Ad Imaginem Dei: New Martyrs

Sunday, February 22, 2015

New Martyrs

Tony Rezk, 21 Coptic Martyrs of Libya
American, 2015
Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California
and Hawaii

As the world is now aware, twenty-one men from Egypt were beheaded by ISIS in Libya last week simply for being Coptic Christians. Many of them are reported to have died confessing their faith verbally.

Their deaths certainly meet the classic definition of martyrdom for the faith. And, the Coptic church has announced that they will henceforth be commemorated as martyrs, with a feast day on February 15th each year. A new icon has been drawn by the artist Tony Rezk for the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles , Southern California and Hawaii. The icon shows them lined up, kneeling on a beach, with the ocean behind them. The setting , and the orange shaded robes they wear, reflect the actual scene of their deaths -- kneeling, with their backs to the Mediterranean and wearing orange overalls. The red sashes crossed over their torsos reflect their blood, shed for Christ, while the halos reflect their new status and angels prepare to shower them with the crown of martyrdom.

With their deaths and with the recent Vatican decision to recognize Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador as a martyr we can see that martyrdom is not something from the past. It can occur at any time and in any place today. May the Martyrs of Libya pray for us and for their suffering brothers and sisters.

© M. Duffy, 2015

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Uniquely among the monotheistic religions Christianity permits the use of images of God. Why? The answer lies in the Christian belief in the reality of the Incarnation. Since God has assumed human nature and form the Biblical prohibition against making images of God ceases to apply. As the second Council of Nicea declared in 787 "Following the divinely inspired teaching of our holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church (for we know that this tradition comes from the Holy Spirit who dwells in her) we rightly define with full certainty and correctness that, like the figure of the precious and life-giving cross, venerable and holy images of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, our inviolate Lady, the holy Mother of God, and the venerated angels, all the saints and the just, whether painted or made of mosaic or another suitable material, are to be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, walls and panels, in houses and on streets."
(Council of Nicaea II: DS 600)

This decree of Nicea II was promulgated for the entire church, both Greek and Latin speaking, and was a response to the strongly held beliefs of the iconoclasts, who wished to suppress the use of images, which had convulsed the Byzantine Empire and the eastern churches for almost 100 years. In addition, St. John Damascene, last of the Greek Fathers and a staunch defender of images, had written in De imagine ("In Defense of Images") "Of old, God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was never depicted. Now, however, when God is seen clothed in flesh, and conversing with men, (Bar. 3.38) I make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake, and deigned to inhabit matter, who worked out my salvation through matter." (St. John Damascene, De Imagine, Part I, 15-16, from Internet Medieival Sourcebook.)

The ways in which this imaging of the divine has been accomplished in the course of time is the subject of Christian iconography. To quote from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, iconography is "1: pictorial material relating to or illustrating a subject; 2: the traditional or conventional images or symbols associated with a subject and especially a religious or legendary subject; 3: the imagery or symbolism of a work of art, an artist, or a body of art".

The iconography of any subject develops and changes over time. Christian iconography develops and changes too, as reflection on the Gospels and Tradition develops over time and as the act of making art develops and changes as well. This is the background for this blog.

Ad Imaginem Dei

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Sunday, February 22, 2015

New Martyrs

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Oscar Wild 1997(?)-2014