Is it okay for Catholics to venerate Orthodox icons?

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you are best off buying icons from monasteries. Avoid “monastery icons”, a pseudo-Christian company. They are evil.
 
lorenzoruiz said:
Thank you for your replies!
I have been hearing the name of St. John Maximovich in orthodox websites and in this thread. Makes me curious who he is.

I saw a website of an “icon maker” (is the term correct?) who makes icons of Catholic saints like St.Pius Xth, St. Martin de Porres. I wish that an icon of our First Filipino Saint St. Lorenzo Ruiz can have an icon too. 🙂
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St John Maximovich was an ethnic Ukrainian from Poltava and a direct descendant of the Ukrainian Saint John Maximovich who lived in the 18th century and was Metropollitan of Tobolsk (capital of Siberia then) and who translated the Divine Liturgy into Chinese.

John Maximovich received his illustrious ancestor’s name and decided to go into the Church to carry on his tradition. He became the Orthodox Archbishop of Shanghai where he built two churches and celebrated the Liturgy in Chinese according to the transation of his ancestor. St John of Shanghai refused to return to Russia with Stalin in charge and went to the Phillipines where he established an orphanage. When the Japanese invaded, he took his orphans to California. He was at various times a professor of theology in Serbia and elsewhere, he established the French Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Church of the Netherlands and ordained the first Spanish Orthodox priest. He restored many Western pre-schism Saints to the Orthodox calendar and promoted the study and celebration of the Western Rites.

He is called the “Apostle of the Diaspora” and was a great ascetic, sleeping for 40 years either lying on the floor or in a chair. He sometimes carried a very large icon of Our Lady slung over his shoulders and walked barefoot. French RC priests called him “Saint Jean nus pieds” or “St John the bare-foot” and extolled him as a modern-day saint.

When he died, he was interred in the basement of the Cathedral of Our Lady, Joy of all who Sorrow on Geary Blvd in San Francisco. Many miracles of healing occurred at his tomb (I know UGCC priests who visited his tomb to pray there). He was glorified a Saint by the Russian Church outside Russia in 1993 (I could be wrong). When the Church outside Russia was reunited with Moscow, St John Maximovich became a univeral Orthodox Saint. I’ve heard of at least one Anglican parish that wanted to name itself after him.

Alex
 
At times some people are rather wary about using the verb ‘to paint’ when referring to an icon, choosing instead to refer to ‘writing’ icons. But this is ultimately a hyper-literalism: the use of the expression ‘to write an icon’ is a calque from Greek and Slavonic, where unlike in English there is only one word for verbs like ‘to draw’, ‘to paint’, or ‘to write’: grapho and pisat’, respectively.
 
At times some people are rather wary about using the verb ‘to paint’ when referring to an icon, choosing instead to refer to ‘writing’ icons, at times foisting a lot of theological meaning into it. But this is ultimately a hyper-literalism: the use of the expression ‘to write an icon’ is a calque from both Greek and Russian, where unlike in English there is only one word for verbs like ‘to draw’, ‘to paint’, or ‘to write’: grapho (which originally meant ‘to scratch’!) and pisat’, respectively.
 
Alexander_Roman said:
When he died, he was interred in the basement of the Cathedral of Our Lady, Joy of all who Sorrow on Geary Blvd in San Francisco. Many miracles of healing occurred at his tomb (I know UGCC priests who visited his tomb to pray there).
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His relics are now in the Cathedral.

We were there on a recent Friday afternoon when the school children came to do their prayers at his tomb, photo attached. After we left there we went to St. Tikhon’s where St. John lived with his orphans and we were blest to sit in the chair you mention he often slept in.

More about St John here

The Re-Vesting of the Relics of St. John of Shanghai & San Francisco took place in October 2011.
 
St John of Shanghai refused to return to Russia with Stalin in charge and went to the Phillipines where he established an orphanage. said:
Wow so he actually “set foot” on our country. That’s very interesting. We only have two “native” saints. Its good to know that a lot of saints had walked our country.
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St John of Shanghai refused to return to Russia with Stalin in charge and went to the Phillipines where he established an orphanage. said:
Wow so he actually “set foot” on our country. That’s very interesting. We only have two “native” saints. Its good to know that a lot of saints had walked our country.
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Paul_theApostle said:
If we kiss/venerate or pray to Orthodox icons or say even bless ourselves with Orthodox Holy water ,will it take an effect into our lives/spirituality and perhaps draw us into further contact or ‘light’ communion with the ‘eastern Orthodox’

for e.g ,if i use EO holy water or pray to a greek EO icon will i start to bump into more Greeks or Russians at the marketplace or come across more ‘eastern influence’ in my life?

Or if i buy and pray to a 20th century Russian Othodox saint,will i maybe then happen to meet one of the saints great grandchildren etc

if someone doesnt mind all this then good for them ,but if i dont want to rub shoulders with a great grandchild of St Nektarios or any of his spiritual children then i wouldnt get his icon and pray to him…

If the RC is not in official communion with EO vise versa then is it proper to unite or be in communion on a lesser level with eachothers sacramentals?
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Perhaps you could explain yourself a little more . Do we not need all the help we can get ?

