1. According to legend of which the most renowned is the so-called Edessenum the Prince of Edessa, Abgar Ukam IX who is said to have been contemporary with Jesus, suffered from an incurable disease. In a letter he begged Christ to cure him. Christ sent his portrait to the Prince. The portrait was an imprint of the Saviour's face on a cloth of linen. When Abgar looked at the portrait of Christ he was cured.

2. According to legend the evangelist of Luke made pictures of Mary, when she was living on the holy mountain of Sion. The most famous of these are Luke's pictures, the Hodegetria. Legend has it that it was initiated by Luke and completed by divine powers. These pictures amount to 600. According to Orthodox Church tradition all icon painting beginning with St Luke, starts as a fulfilment of the promise Christ made to the disciples that he would teach them everything through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (John 16:12-15). The icon functions in this way as a complement - the Word in colour, visible to all.

The words of God reach man also by way of the eyes - through all the senses and the whole liturgy is a testimony of this. We are able to behold and take part in the expressions of the divine and the religious beliefs of people since they are made present before us in this very moment through the icon. Because the icons depict events that have taken place in real life and people who have actually lived - it is required of the icon painter that he/she sticks to the original and renders the characters the features they actually had. There is really no room for artistic freedom or improvisation.

The first theological statement of the Bible is that God created the earth and everything in it and "God saw that everything was good". To administrate this world he made man - into his image. Man belongs with God and is responsible to him. Man has a calling, a mission in life to hold on to; to live his life through the power that He gives. Man is the image of God, visible and portrayable. When Christ is portrayed the depiction is not an imaginary or ideal one, fetched out of the blue without aim, but a consequence, a following, of God's own action.