and other Oriental cities, until backed by the Roman-Greek emperors-Leo III., Constantine Copronymus and Leo IV-a council was held in 754 which absolutely forbade the use of any pictures or images in the churches, and ordered that any of them remaining in the churches should be ejected and never set up again. Finally, in 787, the second General Council of Nice was held, and it decreed that holy images and pictures of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, the Saints and Angels, and also the cross and scenes of holy events might be set up in churches and reverenced. But it was nearly fifty years later before this decree of the Council could be enforced in Constantinople, owing to the resistance of the iconoclastic party. Finally, in 830 the decrees of the Council of Nice were affirmed and put into execution by a Synod at Constantinople, and the holy images were triumphantly reintroduced into the Great Church of Saint Sophia (the metropolitan or cathedral church of Constantinople) at the beginning of Lent, and ever since that time the Greek Orthodox churches have celebrated a festival on the first Sunday in Lent, known as the Triumph of Orthodoxy (Torzhestvo Pravoslaviya).

With a view, however, of not alienating those of iconoclastic tendencies and allaying dissension, the practical operation of this decree was restricted to the introduction and use of flat images and paintings, while statuary or any raised representation which cast a shadow was vigorously banished from the churches. This has been the rule ever since in the Greek and Russian churches, although statues are freely used in vestibules, porches and façades of churches. in Russia.

All Greek churches, no matter how poor, must have at least two icons on the iconostas. On the right hand side of the Royal Doors there is the icon of our Lord (ikon Spasitelya), and on the left hand side is the icon of our Lady (ikon Bogoroditzy). Beyond these there may be added as many icons as the wealth or the fancy of the particular church may dictatę. Churches frequently obtain copies of celebrated icons from other churches and add them to their own iconostas, so that several churches often have the same icons. A rule, however, governs the order in which icons may be placed on the iconostas, which I have alluded to in a previous article.

In regard to the icon or picture itself a word or so is necessary. The word icon ( LKV, an image) is restricted wholly to religious pictures such as are used in the churches. The religious art of

the Greek Church has never made any marked advances, but remains to-day almost where it was over a thousand years ago. In fact, the whole attitude of the Greek Church is to resist changes of style in any ceremony, form or outward expression of faith and worship. This is intensified by the attitude of the Russian people and government, which seems to abhor any change whatever. Hence, nearly all the icons or paintings in the Greek churches are still patterned on the severe Byzantine model of the eighth and ninth centuries. A few of the later painters have shown a tendency to break away from the traditional forms. These paintings were usually made upon wood or metal, rarely on canvas, and were sometimes executed in mosaic. In the Greek and Russian churches there are practically no windows, and hence stained glass never was used among them, as in the Gothic cathedrals. The chief ornament of their dimly lit churches were the magnificent icons lit up by the hundreds of blazing tapers before them, and particular chapels gloried in the possession of some historic icon. In fact, to-day many very fine icons, lighted by hundreds of brilliant candles, are even to be found in the Russian railway station waiting-rooms, and they fairly rival those in the churches.

But the Russian Church was not content to leave the Greek icon just as they received it. The Greeks generally painted the picture upon a background of dull gold with a halo and an inscription. The Russians loved to adorn it, but they hesitated to change it, so they covered it with a thin plate of precious metal (1), mostly silver, but sometimes gold, made in relief showing the turn of the body, the folds of the garments, the halo and the crown on head; but they left the face and hands bare. In other words, they clothed the picture in a sheet of silver, embossed or chased in low relief, but, like the clothing of the picture, leaving the hands and face uncovered. Oftentimes the clothing is outlined or completely represented by thousands of fine pearls in beautiful embroidery. Meanwhile the original painting existed beneath this sheet of silver untouched and uninjured. In this silver sheet, in the case of the most revered icons, are set diamonds, rubies, emeralds and jewels. of all kinds, so that oftentimes the crowns on the heads of our

(1) It must not be assumed that all the icons in Russian churches are so covered. It is mostly in the richer and older churches, the show places which the traveller usually sees,-that this is done. In minor churches and many modern temples, like the Temple of Our Saviour in Moscow and the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in New York City, the icons are fine specimens of painting without this species of adornment.

