Catholic Champion
Because the Truth is a matter of life and death.
Universality
and the use of Sacred Images among the ancient Churches.
By:Matthew James Bellisario
The images displayed in all of the ancient Catholic/Orthodox churches throughout the world attest to an ancient Christian mindset completely lost in the Protestant world. Sadly the same liberalism has crept into even the Catholic Church over the last 50 years or so. Many of today's modern Catholic churches are being built with the same iconoclastic mindset that the Church defeated back in the 700s. This mindset was brought back into existence from the Protestant Reformers in the 1550s and beyond. In this essay I will demonstrate how this iconoclastic mindset is contrary to true Christian worship. The false interpretation of “graven images” fueled the Protestant rebellion against ancient Christian Tradition, and it still carries on to this day. It is important that we continue building our Catholic churches consistently in accord with ancient Tradition, and equally important for those outside the Church to embrace the Catholic faith.
In October of 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses in Wittenberg. He would become a catalyst for the many heretics that followed him. Many iconoclastic uprisings occurred in Germany after the Reformation and later throughout Europe. John Calvin would exhibit a rabid hatred for the Sacred Images, and in the Netherlands in 1566 Catholic churches would be “cleansed” by the so called “Reformers” from top to bottom. We can see this mentality carried over into all forms of Protestantism. Calvin himself wrote “If the authority of the ancient church moves us in any way, we will recall that for about five hundred years, during which religion was still flourishing, and a pure doctrine thriving, Christian Churches were commonly empty of images. Thus, it was when the purity of the ministry had somewhat degenerated that they were first introduced for the adornment of churches.(Calvin, Institutes 1.11.13).” As we will see, John Calvin, like many of today's Protestants were ignorant of Christian history. The first 500 years did not consist of barren churches as Calvin falsely stated. As we know, much of the Church went through an iconoclastic period during the 700s in which many images were destroyed. So we have fewer examples than we would have had if this atrocity did not happen. Never the less, we have ample evidence that the use of images were used in the earliest Christian communities. It is very apparent that John Calvin was ignorant on this subject concerning images.
The earliest archaeological exhibits we have concerning Christian worship demonstrate the use of Sacred Images. From the Catacombs in the 3rd century to the desert town of Dura Europos, the oldest Christian church in existence, we see images of Our Lord. The image of Jesus Christ adorned the walls of the Dura Europa church and date to the middle of the 3rd century. Unfortunately we have precious few examples of churches this old (c. 2nd, 3rd centuries) because of the persecutions throughout the empire, and the sheer vast amount of time spanning between us and those early centuries. There are however plenty of examples for this argument to be put to rest. Other examples include Christ the Good Shepard mosaic from the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, c.425-450, the image of the "Miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes," from the Church of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna. c.504. There are hundreds of examples of bas-relief stone images on sarcophagi dating back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries with many different Gospel depictions. A trip to Rome and some museums in Italy lay this argument to rest. There is just too much historical evidence proving the widespread use of images in the first 6 centuries of Christianity.
Many Protestants claim that this was a product of the “Roman Church”, propagating pagan practices. What is interesting is the use of images is hardly a “Roman” idea. It is a universal Christian idea handed on to us in our vast Tradition of giving honor and glory to Almighty God. How vast is the use of images in Christendom before the Reformation? It was very vast indeed! The use of images in Christianity date back to the oldest sites throughout the Christian world.
