The first
Sunday of Lent in the Orthodox Church celebrates the restoration of the icons –
specially stylized paintings of Christ, the Mother of God and other saints, and
the angels – after more than one hundred years of imperial persecution of those
who venerated them. Though the official
theology of much of Southern Protestantism is firmly against the use of
religious images in Christian life, much of Southern life is nevertheless very
favorable to icons.
In many a
home in Dixie there will usually be displayed at least a few exceptionally old
pictures of departed family members that look something like this one:
(Photograph of Confederate Cavalry Commander JEB Stuart)
Southrons show
these pictures of their ancestors as a proclamation of their love for them and
to keep their memory alive both for themselves and for future generations. These also are some of the main reasons
Orthodox Christians display icons.
The
sentiment of Southerners towards these images of their ancestors is summarized
well by George Fitzhugh in his book Sociology
for the South:
The Roman dwelling was a holy and sacred
place; a temple of the gods, over which Manes, and Lares, and Penates watched
and hovered. Each hearthstone was an altar on which daily sacrifice was
offered. The family was hedged all round with divinities, with departed
ancestry purified and apotheosised, who with kindly interest guarded and guided
the household. Roman elevation of sentiment and of character is easily
accounted for, when we reflect that they felt themselves ever in the presence
of deities.
The pictures
of noble Southern ancestors have become something akin to the Roman household
gods and goddesses that guarded and blessed the house and family. With Orthodox icons, however, we get the
proper fulfilment of this desire to fill our homes with virtue and holiness and
the divine, with guardians and intercessors.
The wonderful teacher of Holy Scripture and the spiritual life in
general, Father Athanasios Mitilinaios (+2006), says of the holy
icons:
It is also known
that whatever a holy person touches in this world, gives grace, conveys grace.
In the Gospel according to St. Mark, this happened with Christ. Pay attention
to what he says:
“And wherever He
went, into villages, or cities, or the countryside, they laid the sick in the
streets and begged Him that they might touch even the hem of His garment; and
all those who touched Him were healed.” (Mark 6: 56)
As it happened
with Christ, my beloved, He now gives to the Apostles and Saints. Listen:
“...they brought
out the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats, that at the least
the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them.” (Acts 5:15)
They were all
healed. They took the handkerchiefs and aprons of the Apostle Paul, threw them
on the patients and they recovered.7
Why? Because the
objects that came in contact with their skin were sanctified. Thus, sanctified
people, when their lives were hagiographed8
[i.e., displayed on icons—W.G.], these icons are now miraculous. This is why,
my beloved, icons work miracles.
. . .
The rest is
at https://southernorthodox.org/3746-2/.
--
Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us
sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