Lady and the Infant Jesus are more resplendent with jewels than some of the crowns of temporal monarchs, while the robes are far more brilliant. This adornment of the original Greek picture is a primarily Russian trait, and there is no other word than icon by which to describe such a religious painting.

The painting and the adornment of icons in Russia is for the most part a labor of love. They do not make their holy pictures for indiscriminate sale, and, indeed, will not sell them to known unbelievers in Christianity. They are made for religious use either in churches or for private devotion, and are not intended for general articles of merchandise.

Every Russian has in his home, his shop and his room, some particular icon; they are found on the street in nooks set in between the houses, in railway stations, and in restaurants and business places. Consequently very popular icons of our Lord, Lady, or some particular saint are much in demand. They are made on various materials; precious metals, wood, paper and the like, so as to suit both the purse and the taste of the owner, and no one in Russia is too poor to have holy pictures of some kind.

Accompanying this article are some examples of the more celebrated Russian icons of the Mother of God (Bogomater), which are published copies of the originals without the mass of silver, gold and jewels with which they are usually covered in the great churches. They were each accompanied by the title and an explanatory note in Russian, which is translated.

Just over the Infant
Ιησούς Χριστός (Jesus

It will be noticed that each one of these icons has at the top of the picture (1) the Greek letters MP and or, which are the initial and final letters of Mýтep Oeoû, the Mother of God. Jesus are the letters IHC. XPC. that is Christ), while in the cross of His halo are the Slavonic-Greek letters OwH meaning wv (the Existing) "I AM," which is the definition of God given in Exodus iii, 14, and St. John viii, 58.

The particular examples which are given here have also imprinted on them the Slavonic words, Podobie ikony Presviatiya Bogoroditzy (the likness of the icon of the most holy Mother of God), as well as the individual name of the icon, usually derived from some particular locality or some attribute of our Lady.

(1) According to the Greek usage the names of icons are placed at the top, and not at the bottom, as in our pictures.

The commemoration of our Lady as represented in the most celebrated of the icons is observed in Russia by a feast day, which may be likened to the celebration of the feasts of our Lady of Carmel, Our Lady of the Snows, Our Lady of Ransom and the like in the Latin Church. When an icon has a record of cures or relief wrought by intercession, it is called "miraculous" (1).

The devotion of the Greek Church to the Blessed Virgin is so well known that I have made no special mention of it. The liturgy is full of prayers to her, and several of her numerous titles are mentioned in the various names of the icons.

The originals of some of these icons I have seen, and I have a slight acquaintance with the history of several of them. I therefore give the translation of the Russian title and the explanatory note about the icon, and have added to that such further knowledge as I have concerning the icon itself.

THE TITLES OF THE ICONS.

1 and 2. The Icon of the Mother of God, of Kazan.

Russian Note.-This miraculous icon is situated at Kazan in the Convent (2) of the Mother of God; at Moscow, in the Kazan Cathedral; at St. Petersburg, in the Kazan Cathedral; also at Tamboff, Kursk, Irkutsk, Tobolsk, etc. Feast days July 8 and Octo

ber 22.

The original of this icon is said to have been found at Kazan (about 740 miles from Moscow) in the year 1500 when digging for the foundation of a church. It is of Greek origin, and is supposed to have been buried by missionaries to save it from desecration by the Mahometan Tartar hordes at the time of their invasion and conquest in 1250. A convent was built at the spot where it was found, but the icon itself was afterwards removed to Moscow in 1612, and then to St. Petersburg in 1710. It now reposes in the Cathedral of the Mother of God, of Kazan, on the Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg. The churches which formerly possessed it and the other churches mentioned in the note are provided with copies.

The icon marked 1 gives the picture substantially as painted by the unknown Greek artist, while the one marked 2 shows the

(1) chudotvorny, literally, wonder-working.

(2) I use the word "convent" as a monastic institution for women, and "monastery" for men.