Why do Greeks kiss their icons ?

Athenian Cathedral

The Athenian Cathedral of Our Lady Listening was built some 800 years ago, when Athens were hardly more than a village. The building is tiny, you would call it a chapel if it wasn't a cathedral. There is very little decoration inside, only some icons hanging on bare walls of sandstone. The icons are new, painted only a few years ago in a distinct Byzantine style. There are also a couple of icons in the iconostasis as well as on stands next to the entrance. The icons on stands are there so the faithful could kiss them. Almost all who enter light up a candle and kiss an icon. Some also touch it with their forehead.

Why is that? The Catholics pray before their pictures but don't normally kiss them. Why is the cult of images farther advanced in Greece?

The Orthodox theologians would probably argue that this is not cult of images but cult of persons depicted by those images, most often Jesus or Mary. Nevertheless it is a fact that Greeks show reverence to their images and kiss them when they enter a church. But it wasn't always so. In the eighth century emperor Leo the 3^rd officially banned the cult if icons and ordered their removal from churches. It must have been a common practice if the emperor officially banned it. But where did it come from? After all this is not an integral part of Christianity. Gospels say nothing about icons whereas the Old Testament clearly bans any cult of graven images. Saint Paul in his letters does not tell his followers to obey all the precepts of the Old Testament but he clearly bans any participation in pagan rituals which were connected to the cult of images of Olympian gods. Where, then, did that Greek cult of icons came from?

Perhaps this is simply inculturation, this characteristic flexibility of Church Fathers, who took into account the mentality of the people to whom the Good News was being proclaimed. In in the middle of winter people are used to celebrat the yearly rebirth of the Sun god Mithras (who is always portrayed with a Sun disc behind his head), then let's celebrate God's birth in mid winter, just make sure it is the birth of Christ and not Mithras. If in spring equinox people are used to commemorating the death of god Attis and his miraculous resurrection three days later, then let's continue with the ritual, just make sure it is the death and resurrection of Christ that is celebrated, not Attis. If the people are used to bowing before images – let them carry on, just make sure these are the images of Christ the King, not emperor of Rome.

Kissing an icon

Perhaps even the official interpretation of the meaning of the Eucharist that is maintained by the Church is a result of inculturation. What is the meaning of the Eucharist? For us, born in the 20^th century it appears that Jesus of Nazareth, who was God incarnate, changed bread into his own body and gave it to his disciples to eat so they could also receive his divine power and could do the same things he did. The same ritual is repeated even today and we – who participate in it – get the same power from that. However, theologians tell us the the Eucharist is most of all a sacrifice.

A sacrifice? What sort of sacrifice? Of course during a mass money is collected, but most participants understand this as a way to support the priest, anyway the few bob every person puts in is not a huge sacrifice. Theologians, however, insist – during the mass the priest says words which somehow change the bread into the Body of Christ and then this bread is broken in two, which in itself is a repetition of the sacrifice on the cross. For us, born in the 20^th century the sacrifice on the cross is not very difficult to comprehend. One of the ways to understand it is to see it in the light similar to those movements of non-violence initiated by great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King or the Polish dissident Jacek Kuron. The basic rule of those leaders was not answering violence with violence, one can go to prison for beliefs and in extreme cases one can be ready to die, but violence as an answer to violence is not accepted. The sacrifice on the cross would perfectly fit this way of thinking but why should the breaking of bread during the mass be a repetition of this sacrifice?

Lets look at this with the eyes of a freshly converted citizen of an ancient Greek polis. For a Greek of that time religious behaviour meant most of all participation in sacrifices offered to gods. These sacrifices were public events and the whole city took part in them. A bull bedecked in wreaths, with his horns gilded, was led in a procession in front of a god (that is – a sculpture representing that god), where his throat was slashed and the meat was divided – one portion was burned to send it to heavens and the rest was roasted and consumed by the participants. Some gods – like Demeter, the mother of harvests – would be given bread as offerings. Newly converted Christians weren't allowed to take part in these rituals, the New testament clearly forbids it. At the same time the Christians were invited to take part in another rite – the Eucharist. For them it was a sacrifice – analogous to sacrifices given to the pagan gods.

A sacrificial bull

Bowing before images wasn't an alien concept either. Part of the cult of Roman Emperors was bowing before their images. Christians refused to participate and sometimes paid with their lives, but a bow before an image of Christ the King was a different matter. Although even then it was not universally accepted. The earliest writings where the icons are mentioned don't appear to be favourable to their cult. Eusebius of Cesarea in the 4^th century mentions their existence as does St Augustine in the 5^th. Clearly not all Greeks accepted the practice of bowing before icons. In the 8^th century emperor Leo decided it constituted idolatry and ordered destruction of all icons within his dominion. Only in monasteries outside his dominion could icons older than the 8^th century survive. One such monastery is St Catherine on Mt Sinai, where the oldest icons in existence are preserved.

What was interesting was Leo's motivation. He was one of the most able Byzantine emperors, one of those who saved the empire from destruction. Arabs tried to conquer Constantinople during his reign but he prepared the city for a long siege and then destroyed Arab fleet with a secret weapon known as “Greek Fire”The Arabs left the city alone and never tried to conquer it again but Leo was aware that the Christian empire lost to them the whole of North Africa and the Middle East (including St Catherine Monastery). Why did that happen? Why did the army of a powerful empire lose wars with some nomad camel drivers? The Arabs had a simple answer: you worship icons and this idolatry is forbidden by God. We – said the Arabs – only bow before Allah who cannot be seen and He gives us victories. Emperor Leo clearly agreed with this opinion and because he also wanted victories, ordered all churches within his dominion to be emptied of icons.

A concept of God as someone who gives military aid appears as rather odd to us but it clearly wasn't odd then. For ancient Greeks it was obvious that gods help in wars. In Homer's poems gods run around the battlefield, some of them help this side, other the other. The Christians claimed that the Olympian gods are illusions and there is only one God, the one worshipped by them. For the first Christian this was not a god who would support any military action, they would rather let themseles be thrown to the lions than to start an armed uprising. In the 4^th century, however, emperor Constantine decided to check whether this Christian God is really better than Zeus, prayed to him for a victory in the battle he was about to start and won. For him this was proof that the Christians are right. He was a military man, though, and understood this God just as the ancient hoplites understood Athena, who was supposed to run with them on the battlefield.

Icons in an Athenian church

It is not always so that whatever the emperor says, his subjects accept as right. Many of the subjects of emperor Leo thought he was wrong. He was a strong ruler and during his time it was illegal to hang an icon in a church but after his death the cult of icons was revived. At the Second Council of Nicea in AD 787 it was decided that an image can bring a worshipper closer to God. It is important that the image does not represent the material world but the divine light that fills this world. This is why icons created after that date avoid any realism. Their aim is to make sure that the worshipper sees that divine light in the face of the saint.

From that time on in every Greek church there icons of Jesus and Mary. At least these two but often there are many other icons as well.

But why do Greeks show their respect by kissing icons?

Well, I can't really answer this specific question.