You seem to be regarding sacramentals as sort of lucky charms - they are not
 
lorenzoruiz said:
Wow so he actually “set foot” on our country. That’s very interesting. We only have two “native” saints. Its good to know that a lot of saints had walked our country.
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St. John was not born in America. He did live here for a number of years. He was responsible for the completion of the Holy Virgin Cathedral at a time when completion seemed nearly impossible.

On the Sunday we commemorate the Saints of North America our priest did remind us that we have a saint just a few blocks from us, St John, and encouraged us to all venerate his relics there at the sobor.
 
The_Idiot said:
Perhaps you could explain yourself a little more . Do we not need all the help we can get ?

You seem to be regarding sacramentals as sort of lucky charms - they are not
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Dont worry about what i said…its just my experience of leaving EO for RC and not hanging onto anything like EO prayer ropes or icons or incense ,Holy water and all that anymore

people are different…if you broke up with your ex girlfriend and were rulpulsed by her you wouldnt likely keep a ring she gave you or photos or gifts,maybe you would get rid of them completley…others may keep them

Obviously we dont use the sacraments of other churches we are not in communion with ,why use sacramentals then?

One time years ago i went to my Orthodox church,and i brought with me two plastic Catholic statues of Christ and Mary as i didnt want them anymore,the Priests daughter said give them to me and we will burn them…
thats what they think of Catholic sacramentals…

i popped into an Orthodox church i used to go to a few weeks ago to light a candle
after i drove out i went past straight away my old greek baptism sponsers,which i never hardly see or avoid

The ‘people’ of the Church ‘make up’ the church ,and the people also make and pray over icons ,Holy water ,and sacramentals,

so i gather if we come into communion with sacramentals ,then we may then come into communion with the church and people who made them

The eastern Catholics here always say the spirituality of their church is eastern and different to Latin spirituality,so if you would join their church you would then live a life in communion with other eastern Christians with the same spirituality and have more in common with them…

If you bless yourself with Water or pray ,you cant expect Jesus or Mary themselves to come from heaven and visit and teach you the ways of salvation,the church and people of the church are their for us to rub shoulders with and learn Christian charity ,love and practice virtue,

so whichever Church and people we want to rub shoulders with is up to us

Peace
 
You really are like Paul the Apostle sir!

Well said.

Alex
 
This is entirely the point - the quality of religious art. I’ve seen statues that have inspired me as much as many icons.

Alex
 
tomarin said:
That certainly describes me to a tee.
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Me too!
My awesome Pope St Gregory the Great icon is made by Greek EO!
I really appreciate the style of the monks of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in MA!
“Come and See Icons”, based out of PA, also are wonderful!
 
Paul_theApostle said:
Dont worry about what i said…its just my experience of leaving EO for RC and not hanging onto anything like EO prayer ropes or icons or incense ,Holy water and all that anymore

people are different…if you broke up with your ex girlfriend and were rulpulsed by her you wouldnt likely keep a ring she gave you or photos or gifts,maybe you would get rid of them completley…others may keep them

Obviously we dont use the sacraments of other churches we are not in communion with ,why use sacramentals then?

One time years ago i went to my Orthodox church,and i brought with me two plastic Catholic statues of Christ and Mary as i didnt want them anymore,the Priests daughter said give them to me and we will burn them…
thats what they think of Catholic sacramentals…

i popped into an Orthodox church i used to go to a few weeks ago to light a candle
after i drove out i went past straight away my old greek baptism sponsers,which i never hardly see or avoid

The ‘people’ of the Church ‘make up’ the church ,and the people also make and pray over icons ,Holy water ,and sacramentals,

so i gather if we come into communion with sacramentals ,then we may then come into communion with the church and people who made them

The eastern Catholics here always say the spirituality of their church is eastern and different to Latin spirituality,so if you would join their church you would then live a life in communion with other eastern Christians with the same spirituality and have more in common with them…

If you bless yourself with Water or pray ,you cant expect Jesus or Mary themselves to come from heaven and visit and teach you the ways of salvation,the church and people of the church are their for us to rub shoulders with and learn Christian charity ,love and practice virtue,

so whichever Church and people we want to rub shoulders with is up to us

Peace
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Having read your post over again and considered it more closely, I must say I am very sorry about your experiences, whatever they were, that led you to leave the EO for the RC (and not the EC).

I can appreciate not wanting to hang onto prayer ropes and the like that remind you of the EO and those experiences - but all the sacramentals you mentioned were and are part of the sacramentals of the Latin Church. The most popular form of the rosary still is the knotted cord and people in the West used to wrap them around their wrists just as the Orthodox do so today.

As for the attitudes of some Orthodox - they are hardly universal. I have met many Orthodox priests who keep statues in their offices. The Greeks and Russians can have an aversion to anything Latin, to be sure. But so too can Eastern Catholics and sometimes even more and for various historical reasons.

I have received and keep sacramentals from various Churches not in communion with one another. I would hope that the walls of separation that we ourselves have built (and “in the Name of God”) do not reach as high as heaven.

Again, I’m sorry for your experience of this.

Alex
 
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