History of Icons

Hapless extremists try to wipe out a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary.

This is far from the only tale of its kind concerning the ‘Kursk Root’ icon, named after its discovery in the 13th century among the shrubs of a forest near the ruins of Kursk in Russia. The icon, which escaped both the USSR and the Nazis, is kept today in New York, and last visited England in 2012.

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The Virgin Mary and her son team up to get the best out of some careless monks.

In this ‘good cop, bad cop’ story from the early 14th century, Christ and his mother team up to use a bit of psychology to get through to some beloved but sloppy monks.

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A widow cast her precious icon into the sea rather than see it dishonoured by government agents, but that wasn’t the end of the story.

In the days of the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus (829-842), it was illegal to possess religious art depicting people. Houses were searched, and offenders saw their precious icons destroyed with dishonour.

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