An icon corner is a dedicated space in your home for prayer, typically set up in the eastern corner of a room with icons arranged in a specific way. Orthodox Christians call it a “prayer corner” or sometimes a “beautiful corner,” and it’s where you and your family gather to pray.
Think of it as bringing the church into your home. Just like the iconostasis in church has Christ on the right and the Theotokos on the left, your home prayer corner follows the same pattern. This isn’t arbitrary. It reflects the theological reality that Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, and Mary stands at His right hand as the first among the saints.
Setting One Up
You don’t need much to start. Get an icon of Christ and place it on the right side. Get an icon of the Theotokos and place it on the left. Put a cross in the center or above them. That’s it. You can add a candle or an oil lamp, which reminds us that Christ is the Light of the World, but even that can wait if you need to start simple.
The traditional location is the eastern wall or the eastern corner of a room. We pray facing east because that’s where paradise was planted in Genesis, and it’s the direction from which Christ will return. But here’s the thing, if your house doesn’t cooperate with that, it’s fine. I know plenty of folks in Beaumont whose homes just don’t have an eastern wall that works. Pick a prominent place where you’ll actually pray. A corner that faces the kitchen sink where you’ll see it beats an eastern wall you never use.
Some people get hung up on whether they need a shelf or a table, what kind of cloth to use, whether the icons should be mounted or standing. Start with what you have. A small shelf works. So does a corner of your dresser. The point is to pray, not to achieve some Pinterest-perfect setup before you begin.
Adding More Icons
Once you have Christ, the Theotokos, and a cross, you can add other icons as they become meaningful to you. Your patron saint makes sense. So does the patron of your parish, for us, that’s St. Michael the Archangel. Maybe you have a special devotion to St. Nicholas or St. Mary of Egypt or St. John the Baptist. Add those icons below or around the central ones, but never higher than Christ and the Theotokos.
People also rotate icons for feast days. During Nativity, you might add the icon of Christ’s birth. During Pascha, the Resurrection icon takes a prominent spot. This connects your home prayer to the liturgical life of the church.
You might include other items too. A vigil lamp or candles. Your prayer book. A censer for incense on Sundays. Holy water from Theophany. Pussy willows from Palm Sunday. These aren’t required, but they help make the space feel set apart.
Why It Matters
The icon corner makes prayer concrete. When you’re tired after a twelve-hour shift at the refinery, it helps to have a place to stand and a face to look at. You’re not praying to the icons themselves, that’d be idolatry. You’re praying to Christ, to His mother, to the saints. But the icons help. They’re windows. They remind you that the saints are alive, that they’re praying with you, that you’re not alone in your living room but surrounded by the whole communion of saints.
This practice goes back centuries in Orthodox homes. It’s how families have prayed through wars, famines, persecutions, and ordinary Tuesday evenings. The icon corner says that this home belongs to Christ, that we’re serious about our faith, that prayer isn’t just something we do at church on Sunday.
And it’s for the whole family. Kids grow up seeing mom and dad pray before these icons. They learn to cross themselves, to light a candle, to ask St. Nicholas for help with something. It forms them in ways that lectures never could.
If you’re just starting out as an inquirer or a catechumen, don’t wait until you’re chrismated to set up an icon corner. Get a couple icons and start praying. You’ll fumble through it at first. That’s fine. So does everyone. But you’ll find that having that space, that visual reminder, changes how you pray at home. It makes your house feel different. Quieter, maybe. More purposeful.
Talk to Fr. Michael if you want specific guidance for your situation. He can help you figure out what works for your space and your family. But don’t overthink it. Get the icons, find a corner, and start praying.
