What is an Icon?
An Icon is an image (usually two dimensional) of Christ, the Saints, Angels, important Biblical events, parables, or events in the history of the Church.St. Gregory the Dialogist (Pope of Rome ca. 590-604), spoke of Icons as being Scripture to the illiterate: “For what writing presents to readers, this a picture presents to the unlearned who behold, since in it even the ignorant see what they ought to follow; in it the illiterate read” (Epistle to Bishop Serenus of Marseilles, NPNF 2, Vol. XIII, p. 53). To those who would suggest that this is no longer relevant in our enlightened age, let them consider the rather large functional illiteracy rate we have, and the fact that even the most literate societies always have a sizable illiterate segment… their young children.Icons also lift up our minds from earthly things to the heavenly. St. John of Damascus wrote, “we are led by perceptible Icons to the contemplation of the divine and spiritual” (PG 94:1261a).
An icon is a small graphic or picture. The pictures on the navigation bars to the left and the right are icons. If you click on these icons, you will jump to another Web page on the Internet Community Library. I went to a Web site and saw pictures, but no underlined links. How do I get around? Some Web sites use pictures as links to different pages on their Web site. • Move the mouse’s cursor until a hand appears. • Left mouse click to visit the picture’s link.
An icon is a little picture that represents a program, command, or a file. For instance, the My Computer icon looks like a small computer. Icons that have a small white arrow in the lower left corner are Shortcuts. The arrow indicates that the icon is a shortcut that points to a program, folder, or other item. A shortcut is a quick way to open a program or file.
The word “icon” means “image,” but since the early centuries of Christianity, the word “icon” is normally used to refer to images with a religious content, meaning and use. Most icons are two-dimensional; mosaics, paintings, enamels, miniatures, but ancient three dimensional icons also exist. Many people assume an icon must be in a Byzantine or Russian style. Many icons are, but many are not; other Orthodox Christian cultures have their own traditional styles of art, and many icons exist painted in a Western style. It is not style that makes a painting an icon, it is subject, meaning and use. An icon is always the representation of a religious subject, but not every representation of a religious subject is an icon. The militant atheism of the Communist regimes produced anti-Christian caricatures of religious themes; these are obviously not icons. Nor are sentimental or even erotic portraits of models or historical figures masquerading as images of the saints, and unfortunately such pai
