www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Icon Questions: Anointing & Cleaning

I received the following question on icons at the website:

1) I recently read a reference to the practice of anointing icons. I am not familiar with this practice and would like more information. What prayers does one say when anointing icons? Where do you get the oil for anointing icons? When do you anoint icons?

2) And I also read that one should use rosewater when cleaning icons. I usually just dust my icons and have never used rosewater. Can you comment on using rosewater to clean icons.

--

I have never heard of individuals anointing icons but have heard of icons being anointed by the priest as part of the blessing (although the more ancient tradition of blessing is simply through veneration of the icon itself).

I have also never heard of cleaning with rosewater.

Can anyone provide some input on this? Are there similar customs that the person asking the question might be thinking of?

Thanks!
Admin

I am no expert, but I'd think what you clean your icons with should depend on the icon.

A modern, laminated icon print can safely be cleaned with 409 or Windex - and may need to be. Rosewater doesn't remove lipstick. (May not be an issue at your house, LOL, but it sure is at church!)

A handmade icon - I wouldn't use ANYTHING on it unless I knew what it was made of, and what would likely do no harm to the medium.

I think you're safest continuing to gently dust.

My un-mystical $.02

Sharon

Sharon Mech, SFO
Cantor & sinner
sharon@cmhc.com

Dear Friends:

I have heard that in the old villages the Babas would anoint the icons with oil [bacon fat] for the holidays so that they would glisten in the lights.

If that were the case, then a little rosewater would certainly help.


defreitas

Dear Admin;

In 1993 I visited Glorious Ascension Monastery in Resaca, Georgia. I had a new icon of St. Elizabeth the Grand Duchess and asked to have it blessed. In the process, the Abbot anointed it with tears of their myrrh streaming icon of the Theotokos, "She who is Quick to Hear".

Later, I took another icon of the Theotokos "Abbess of Mount Athos" to Cicero IL when two monk friends took me to venerate the weeping Icon there. My one monk friend took both of them behind the iconostasis in Cicero and touched both icons to the back of the miraculous icon and also anointed them with tears from the Cicero icon. (He used a q-tip just like one would anoint a person).

The anointing is done in the sign of the Cross across the entire icon, (maybe because mine were smaller icons,) using an anointing brush, q-tip, or whatever us being used for anointing people.

Then later, when visiting Resaca again, the Abbot of the monastery anointed the second icon for me, with oil from a monastery on the Holy Mountain.

I am unaware of any special prayers, but since I was not with the priests when they did this for me, I can't be sure.

As for cleaning them, I am of the habit of not washing icons at all. I do dust them when they need it, and I must admit, that the two anointed icons are pretty soiled since dust and dirt stick to the oil of unction on them. I have been tempted to wash them, but I really do not want to disrupt the trail of oil from the anointing.

Then, in the mid '90's there was a myrrh streaming crucifix in LaPorte Indiana. I took a speical crucifix along when I visited there, and even though it was a Roman looking "mission Crucifix" which belonged to my grandfather, the priest happily anointed it for me.

Hope this information is helpful

With Best Wishes-
Stefan-Ivan

Thanks for the very interesting responses.

I probably should have mentioned that this person is a researcher and looking for information on these customs rather than how to clean icons.

The Greeks--and Albanian Greeks-- certainly use rosewater when they clean their icons, both in the home and in the katholikon.

I have helped my relatives clean the icons--with rosewood-- in their Greek church, and it was always before Pascha.

Peace,

Abdur

Dear Administrator,

Just got back from a "moving" experience at home . . .

Rosewater and anointing oil are often used to prepare icons for feast days, as well as to clean them.

The Slavic rule is that pure, running water be used for purposes of cleaning icons.

The water is never discarded following cleaning, but is then returned to the river.

The icon of Akhtyrka is a case in point. Found by an Orthodox priest in the grass as he was cutting it, the priest's daughter washed it with running water.

As she was going to return the water to the river, as the water was now considered holy, an elderly woman met her and told her not to throw that water back but to distribute it to the sick who would receive cures.

To this day, the icon of Akhtyrka is dunked three times in water and this water is then distributed to the faithful as holy water - feastday: July 15.

Anointing oil is often used to give icons a nice scent.

The Greek priests bless their "Aghia" or icons through anointing with Holy Oil and the icons are kept in Church for 40 days before being taken home.

The Slavic tradition is often to keep a holy object on the Tetrapod for the duration of one day to have the entire Horologion and Divine Liturgy said over it, but Holy Water only is used in the blessing, according to the Trebnyk of St Peter Mohyla.

Right now, I feel as if I could use to be anointed . . .

Alex

[ 05-29-2002: Message edited by: Orthodox Catholic ]

I have not seen it in any of the books, but someone once asked me if I used the holy miron (chrism) to anoint icons! I do not know of this custom, but the fact that I was asked the questions suggests that it must have happened somewhere sometime?

Elias

Bless me a sinner, Venerable Father in Carmel!

Yes, it is the standard Greek practice.

Alex