In my beautiful country, there are many churches and many monasteries. Those churches and those monasteries contain a much higher number of icons inside the walls.
Also, many houses and families in those houses that believe in God have icons that are usually hung on the wall or stand on a shelf.
Icons have existed for centuries and each of us has met at least once in his life with a church icon. But many of us don't really know what icons are for, and the fact that no one knows how the first icons were made in human history. People simply do not know anything about the icons they meet every day, either in their homes or in movies or anywhere else. First of all, there are many things in the world ...
So what are church icons?
Church icons are paintings that are made on canvas, and sometimes on wood or stone. These paintings depict Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, and various saints. But we can also see God's angels or other descriptions of the Scriptures on the icons.
During the very beginning of Christianity, either icons did not exist or, better said, they were not preserved and found. So the oldest surviving icons are actually from the third century. And since then, more and more icons have been drawn, and so on until today.
In recent history, the most famous countries in terms of the number of icons that are painted and the beauty of those icons. They were the Byzantine Empire, the Russian Empire. During that period, various wars were fought on a daily basis.
So at that time there was a belief that if the army carries icons with it in a war or in a battle, that army will win. which in fact in most cases came true.
Icons as we know them today, as well as those that have been used for centuries, are not any decorations. Already the icon represents the physical form of the invisible divine reality.
Also, many people think that it is best to buy the most expensive icon, but that is very wrong. Respect is shown to the painted person, and not to the material from which the icon is made.
