The Iconostasis: a History

(TLM) - THE LAST DECADES of the disintegrating Byzantine Empire were, culturally and spiritually speaking, far from being its least glorious. Among the great names of that epoch Bishop Symeon of Thessalonika has a place by reason of his liturgical commentaries. Appointed bishop sometime between 1410 and 1420, he died in September 1429, six months before the Turkish army led by Murad II conquered the city. We are concerned here with his mystagogical commentary on the Sacred Temple and particularly with what he had to say about the screen which separated the sanctuary from the nave:

The chancel signifies the distinction between the sensible and the intelligible; it is, as it were, a firm barrier between material and spiritual things. Being in sight of the altar, that is of Christ, its columns are those of the Church itself, signifying those who strengthen us by their witness to Christ. Above the chancel the columns are joined by an unbroken decorated architrave signifying the bond of charity, which is the communion in Christ between earthly saints and heavenly beings. This is why a picture of the Saviour is placed here in the middle of the sacred images. His Mother and the Baptist are on either side of him with angels and archangels, the apostles and the rest of the saints. This signifies Christ in heaven with his saints, Christ as he is with us now and Christ who will come again.

In the West we are accustomed to call this screen which is such a distinctive feature of churches of the Byzantine rite an iconostasis. Bishop Symeon would hardly have understood the word in this sense. Its significance for him can be realized by reading a passage in an imperial Book of Ceremonies composed in the 14th century. According to this the emperor remained in his apartments on 24 December, the Vigil of the Nativity, instead of going out as was his usual custom. Towards the end of the morning an [eikonostasion] was set up there, upon which were displayed icons of the Nativity with one or two others. There followed a ceremony of veneration. An [eikonostasion] was therefore quite literally an icon-stand upon which an icon to be venerated was displayed. We may see the equivalent today in any church of the Byzantine rite...

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