{"id":3568,"date":"2020-01-21T16:43:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T22:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saintcatherine51.org\/?page_id=3568"},"modified":"2020-01-21T16:45:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T22:45:37","slug":"icon-of-christ-pantocrator","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/saintcatherine51.org\/?page_id=3568","title":{"rendered":"Icon of Christ Pantocrator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Icon of Christ Pantocrator<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The icon of Christ Pantocrator, the all-powerful creator, is the most frequently written icon of the Eastern Church.\u00a0 The Icon of the Pantocrator<\/strong> from the Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai is one of the oldest surviving icons in existence and one of the few early icons to have survived the icon controversy of the 8th century in the Christian East. The power of Byzantium iconoclasm and the advance of imageless Islam did not reach as far as the Monastery of Saint Catherine on the Sinai Peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nicon was painted in wax tempura (hot liquid wax used to bind the color pigments).\nThis technique originating from late Egypt and withstood all external\ninfluences – if there is a fire, the icon panel is the last thing to burn, and only\nstones or masonry can destroy the paint layer. Thus, old icon panels are often\nfound undamaged among the ashes of burned churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ’s\nyouthful, serene face here differs considerably from the older and rather\nsevere image of the canonical Pantocrator type. The face is modeled with\nexceptional refinement in the application of fine white highlights and deep\nshadows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The imposing figure of Christ is represented almost frontally, his right hand raised in blessing and his left holding a large, jeweled Gospel book. He wears a tunic and himation (cloak), both of the same deep purple, the folds defined not by highlights but by darker and lighter shades of purple. The gold cross-nimbus is decorated with a punched design along the edge. Of superb artistic quality, the nearly life-size figure fills the frame, and its placement so close to the front picture plane imbues the image with a startling immediacy. The rhythmic linear movement of hairline, brow line, and eyes rivet attention on the luminous tones of the face, with its large eyes staring benignly\u2014but not directly\u2014at the beholder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Explaining the\nIcon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1\nThe Halo<\/strong>
\nA halo is a sign of holiness and divinity. \nThe letters on the halo, are a reference to the name of Jesus (\u201cThe One\nWho Is\u201d and \u201cI am here for you\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2<\/strong> The Cross within the Halo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncross in the nimbus reinforces the statement: God is with us, ready to support,\nboth in time (cross = suffering) and eternity (circle = eternal life).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#3<\/strong> The gold background:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\ntraditional icons, gold has the meaning of eternity, timelessness, perfection, and\ndivinity. Christ comes to us from eternity and is essentially always and\neverywhere (which is why the backgrounds of classical icons never show a\nlandscape but do show mountains, deserts or buildings). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

#4 <\/strong>The”blessing”\nhand of Jesus <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This images depicts the traditionalsermon gesture (Jesus’ biblical task) and a profession of\nfaith. From the index finger on, the position of the fingers forms the\nChristogram  (IC XC; the Chi – Greek X\nwith crossed thumb and ring finger).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This gesture was often interpreted\nas the blessing hand, the three fingers as a reference to the Trinity and the\nlittle finger representing the divine\/human nature of Christ.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

#5<\/strong> The Face of Christ <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nthe Orthodox Christians, whoever or whatever is depicted in the icon is truly\npresent. Through the Incarnation, Christ himself becomes word and image<\/strong>,\nthe word and the image of the invisible God. Thus, an orthodox Christian venerates\nevery religious image.  Once blessed, an\nicon\u2019s surface is never touched with human hands.  The icon consists of image and word\n(inscription). If the inscription or face can no longer be distinguished, the\nicon is removed and “buried” or burnt. Because of this, iconoclasts have\nalways scratched the<\/strong> eyes and face<\/strong> first or\nknocked the heads off statues – thus killing the image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#6<\/strong> Symbolism of colors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus is the eternal God who became human in the middle of time (the divine color red is used on the inside on the body and earthly colors like blue\/green\/brown are used on the outside); this is reversed in the case of Mary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mystery of the Incarnation is the incarnational message for our lives. The colors are made of earth and minerals, egg yolk binder: Symbols of creation, the paschal and the living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#7<\/strong> The Book<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

T<\/strong>he jeweled Book of Gospels represents the true nature of Christ \u2013 the Word of God \u2013 who always was and who always will be.  Christ is the author of Creation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nOrthodox Sign of the Cross<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sign of the Cross is a gesture of faith and belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sign of the Cross is made with the Christogram gesture (those praying hold their fingers like Christ):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forehead – chest – right shoulder, left shoulder and genuflection. Some kiss their hand at the end of the sign of the cross, which should have touched the ground – a vestige of the\ngenuflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When footballers from Mediterranean countries run onto the pitch,they cross themselves and touch the grass – a vestige of the Byzantine sign of the cross.

How the orthodox sign of the cross is made: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fingers of the right hand form the name of Jesus (i.e.\nthe thumb, index finger and middle finger represent the Trinity<\/strong> – three persons of the Holy Trinity and the ring and little\nfinger represent the Incarnation – <\/strong>the two natures in Christ).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The symbolism<\/p>\n\n\n\n

forehead = <\/strong>inspiration and the divine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

heart <\/strong>= love and\nhuman life<\/p>\n\n\n\n

right<\/strong> shoulder<\/strong>\n= weapon, work, male<\/p>\n\n\n\n

left shoulder <\/strong> = peacefulness, holding of the child, female<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Icon of Christ Pantocrator The icon of Christ Pantocrator, the all-powerful creator, is the most frequently written icon of the Eastern Church.\u00a0 The Icon of the Pantocrator from the Monastery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-3568","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P7o6fz-Vy","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintcatherine51.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintcatherine51.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintcatherine51.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintcatherine51.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintcatherine51.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3568"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/saintcatherine51.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3571,"href":"https:\/\/saintcatherine51.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3568\/revisions\/3571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintcatherine51.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}