Starting out with the Egyptian churches and monasteries, we can see that the remaining ancient churches in Egypt all exhibit the widespread use of images within them. For instance the Monastery of the Syrians in Wadi Al-Natrun established in the 6th century is adorned with images of the Virgin Mary above the entrance way, which dates to the eighth century. (Gabra, van Loon, Ludwig 2007) St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mt Sinai was constructed in the 6th century by the Emperor Justinian. The monastery houses over 2000 icons some dating from the 500s. (Gabra, van Loon, Ludwig 2007) The two most famous icons made with a melted wax composition are the images of Christ and Saint Peter holding the keys in his right hand and the cross in the left. They both date to sometime in the 500s. (Evans, White 2004) Many of these images did not originate at St. Catherine's but were brought from other places such as Palestine. The icon of the ascension of Christ at Saint Catherine's is one such piece that came from ancient Palestine and dates to the 500s. The monastery of Saint Anthony in the Red Sea area of Egypt contains fragments of frescoes dating from the 6th century as well. (Gabra, van Loon, Ludwig 2007) Imagery was clearly used in ancient Christianity throughout Palestine, Egypt and Syria. (Moscow 2005)
As we move across to Constantinople, now modern day Istanbul, Turkey, we see the magnificent Hagia Sophia church built in the 500s. It is also adorned with mosaic images throughout. Many of them have been covered since Constantinople fell to muslim rule in the 1452. They were preserved under the Islamic mosaics. We can see images of Christ, John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary in mosaic form as well as the Virgin with the Christ Child. This imagery was carried on to Russia and the Slavic countries when they were Christianized. The Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev is adorned with mosaic images as well. The Virgin Orans spans the apse of the Cathedral dating from the 1030s or so.
On Mount Athos Greece all of the monasteries there show the extensive use of icons and Holy Images. The Icon Portaitissa, or Our Lady of the Gate was carried off during the iconoclastic controversy in the 700s and brought to Athos. It is still housed in a chapel today. Every monastery here, most dated from the 10th century, is adorned heavily with icons and images used to teach the faith, and give glory to God and His plan of salvation for mankind. It is interesting to note that in one of the monasteries on Athos is housed the girdle of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is the only surviving relic of her earthly life. (Speake 2002) The use of images was and is still widely used by the Greek Christian communities.
Medhane Alem in Ethiopia also proves a universal use of Sacred Images. The church, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is a rock hewn church dating from the 13th century. It is also adorned with images throughout. So far we can see that the use of images is far from being a pagan practice forced on all of the Christian cultures throughout the known world by the “Roman” Church. The cultures are very diverse, yet the imagery the same.
If we now move off to the north up to ancient Ireland we are once again going to see the same result. Are we beginning to see a pattern here? The pattern seems to be quite Catholic in its disposition, not remotely resembling any characteristic of Protestantism. The earliest remaining site of Christianity in Ireland is the ancient monastic site of Clonmacnoise. Unfortunately the site was raided and pillaged many times throughout history. But we do have beautiful artifacts that exhibit images in the stone carved crosses that remain. One of the High Crosses of Clonmacnoise, is called the Cross of the Scriptures and contains beautiful imagery of Christ and the Last Judgement. The cross dates back to the 9th century. Other artifacts such as croziers and missals contain beautiful ancient Christian imagery from this area as well.
Now we come to Italy or the greater part of the Western Roman empire, although many areas such as Ravenna remained rather Eastern in their practices; all of the churches here ironically seem to follow the pattern of every other church in all of the cultures I have listed so far. There are hundreds of ancient churches adorned with Sacred Images, many dating back to the early centuries of the Church. The Catacomb images dating from the 3rd century, and the churches in Ravenna dating from the 6th century we have already covered in an earlier article and are excellent examples of early Christian imagery. The lower church of San Clemente in Rome has frescoes dating back to the 6th century as well. Excavations below the basilica of SS Giovanni e Paolo also give us witness to early veneration and use of images. These 4th century images depict early martyrs as well as images of Saint John and Saint Paul. (Hager 1999)
I could go on and on with many more examples of churches throughout Christendom, throughout the centuries demonstrating the use of Sacred Images. This practice is still carried on by the true churches of Jesus Christ. Both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches use Sacred Images in their worship forms, and carry on this precious Tradition of the Church. The earliest historical and archaeological evidence that we have in Christendom prove that the use of Sacred Images is consistent with Christian practices from the ancient Church. These images also parallel the celebration of the Divine Liturgy throughout the true Church as well. We will cover that in later articles. It is plain for anyone who wants to be intellectually honest that the Protestant church shows no resemblance of the ancient Christian faith demonstrated by early church architecture and the use of Sacred Images within them.
