👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾A Lesson on the #Icon of Our #Lady with the #Crown" Misle Fkur Welda"( ምስለ ፍቁር ወልዳ ሥዕል )
(Part 6)
Beloved in Christ, hear and learn with reverence the mystery handed down concerning the depiction of the Virgin Mother in holy icons. For the icons of the Church are not idle paintings nor lifeless artistry, but symbols of the divine economy of salvation. Through them, truth is preached without words, and the eyes of the faithful are lifted upward to the heavenly realities.
1. The Angelic Witnesses in the Icon
When the Virgin is painted, she is not alone. When the holy icon portrays the Virgin, there stand also the great archangels. Behold Saint Michael, who holds the spear with which our Lord was pierced and the rod dipped in gall; behold Saint Gabriel, bearing the cross of three sides, a cross known to the Russian Church, though foreign to the ancient custom of Ethiopia. The Greek inscriptions upon these images likewise testify that these forms are not of the Ethiopian tradition.
2. The Position of the Virgin: Right or Left?
The faithful have long asked: should Our Lady be shown on the right or left of Christ? Both are seen in the holy icons.
Why Our Lady Is Depicted on the Right
The holy psalmist spoke long before the birth of Christ, declaring: “The queen shall stand at your right hand” (Psalm 44:4). In this prophecy, the Church sees the Virgin Mother, who bore the King of Glory. For this reason, iconographers often place her holding the Lord in her left arm, so that she may stand at His right hand. Since the 17th century, this orientation has become common, spreading so widely that many forgot there were other ways.
Yet some have judged wrongly, saying the other position is an error. But wisdom teaches otherwise. If she is painted holding the Lord on her right arm, then indeed she appears on His left but this does not diminish her honor. For whether right or left in the painting, her place remains the same in the mystery: the Mother beside her Son, the Queen beside her King.
Why Our Lady Is Depicted on the Left
The holy painters who set the Virgin upon the left do not act without reason, but with wisdom drawn from the life of every mother. For what mother holds her child always on one side only? At times she carries him on her right, at times on her left. And when she nourishes him, she offers both breasts; to deny this would be to deny her very motherhood. Shall we then say that Christ, who grew strong on the miraculous milk of His Mother, was not also fed from her right breast? God forbid! For the milk of both breasts testifies that the Virgin is truly His Mother, and even now that her 2 breast pure milk stands as witness when she intercedes before her Son.
Moreover, the Scripture that speaks of “the queen at your right hand” (Psalm 44) is not bound to the direction of the body. The right hand is not merely a side, but a sign of honor and glory. Therefore, whether painted on the left or on the right, the Virgin’s mystery is unchanged. As the interpreters teach, David’s words also mean this: “She shall stand firm in the honor you have given her.”
3. The Meaning of the Hand and the Fingers
The Virgin’s Two Fingers: By extending two fingers, the Virgin bears witness that she is virgin in both soul and body, a complete virgin in the kingdom.
The Lord’s Fingers: When the Lord extends one finger, it proclaims the unity of God, the One to whom alone worship belongs. When two fingers are shown, it speaks of His two births: begotten of the Father before all ages, and born from Virgin Mary without father.
His hand often points toward the star on the Virgin’s shoulder, the same star that guided the wise men.
Continues 👇🏾