Panagia Icons

Welcome to the home page for Panagia Icons.  Panagia is a Greek word for "All-Holy" and refers to the person of the Virgin Mary, the "Theotokos", or God-bearer.  The Orthodox Church proclaims that Mary is the Mother of God, the Theotokos.  The iconography contained herein is the work of an advanced student iconographer, Mary Brigid.  It will contain finished works as well as, from time to time, works in progress, in order to photo-journal the process of writing an icon.  I hope you enjoy browsing the site, and if you are not Orthodox, I hope you will follow some of the links to other sites where you can learn more about the Orthodox Church.

Iconography is a central facet of the corporate worship and personal prayer of Orthodox Christians.  While many non-Orthodox have discovered iconography and some study the writing of icons and the history of iconography, iconography cannot be understood completely outside the context of the Orthodox faith; nor can Orthodoxy be understood without icons.  I invite you into this site, then, to learn more about both.....

This icon of  Christ the Lifegiver was written as half of a pair for St. Joseph Orthodox Church in Houston.  The first icon written for the parish was the Theotokos, Mother of  God of the Passion.  These two icons hang in the narthex of the church for the veneration of the faithful and the catechumens as they enter the temple.
 

This is the icon written as the pair of the Lifegiver icon to the left.  This icon shows the Christ Child calmly surveying the instruments of His eventual crucifixion, even as He clings to the reassuring hands of His all-pure Mother.  Her expression is a mixture of love for Her divine Son and sorrow at the realization that the sword that will pierce Her  heart is foreknown and foreordained.