Although many examples I have listed date from the 500s it is apparant that they did not all just pop up across the globe at the same time in the 500s. We can see that there are examples dating from the 3rd, 4th and 5th centuries as well. The reason we obviously have less examples during the first 8 centuries as opposed to the later periods is because of the iconoclastic controversy which destroyed many of these images, not to mention invasions of many areas, in which Christian churches and images were destroyed as well. We must also understand the historical postion that the Church was in for the first 300 years or so where most of these churches were underground and had to be kept secret. Obviously you not see giant cathedrals with images in them from this period. The house church of Dura Europo however gives us an exellent example of a house church from the mid 3rd century, which contain images of Christ. No serious historian would assume this to be an isolated case. There just are not many of these ancient sites left for us to examine. There are two basic positions that you can take on this issue of images. The first being that Sacred mages are a part of Christian worship, as seen from these examples above, or a second postion being, that all of these ancient communities, Christendom as a whole, worldwide (the known world at the time) went off the rails together starting in the 3rd century and progressed that way for another 1200 years until John Calvin, Martin Luther and those like them showed up to straighten it all back out. You can be the judge of which you would like to believe.
Matthew James Bellisario 2008
Cook, Kate, trans. A History of Icon Painting. Moscow: Grand Holding, 2002.
Evans, Helen C. Saint Catherine's Monastery Sinai, Egypt. New Haven/London: Yale UP, 2004.
Gabra, Gawdat, Gertrude Jm Van Loon, and Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom. The Churches of Egypt. Ed.
Carolyn Ludwig. Cairo/New York: American University in Cairo P, 2007.
Hager, June. Pilgrimage. London: Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1999.
Speake, Graham. Mount Athos, Renewal in Paradise. New Haven/London: Yale UP, 2002.
The Christ of Sinai icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Egypt. Dated to the 6th century.
By:Matthew James Bellisario
The images displayed in all of the ancient Catholic/Orthodox churches throughout the world attest to an ancient Christian mindset completely lost in the Protestant world. Sadly the same liberalism has crept into even the Catholic Church over the last 50 years or so. Many of today's modern Catholic churches are being built with the same iconoclastic mindset that the Church defeated back in the 700s. This mindset was brought back into existence from the Protestant Reformers in the 1550s and beyond. In this essay I will demonstrate how this iconoclastic mindset is contrary to true Christian worship. The false interpretation of “graven images” fueled the Protestant rebellion against ancient Christian Tradition, and it still carries on to this day. It is important that we continue building our Catholic churches consistently in accord with ancient Tradition, and equally important for those outside the Church to embrace the Catholic faith.
In October of 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses in Wittenberg. He would become a catalyst for the many heretics that followed him. Many iconoclastic uprisings occurred in Germany after the Reformation and later throughout Europe. John Calvin would exhibit a rabid hatred for the Sacred Images, and in the Netherlands in 1566 Catholic churches would be “cleansed” by the so called “Reformers” from top to bottom. We can see this mentality carried over into all forms of Protestantism. Calvin himself wrote “If the authority of the ancient church moves us in any way, we will recall that for about five hundred years, during which religion was still flourishing, and a pure doctrine thriving, Christian Churches were commonly empty of images. Thus, it was when the purity of the ministry had somewhat degenerated that they were first introduced for the adornment of churches.(Calvin, Institutes 1.11.13).” As we will see, John Calvin, like many of today's Protestants were ignorant of Christian history. The first 500 years did not consist of barren churches as Calvin falsely stated. As we know, much of the Church went through an iconoclastic period during the 700s in which many images were destroyed. So we have fewer examples than we would have had if this atrocity did not happen. Never the less, we have ample evidence that the use of images were used in the earliest Christian communities. It is very apparent that John Calvin was ignorant on this subject concerning images.
