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Orthodox Christian Iconography - Page 5

© Stefan Crisbasan

The iconostasis plays an important role in the Liturgy. The priest and the deacon recite prayers and cense the icons, especially those left and right of the royal doors, making the presence and participation of the Holy person real, so that as the liturgy develops, the function and the symbolism of the iconostasis becomes clear. The meaning of the iconostasis is, therefore, not only didactic and symbolic, but it parallels the interpretation of the liturgy. The believer participates in a very tangible way in the communion of saints and the glory of the kingdom, when he kisses and venerates the icons of the lower row. Even the metal covers placed on many of these icons, the oklad, stress the transcendental character of the represented figure and remove the holy from the everyday life. In the last analysis, the iconostasis is not a 'symbol' or an 'object of devotion;' it is the gate through which this world is bound to the other. The people through these icons participate in it and are transferred into the divine world.

In order to stress the dogma and the Liturgy, Byzantine theologians chose twelve events from the life of Christ, associated with the Church Festivals which has become a program of Church decoration that was crystallized after the triumph of icons. The icon is an indispensable part of the Liturgy, which in its turn function as an 'icon' revealing the divine presence to the faithful and uniting the celestial and terrestrial Church. The first liturgical function of the icon is to establish the contact between the faithful and the world of grace, in the actual ritual, which is in the performance of the liturgy, and by depicting the message of the liturgy.

When the Orthodox enters the Church he offers a candle to the icon on the proskynetarion, kisses it, proceeds to the wonder-working icon, if the Church has one, and to the lower icons of the iconostasis, where one finds the most ancient and often miraculous icons. Having venerated them, the faithful would contemplate the upper icons that display Christ's redemptive work.

In the naos, at the base of the cupola, is painted the heavenly Liturgy made by the angels. The four Evangelists are painted in the arches that maintain the cupola. On the vaults that are on the sides are represented biblical scenes. In the first row are the Nativity and the Resurrection of the Lord. Also, a gallery of saints and martyrs, not only form the calendar of the universal Church, but also from that of the local Church: local saint, the saint whose relics are placed in that Church, the Saint in whose care the Church is.

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