The following in an excerpt from “Eros of Orthodoxy,” translated by Fr. Nicholas Palis and written by Mr. Pantelis Paschou.
It is difficult to describe peripherally what a great role hagiography plays in the Orthodox Church. We can’t even note the main schools of Byzantine art. Making the Mystery of God’s economy and the struggles of his saints sensorial is the most popularized notation of God’s word.
By seeing the holy icons, it is possible “even for those unlettered to receive courageous works laboring for God,” and to strive, as Abba Neilus the ascetic says. In the opinion of Saint John the Damascene, a Christian can find his salvation by seeing just one Orthodox icon. The icon has such great power that it can fill a person with awe, awaken us and give us the opportunity to make holy decisions concerning our life and soul.
Thus we confer honor on the icon, which in the classic expression of Basil the Great “is transferred to the original.” Because in the icons we have the living presence of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which when it finds suitable postulants, guides the mind to knowledge of God.
And this not only applies to the holy icons of God but also to the icons of his saints, who with their Theosis give us hope for our salvation and Theosis as well, when we imitate their virtuous life. Along with this hope, which the saints vie for for us for our union with God, they also actively help us with their intercessions “as having boldness before the Lord” when we ask for it before their holy icons.
As Saint John Damascene also says: “For the saints, even when they were living, were filled with the Holy Spirit. And upon their death the grace of the Holy Spirit, without departing, is in both their souls and bodies in the tombs, and in their depictions and holy icons—not in essence, but by grace and action.”
