You can buy Orthodox icons from church-affiliated stores like Ancient Faith, reputable Orthodox vendors like Legacy Icons, monastery bookstores, and trained iconographers who take commissions. The short answer is simple. The longer answer matters because not every religious image you’ll find online is actually an Orthodox icon.
What Makes an Icon Orthodox?
Before you click “add to cart,” you need to know what you’re looking for. An Orthodox icon isn’t just a pretty picture of Jesus or a saint. It follows specific prototypes, traditional compositions that the Church has used for centuries. These aren’t arbitrary rules. The way Christ holds His hand, the colors in the Theotokos’s robes, the inscriptions in Greek or Church Slavonic, all of this teaches theology. When St. Luke painted the first icon of the Virgin Mary (or so the tradition goes), he wasn’t making art for art’s sake. He was creating a window into heaven.
So when you’re shopping, you want icons that follow these prototypes. Most reputable Orthodox vendors will tell you the feast or saint depicted and whether the icon is a reproduction of a specific ancient original. That’s a good sign. What you don’t want are novelty images, someone’s creative reimagining of St. Michael as a warrior angel with six-pack abs, or a “Jesus and me” style painting that looks like it belongs in a Protestant bookstore. Those might be fine as religious art, but they’re not icons in the Orthodox sense.
Where to Start
Ancient Faith Store is probably your easiest starting point. They’re affiliated with Ancient Faith Ministries (the folks who produce most of the Orthodox podcasts you’ve been listening to), and their icon section carries everything from small paper prints to larger mounted reproductions. They’re careful about what they sell. You won’t find anything weird or theologically questionable.
Legacy Icons is another solid choice, and they were actually founded by Orthodox Christians in the Antiochian Archdiocese. They specialize in high-quality reproductions with a no-fade guarantee, which matters if you’re in Southeast Texas where the humidity can do a number on anything you hang on your wall. They also carry incense and other devotional items, so you can stock your prayer corner in one order.
If you want something more specialized, look for monastery bookstores. Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York, has an icon studio that produces hand-painted icons. Lots of other monasteries sell icons too, either made on-site or carefully selected from other Orthodox sources. When you buy from a monastery, you know the money is supporting their work and that someone prayed over what they’re selling you.
Commissioning vs. Ready-Made
Ready-made icons work fine for most people. You need an icon of Christ for your prayer corner? Buy a print or a small wooden panel. It doesn’t need to be fancy. The Theotokos hears your prayers just as well whether she’s looking at you from a $20 laminated print or a $2,000 hand-painted icon on gessoed wood.
But sometimes you want to commission something specific. Maybe your patron saint isn’t common and you can’t find a good icon of him. Maybe you want a family icon with multiple saints. Maybe you just want the experience of working with an iconographer and watching the image emerge over months of correspondence and prayer. Commissions cost more, often hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on size and materials, and they take time. Egg tempera and gold leaf can’t be rushed. But if you go this route, ask your priest for recommendations. He’ll know iconographers who work in the canonical tradition and who won’t give you something that looks like a medieval painting or a modern abstract.
When you commission, you’ll discuss the prototype, the inscriptions (English? Greek? Slavonic?), the size, and whether you want it mounted on wood or canvas. Your priest should bless the icon before you install it in your home or give it as a gift. That blessing matters. It’s not magic, but it’s the Church’s way of setting the icon apart for holy use.
What to Avoid
Be careful on Etsy and Amazon. Yes, you’ll find Orthodox icons there, but you’ll also find a lot of things that aren’t quite right. Someone selling “Byzantine-style” art might just mean they like gold backgrounds. Check the seller’s credentials. Are they Orthodox? Do they work from traditional prototypes? Can they tell you which feast or saint they’re depicting and why they composed it that way?
Avoid anything that mixes Protestant devotional themes with Orthodox imagery. I’ve seen “icons” that look suspiciously like Thomas Kinkade paintings with halos added. That’s not what we’re after. Also watch out for images that present non-saints as saints or that seriously distort traditional forms. If it looks weird to you, it probably is.
And honestly? If you’re not sure, ask. Bring the image to your priest or email him a link. He’s seen enough icons to know what’s appropriate and what’s not. Nobody’s going to judge you for asking. We’d rather you ask than end up with something that doesn’t belong in an Orthodox home.
A Few More Options
Orthodox Christian Supply and Uncut Mountain Supply both carry a wide range of icons in different sizes and price points. Some parishes keep their own bookstores with icons for sale. St. Michael’s might have a few on hand, worth asking. If you’re ever traveling through a city with a larger Orthodox presence, stop by their cathedral bookstore. You’ll find things you won’t see online.
The main thing is to buy from people who know what they’re doing and who care about the tradition. Your icon isn’t just decoration. It’s part of your prayer life, part of how you encounter the saints and Christ Himself. So take your time, do a little research, and don’t be afraid to spend a bit more for something that’s going to last. Your great-grandchildren might pray in front of the same icon someday. That’s worth getting right.
