Icons-where can I purchase good ones?

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dominicsavio

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Where can I find good, traditional icons available for purchase in the states? My brother has a strong devotion to St. John (the Beloved Disciple) and was recently told by a priest-friend of ours to pitch the icon he had of him in his prayer corner.

The reason he was told to get rid of it was the icon was from a company called Monastery Icons and according to our friend (the priest) he definitely should not buy or have icons from them in his home. I don’t know all the details or if its even true, but I know that some Russian Orthodox have come out strongly against that group and our friend is a latin-rite priest and he was aware there was something fishy there.

Long story short…we did get rid of the icon but I would really love to find him a good icon of St. John as a gift for his prayer corner. Where can I find good, trustworthy, properly written icons for sale?

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
I can’t help with where to find a replacement, but out of curiosity I googled the company and came up with this site which details a history of the founders of the company. If what this web site says is correct then I can understand your priest friend being concerned.

orthodoxinfo.com/general/monasteryicons.aspx

I also found this thread from right here on CAF which details the same problem you have and some member’s recommendations:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=201729
 
You can commission an original icon or buy a print of an icon here:

sacredimageicons.artspan.com/

(Before posting, I scrolled through her gallery and it seems that she doesn’t have one for St. John. But I decided to go ahead and post her link anyway because someone else may be interested in the icon prints she already has. You could commission an original icon of St. John, but that is a bit expensive.)
 
Thank you all for your responses. I appreciate all the links to the info regarding that group, and also for the websites of places to purchase real icons from!

Zekariya,
You’ve got quite the prayer corner there! Very impressive! I can’t wait to browse those websites 1.) to get St. John back in my brothers prayer corner and 2.) to stock up on some for me! I now know how far behind I am…Haha!
 
I’d like to add Legacy Icons to the list of recommendations: legacyicons.com/products/saint-john-the-theologian-in-silence-icon

I just recently bought a print of the Mother of Perpetual Help from Legacy Icons. It is very high quality 🙂

I can also second the recommendations of St. Isaac of Syria Skete. I have several of their icons.

My condolences over the Monastery Icons issue…unfortunately, their stuff is ubiquitous. This page should give you the pertinent info regarding the shady dealings of monastery icons: catholicinformation.aquinasandmore.com/2009/09/21/beware-of-monastery-icons/
 
dominicsavio said:
Zekariya,
You’ve got quite the prayer corner there! Very impressive! I can’t wait to browse those websites 1.) to get St. John back in my brothers prayer corner and 2.) to stock up on some for me! I now know how far behind I am…Haha!
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Thanks. There is no such thing as being behind in building an Icon corner. 😉 Most Icon corners have something between two to eight Icons. Since I am disabled, I spend most of the day in my room. I have been collecting Icons to make my room look like a pseudo-chapel for me to pray. 🙂
 
dominicsavio said:
Where can I find good, traditional icons available for purchase in the states? My brother has a strong devotion to St. John (the Beloved Disciple) and was recently told by a priest-friend of ours to pitch the icon he had of him in his prayer corner.

The reason he was told to get rid of it was the icon was from a company called Monastery Icons and according to our friend (the priest) he definitely should not buy or have icons from them in his home. I don’t know all the details or if its even true, but I know that some Russian Orthodox have come out strongly against that group and our friend is a latin-rite priest and he was aware there was something fishy there.

Long story short…we did get rid of the icon but I would really love to find him a good icon of St. John as a gift for his prayer corner. Where can I find good, trustworthy, properly written icons for sale?

Thanks in advance for any help!
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I would just like to say that in my opinion, it wasn’t necessary to “get rid of” the icons that had already been purchased and (presumably) blessed - just not to buy from there in the future. But once the icon has been blessed, I can’t see why it wouldn’t be perfectly OK to continue using it to pray with. :confused:
 
theistgal said:
I would just like to say that in my opinion, it wasn’t necessary to “get rid of” the icons that had already been purchased and (presumably) blessed - just not to buy from there in the future. But once the icon has been blessed, I can’t see why it wouldn’t be perfectly OK to continue using it to pray with. :confused:
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👍
 
Wait…Google says Monastery Icons is a front for a Hindu group??? :eek:

I bought a few things from them…
 
EIF5A said:
Wait…Google says Monastery Icons is a front for a Hindu group??? :eek:

I bought a few things from them…
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Monastery Icons is an evil, unChristian company that misrepresents themselves as being Christian. Many Orthodox sources have found this to be true. Have your Icons blessed and discontinue purchasing from them. 🙂
 
theistgal said:
I would just like to say that in my opinion, it wasn’t necessary to “get rid of” the icons that had already been purchased and (presumably) blessed - just not to buy from there in the future. But once the icon has been blessed, I can’t see why it wouldn’t be perfectly OK to continue using it to pray with. :confused:
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It may be your opinion, but it wasn’t opinion that told them to get rid of it. It was a holy priest who directed them to do so (and I agree with him). If I were him, I’d rather pay attention to my spiritual director. 🙂

Anyway, we should be vigilant to ensure that we get our religious items from reputable sources of true Christian heritage. You can never go wrong with credible, canonical monasteries. When in doubt, Google is your best friend (even though they support homosexual marriage). 😃
 
theistgal said:
I would just like to say that in my opinion, it wasn’t necessary to “get rid of” the icons that had already been purchased and (presumably) blessed - just not to buy from there in the future. But once the icon has been blessed, I can’t see why it wouldn’t be perfectly OK to continue using it to pray with. :confused:
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Yeah. I can definitely understand that. Honestly, I kinda felt the same way…at first. Whether he was right or wrong, that was the advice given by the priest and my brother decided to follow it. Our friend (the priest), upon seeing the icon noticed it was from monastery icons and was telling my brother that he had heard some terrible things about them. To be sure, he called up another priest friend of his who is an exorcist. It was the exorcist who told them to get it out of his home and dispose of it. So that’s what they did.

It may have been perfectly OK to pray with, as it had been blessed after he purchased it. However, I think just knowing that it could have been offered to Hindu gods or things of that nature…I can understand them not wanting it around either. Its an interesting question though to be sure…kind of like the Apostles in the early Church asking whether or not they could eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols.

I am really excited about the links you guys have shared with me. Its nice to know we will be able to support good companies with our future purchases.
 
Zekariya said:
Thanks. There is no such thing as being behind in building an Icon corner. 😉 Most Icon corners have something between two to eight Icons. Since I am disabled, I spend most of the day in my room. I have been collecting Icons to make my room look like a pseudo-chapel for me to pray. 🙂
Click to expand...
Good point! Maybe its not that I am behind…I am just beginning 👍 And you are really doing a good job on making your room into a pseudo-chapel! That is an impressive collectiton! Do you have a personal favorite out of those?
Jeffgo said:
I’d like to add Legacy Icons to the list of recommendations: legacyicons.com/products/saint-john-the-theologian-in-silence-icon

I just recently bought a print of the Mother of Perpetual Help from Legacy Icons. It is very high quality 🙂

I can also second the recommendations of St. Isaac of Syria Skete. I have several of their icons.

My condolences over the Monastery Icons issue…unfortunately, their stuff is ubiquitous. This page should give you the pertinent info regarding the shady dealings of monastery icons: catholicinformation.aquinasandmore.com/2009/09/21/beware-of-monastery-icons/
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Thank you for providing those links as well. Those Legacy Icons look really good!
 
dominicsavio said:
Where can I find good, trustworthy, properly written icons for sale?
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Many if not most Orthodox and/or Eastern Catholic Churches have a “book store” where we see holy icons, incense, books, CDs, chotki, etc… Typically they’re “open” right after Liturgy.
 
How does one dispose of an icon from Monastery Icons?

I mean, it’s still a symbolic representation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and baby Jesus…

Heck, they send me catalogs and I’m not sure how to get rid of them because the catalog had images of Jesus.
 
EIF5A said:
How does one dispose of an icon from Monastery Icons?

I mean, it’s still a symbolic representation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and baby Jesus…

Heck, they send me catalogs and I’m not sure how to get rid of them because the catalog had images of Jesus.
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If it has been blessed, I would dispose of it like any other sacramental. You may throw out catalogs and pamphlets that depict Icons because they are are not intended for veneration and many disposable papers are decorated with holy images or Icons and we are not expected to save every one. 🙂
 
Zekariya said:
If it has been blessed, I would dispose of it like any other sacramental. You may throw out catalogs and pamphlets that depict Icons because they are are not intended for veneration and many disposable papers are decorated with holy images or Icons and we are not expected to save every one. 🙂
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forgive me, i’ve never had a sacramental anything in the catholic church before. is there a way to dispose correctly?
 
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