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Icons of
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Icons of St John
the Forerunner

 

(81K) This hand-written icon of St. John was given to us by our mother parish, St. Elias Orthodox Church of Austin, TX.  It was written in 1981 by an unknown iconographer.


 

Life of St. John(69Kb) This icon print depicts scenes in the life, death and afterlife of St. John the forerunner, beginning in the upper left corner with Gabriel's announcement of Elizabeth's conception to the final finding of his head in the lower right corner.

 

St. John Holding Head (78Kb) This icon print depicts John the Forerunner as the messenger (hence the wings) who suffered a martyr's death for his witness to Christ and his vocal criticism of Herod's immorality. 
 

St. John receiving blessing of Christ(94Kb) This icon print depicts John holding a scroll and receiving a blessing from Christ. The scroll says: "Seest Thou what those suffer who censure, O Word of God, the faults of the unclean? Not being able to bear censure, lo Herod cut off my head, O Savior."

St. John beheading
(56Kb) This Russian icon print depicts the beheading of St. John outside Herod's palace.  The inscription is probably similar to the one in the icon above. 

 

Iconography
Orthodox icons are used as aids to worship, "windows to heaven."  Because Christ has come in the flesh, mankind is able to depict divinity in human form. Icons are not idols, but objects which pull our veneration through them toward the prototype.  Because they depict spiritual truths, icons often utilize spatial and perspective distortions in order to call our attention away from the physical world.

Note: These Icons may only be used for aids to worship, never as art objects or for commercial purposes. Most were scanned from Icons in our church
 
How the Icon page works
A small thumbnail icon appears to the left of a description of the icon. If you want to see a larger, high-resolution (and longer to download) JPEG image just click on the thumbnail and a large image will open in a new window.  The number in parentheses indicates the approximate file size of the larger image.

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Icons of Other Saints
 

St Stephen Martyrdom
(56Kb) Icon print of St. Stephen the Protomartyr:  The first martyr for the Christian faith, and one of the first deacons.  
 

 St. Elias life
(62Kb) St. Elias with scenes from his life.  St. John the Forerunner is a type of St. Elias, and is also the patron saint of our mission church's mother parish, St. Elias Orthodox Church.  This is an 18th century hand-written Russian icon which has been somewhat restored.  It is shown here without its 2" brown border. From 18"X21" original.

St. Nicolas (53Kb) The real St. Nicolas:  A beautiful antique hand-written icon, written in traditional egg tempera on gold leaf.  The icon had been restored at least once, and recent deterioration has been retouched digitally.  From 9"X10.5" original.
 

Theotokos(75Kb) Contemporary Greek icon of the Theotokos (Mother of God).  This icon is printed on carved wood, recessing it about 1/8".  In Orthodox icons, Mary is always shown with Christ; thus icons of the Theotokos are also icons of the Incarnation.