Why do we revere sacred icons?

In his confession before Emperor Julian, St. Basil the Great expressed the following: “I honor all the figures of the saints’ icons … that are painted in our churches. The prohibition that came in the Old Testament was not absolute. The second commandment states, ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth’ (Ex. 20:4). But God Himself commanded Moses to make images of the cherubim (Ex. 25:18–24), and another time He asked him to make the fiery serpent (Num. 21:8–9). When King Solomon made the ‘Sea,’ it was set on twelve oxen (1 Kings 7:25) and on the panels that were between the frames were lions, oxen, and cherubim (1 Kings 7:29). These images of the cherubim were not for worship. They were there to remind the Israelites that this is a holy place and they should be holy themselves before entering there. This prohibition was not renewed by the law-giver—Our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God—in the New Testament but rather He renewed the Law and fulfilled it (Matt. 5:17). And He Himself gave a new law for the New Testament, speaking with authority and saying, ‘You have heard that it was said to those of old … But I say to you …’ (Matt. 5:21–22).”

Since the early centuries of Christianity, Christians in the catacombs were used to painting events and people with symbols like an anchor, lamb, dove, and fish. St. Gregory of Nyssa tells us how fast the use of holy icons spread in the fourth century. He focused on the educational benefits that one receives when looking at an icon as they teach him.¹²¹⁹ St.

1218 Léonide Ouspensky and Vladimir Lossky, The Meaning of Icons (Crestwood, N.Y: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1982): p. 27.

1219 St. Gregory of Nyssa, In Praise of Blessed Theodore, The Great Martyr , Online at Lectio Divina (PG. 46:737).

John Chrysostom talks about the sign of the cross and tells us “Everyone continuously does the sign of the cross on their bodies or their foreheads … Everywhere, you see someone doing the sign of the cross, in houses, markets, deserts, roads, on mountains, in seas, ships, islands, in rooms, on clothes, on arms, on silver vessels, and on the walls. It shines and spreads in every place.”¹²²⁰