Are the visual depictions of saints within the Roman Catholic church a form of idolary?
It’s not only in the roman church, it is thru out the entire eastern catholicism and orthodox church. We talk of God and his dominions…the angels singing all day and all night long, holy holy holy; venerations of saints … these are the ancient traditions of icon reflection of God and His dominions. In the west, this is not popular. Go to the eastern catholic churches, and all you see are the ancient holy icons; No. 1 is the Jesus the Pantokrator in Sta Sophia in Istanbul; where it came from. From the Holy Image of Edessa; story is that King of Edessa was sick and requested Jesus to come. But Jesus could not and imprinted his picture and St Jude brought to the King and he was healed. So is the Shroud of Turin. Madonna and the Child: original painting by St Luke. He painted the virgin Mary and Child Jesus. Original painting so to speak is still in Poland; the Black Madonna of Częstochowa. Again the dome of the early catholic church is dominated by No. 1 Pantokrator and No. 2 the Mado
