9 posts from June 2008

ReligiousResources.org is a useful site for anyone wishing to find sources for icons, and religious imagery in both Westen and Eastern Traditions, including Monastery Icons.

Another monastery carrying on the tradition of traditional icon painting and sacred art in America is St. Sabbas Monastery. St. Sabbas Orthodox Monastery located in Harper Woods, Michigan, is a men's monastery following the patristic Julian calendar. The monastery was founded in 1999 as a center for liturgical arts and iconography in conjunction with traditional monastic standards. The iconographers, woodcarvers, and mosaic artists of St. Sabbas Monastery have created artwork for church interiors around the world – from Germany to France to St. Sabbas monastery. They are also available to create artwork for you. The artisans of St. Sabbas Orthodox Monastery are able to create an icon, woodcarving, or mosaic for icon lovers at reasonable pricing for such custom artwork.

The Monastery of Christ in the Desert in Abiquiu, New Mexico, offers icons, sacred art of various types, and other gifts on their online shop in order to support their monastery. They also have a guest house for those who wish to have a religious retreat.

The Visoki Decani Monastery in Serbia is a prime example of iconography in monasteries in the Orthodox Church. Not only is the church filled with icons of exquisite beauty, it is filled with frescoes unparalleled in the orthodox world. Protected by Nato forces in the unstable Kosovo region, the church is a model for how churches and monasteries should be docorated: with icons and frescoes done in the traditional, expressive style of ancient iconography.

Bridge Building Icons has been a supplier of Sacred Icons for years. They now have note cards available from Monastery Icons in over 30 subjects. More icons from Monastery Icons can be found at the Monastery Icons Website (<a href="http://www.monasteryicons.com">monasteryicons.com</a>.

This is another example of the resurgence of the tradition of icon painting in monasteries. Not only are icons painted at Saint Gregory of Sinai Monastery in California, they are painted in a skillful, traditional, and beautiful manner. A few decades ago one would be hard pressed to find quality icons in America, but thanks to a growing number of monasteries in America and throughout the world, icons of rare beauty are increasingly available to churches and the public at reasonable prices. Not only does Saint Gregory's Monastery provide icons, they also paint frescoes in the strict (and beautifu) iconographic tradition.

Iconography is a living tradition, and in many monasteries icons are painted to support the monks. This icon studio in a monastery in Serbia is just one example of the iconographic tradition continued in the modern age