The earliest archaeological exhibits we have concerning Christian worship demonstrate the use of Sacred Images. From the Catacombs in the 3rd century to the desert town of Dura Europos, the oldest Christian church in existence, we see images of Our Lord. The image of Jesus Christ adorned the walls of the Dura Europa church and date to the middle of the 3rd century. Unfortunately we have precious few examples of churches this old (c. 2nd, 3rd centuries) because of the persecutions throughout the empire, and the sheer vast amount of time spanning between us and those early centuries. There are however plenty of examples for this argument to be put to rest. Other examples include Christ the Good Shepard mosaic from the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, c.425-450, the image of the "Miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes," from the Church of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna. c.504. There are hundreds of examples of bas-relief stone images on sarcophagi dating back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries with many different Gospel depictions. A trip to Rome and some museums in Italy lay this argument to rest. There is just too much historical evidence proving the widespread use of images in the first 6 centuries of Christianity.
Many Protestants claim that this was a product of the “Roman Church”, propagating pagan practices. What is interesting is the use of images is hardly a “Roman” idea. It is a universal Christian idea handed on to us in our vast Tradition of giving honor and glory to Almighty God. How vast is the use of images in Christendom before the Reformation? It was very vast indeed! The use of images in Christianity date back to the oldest sites throughout the Christian world.
Starting out with the Egyptian churches and monasteries, we can see that the remaining ancient churches in Egypt all exhibit the widespread use of images within them. For instance the Monastery of the Syrians in Wadi Al-Natrun established in the 6th century is adorned with images of the Virgin Mary above the entrance way, which dates to the eighth century. (Gabra, van Loon, Ludwig 2007) St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mt Sinai was constructed in the 6th century by the Emperor Justinian. The monastery houses over 2000 icons some dating from the 500s. (Gabra, van Loon, Ludwig 2007) The two most famous icons made with a melted wax composition are the images of Christ and Saint Peter holding the keys in his right hand and the cross in the left. They both date to sometime in the 500s. (Evans, White 2004) Many of these images did not originate at St. Catherine's but were brought from other places such as Palestine. The icon of the ascension of Christ at Saint Catherine's is one such piece that came from ancient Palestine and dates to the 500s. The monastery of Saint Anthony in the Red Sea area of Egypt contains fragments of frescoes dating from the 6th century as well. (Gabra, van Loon, Ludwig 2007) Imagery was clearly used in ancient Christianity throughout Palestine, Egypt and Syria. (Moscow 2005)
As we move across to Constantinople, now modern day Istanbul, Turkey, we see the magnificent Hagia Sophia church built in the 500s. It is also adorned with mosaic images throughout. Many of them have been covered since Constantinople fell to muslim rule in the 1452. They were preserved under the Islamic mosaics. We can see images of Christ, John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary in mosaic form as well as the Virgin with the Christ Child. This imagery was carried on to Russia and the Slavic countries when they were Christianized. The Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev is adorned with mosaic images as well. The Virgin Orans spans the apse of the Cathedral dating from the 1030s or so.
On Mount Athos Greece all of the monasteries there show the extensive use of icons and Holy Images. The Icon Portaitissa, or Our Lady of the Gate was carried off during the iconoclastic controversy in the 700s and brought to Athos. It is still housed in a chapel today. Every monastery here, most dated from the 10th century, is adorned heavily with icons and images used to teach the faith, and give glory to God and His plan of salvation for mankind. It is interesting to note that in one of the monasteries on Athos is housed the girdle of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is the only surviving relic of her earthly life. (Speake 2002) The use of images was and is still widely used by the Greek Christian communities.
Medhane Alem in Ethiopia also proves a universal use of Sacred Images. The church, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is a rock hewn church dating from the 13th century. It is also adorned with images throughout. So far we can see that the use of images is far from being a pagan practice forced on all of the Christian cultures throughout the known world by the “Roman” Church. The cultures are very diverse, yet the imagery the same.
