Icons are not ordinary pictures. They are holy objects. A visual prayer. A spiritual bridge between heaven and earth, between God and man. In the Orthodox tradition, an icon is

Beholding the wondrous light of Mount Tabor, you became partakers of eternal life and witnesses of the path to immortality, teachers of repentance and right living …

Icons adorn the walls of churches, but also the homes of Orthodox believers. Most commonly, these are slava icons — that is, icons of the saint who is honored as the family’s patron in the celebration of their Krsna Slava.