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RUSSIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE
THROUGH THE CENTURIES

 
 

"Bibles of the illiterate"

 
 

For the tremendous service the icons performed in the religious education of Russians, they became popularly known as "Bibles of the illiterate. "Since they replaced the reading of holy books, whose text had to remain unchanged, the icons too had to be reproduced with strict authenticity and in accordance with prescribed rules contained in a special manual to assure that this special form of "Reading" be always understood in the same way. Though originally confined to churches and monasteries, icons quickly spread throughout Russia and in time hardly any home could be found without one or several icons in it. For the Orthodox world the icon itself, and not only the personage or the holy event it portrayed, became an object of veneration. As this was the case with the Serbs, in Russia too the Orthodox Church identified itself with national aspirations and unity and became the strongest defender of its traditions. In this respect only Judaism remained unsurpassed.

Russian people went farther than any other Orthodox nation in attributing to icons divine presence and miraculous powers. Even today one can understand their devotion to the holy pictures just by visiting a church and attending services. Russians pray and bow in front of icons, they kiss them and repeatedly cross themselves, some people kneel, implore and weep. It is a very stunning experience. In the past there was hardly an important church or monastery that did not have its miraculous icon and the people believed sincerely in their divine ability to help and cure, as the French believed of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes. It was not without reason that Russian tsars were crowned in front of what used to be the most miraculous of all icons - The Virgin of Vladimir which, according to legends, saved Russia and Moscow from destruction by foreign plunderers several times. Russian religious feelings cannot be properly understood without paying attention to the extraordinary role that icons played in the history of the Russian Church and among millions of its believers.

 
 

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