If we now move off to the north up to ancient Ireland we are once again going to see the same result. Are we beginning to see a pattern here? The pattern seems to be quite Catholic in its disposition, not remotely resembling any characteristic of Protestantism. The earliest remaining site of Christianity in Ireland is the ancient monastic site of Clonmacnoise. Unfortunately the site was raided and pillaged many times throughout history. But we do have beautiful artifacts that exhibit images in the stone carved crosses that remain. One of the High Crosses of Clonmacnoise, is called the Cross of the Scriptures and contains beautiful imagery of Christ and the Last Judgement. The cross dates back to the 9th century. Other artifacts such as croziers and missals contain beautiful ancient Christian imagery from this area as well.
Now we come to Italy or the greater part of the Western Roman empire, although many areas such as Ravenna remained rather Eastern in their practices; all of the churches here ironically seem to follow the pattern of every other church in all of the cultures I have listed so far. There are hundreds of ancient churches adorned with Sacred Images, many dating back to the early centuries of the Church. The Catacomb images dating from the 3rd century, and the churches in Ravenna dating from the 6th century we have already covered in an earlier article and are excellent examples of early Christian imagery. The lower church of San Clemente in Rome has frescoes dating back to the 6th century as well. Excavations below the basilica of SS Giovanni e Paolo also give us witness to early veneration and use of images. These 4th century images depict early martyrs as well as images of Saint John and Saint Paul. (Hager 1999)
I could go on and on with many more examples of churches throughout Christendom, throughout the centuries demonstrating the use of Sacred Images. This practice is still carried on by the true churches of Jesus Christ. Both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches use Sacred Images in their worship forms, and carry on this precious Tradition of the Church. The earliest historical and archaeological evidence that we have in Christendom prove that the use of Sacred Images is consistent with Christian practices from the ancient Church. These images also parallel the celebration of the Divine Liturgy throughout the true Church as well. We will cover that in later articles. It is plain for anyone who wants to be intellectually honest that the Protestant church shows no resemblance of the ancient Christian faith demonstrated by early church architecture and the use of Sacred Images within them.
Although many examples I have listed date from the 500s it is apparant that they did not all just pop up across the globe at the same time in the 500s. We can see that there are examples dating from the 3rd, 4th and 5th centuries as well. The reason we obviously have less examples during the first 8 centuries as opposed to the later periods is because of the iconoclastic controversy which destroyed many of these images, not to mention invasions of many areas, in which Christian churches and images were destroyed as well. We must also understand the historical postion that the Church was in for the first 300 years or so where most of these churches were underground and had to be kept secret. Obviously you not see giant cathedrals with images in them from this period. The house church of Dura Europo however gives us an exellent example of a house church from the mid 3rd century, which contain images of Christ. No serious historian would assume this to be an isolated case. There just are not many of these ancient sites left for us to examine. There are two basic positions that you can take on this issue of images. The first being that Sacred mages are a part of Christian worship, as seen from these examples above, or a second postion being, that all of these ancient communities, Christendom as a whole, worldwide (the known world at the time) went off the rails together starting in the 3rd century and progressed that way for another 1200 years until John Calvin, Martin Luther and those like them showed up to straighten it all back out. You can be the judge of which you would like to believe.
Matthew James Bellisario 2008
Cook, Kate, trans. A History of Icon Painting. Moscow: Grand Holding, 2002.
Evans, Helen C. Saint Catherine's Monastery Sinai, Egypt. New Haven/London: Yale UP, 2004.
Gabra, Gawdat, Gertrude Jm Van Loon, and Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom. The Churches of Egypt. Ed.
Carolyn Ludwig. Cairo/New York: American University in Cairo P, 2007.
Hager, June. Pilgrimage. London: Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1999.
Speake, Graham. Mount Athos, Renewal in Paradise. New Haven/London: Yale UP, 2002.
The Christ of Sinai icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Egypt. Dated to the 6th century.