Icon Painting

By virtue of colours, shapes, and lines, in a language of symbolic realism, a painting expression unique in its kind, to us is revealed the spiritual condition of man saved in the eternity of the Heavenly Kingdom. Man – the temple of God. The inner order and peace in the spiritual life, to which the Holy Fathers bear witness, are reflected on the icon with calm and harmonious strokes of the brush. The whole body of the saint, all the details and fine points, even the hair, wrinkles, folds on the clothes, and all that surrounds the saint are all united and brought to most sublime accord. This makes the visible presentation of the victory over the inner division and confusion in the fallen human nature, won in the process of purification and transformation of the passions to deification.

The content of the icon, thus, represents a real spiritual guidepost for the life in the Church, particularly for prayer. In an authentic way, freed from the boundaries of concepts and words, it teaches us the attitude we should take in spiritual life.

The icon is at the same time a road that should be followed, a presence of something that is from the beyond and saved, and means. Itselfitis: prayer. The reason for the existence of the sacred art in Orthodoxy lies exactly in that to bring visible testimony to the both realities – the historical reality and the reality of the Heavenly Kingdom, the reality of the created and the grace of the Holy Spirit – uniting them in itself.

The icon is a living testimony to the origin and the fullness of man's participation in the Divine Life.

The Macedonian collection of icons, and in particular the Ohrid one, is among the most valuable collections in the world today. After the Sinai and the Moscow collection of icons, it is third in importance in Orthodoxy. From a Byzantological aspect, it is unique.