chosen as instruments in the divine economy, these icons are the most precious patrimony of Orthodox piety. The icon is as a sign of meditation and revelation, that quietness about (the saint or about) the presence in time and space of God, in the act of Incarnation and Resurrection of his Son. An icon communicates visually the unseen divine reality that comes under the perception of the senses. It suggests the light of the future life, the state of deification, or the point of meeting between the historic and time and eternity. Icons recognize the participation of man and of the human creation at the transfiguration of the Creation.
In the seventh century, the Byzantine emperor Leon V, the Armenian (813-820), started a campaign of persecution against the icons, under the influence of Islam religion, known under the name of iconoclasm (icon breaker. He who was opposed to this campaign, that has produced many damages to Orthodox iconography, were the monks. Even if the Second Ecumenical Council from Nicea (AD 787) consider the iconoclasm a heresy, the persecution did not stop until much later. In order to commemorate the restoration of the veneration of icons and the end of the persecution of the icons, the Empress Theodora had instituted the day of 11 of March 842 A.D. as the Feast of Orthodoxy. Today it is celebrated on the first Sunday of the Great Lent, when the procession with the icons and the commemoration of those that struggled for the Orthodox faith is made: saints, patriarchs and bishops, pious emperors, catechists, martyrs and confessors.
The iconography of the place of worship is explained through the following truths: the creation and the humanity once they are settled in the divine light (Ps. 4:6), the indestructible light that the darkness cannot cover (John 1:5), these become transparent. This is why there is no shadow on the icon. The icons of the saints that surround the naos (the central part of the Church) restore the eschatological form of the resurrected humanity. The stylistic art form wants to show that the saints have a new morphological configuration, a transfigured nature that they have become even from here part of the 'new creation.' Even if they are symbolic portraits, the icons make possible the recognition of the person. The eyes represent the capacity of the saints to contemplate the shining of God, and the discus of light, golden or yellow, symbolizes the elevation of the person to the uncreated grace. In fact, the person dominates the whole surface of the icon. The figure is brought in the face of the surface to represent better the desire to establish a direct relation, intimate, with he who looks. If they are two or three persons, the picture must restore the communion of love that exists between them.
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