We kiss icons to show love and honor to the person depicted. It’s not worship of wood and paint. The kiss goes through the image to Christ or the saint represented there.
Think about it this way. You probably have photos of your family in your wallet or on your phone. If someone insulted a picture of your mother, you’d be offended. Not because you think the photograph is your mother, but because it represents her. The honor or dishonor shown to the image relates directly to the person. That’s the basic logic the Church uses with icons, though at a much deeper level.
The Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787 settled this question after decades of controversy. The bishops taught that “the honor shown to the image passes to the prototype.” Prototype just means the original person depicted. So when you kiss an icon of Christ, you’re expressing love for Christ himself. When you kiss an icon of St. Mary of Egypt or St. Nicholas, you’re honoring that saint and asking their prayers.
Because God Became Visible
Here’s where it gets interesting. The whole practice rests on the Incarnation.
Before Christ, no one had seen God. The Father is invisible and can’t be depicted. But when the Son of God took flesh from the Virgin Mary, he became visible. He had a face. People saw him, touched him, ate with him. St. John writes about this directly: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life.” God entered the material world, and that changes everything about how we relate to matter.
If Christ can be seen, he can be depicted. And if he can be depicted, that image can be honored. We’re not Platonists who think matter is evil and only the spiritual realm matters. We believe God became flesh and redeemed the material world. Icons are part of that redeemed materiality.
Not Worship
People from Baptist or non-denominational backgrounds often worry this is idolatry. I get it. The Second Commandment is serious business. But there’s a distinction the Church has always made between worship and veneration.
Worship belongs to God alone. We don’t pray the Eucharistic prayers to icons. We don’t baptize in the name of an icon. The Divine Liturgy is offered to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. That’s worship, and it’s never directed toward a created thing.
Veneration is different. It means honor, respect, love shown to someone or something holy. We venerate the Gospel book by kissing it. We venerate the cross. We venerate the saints by asking their prayers. And we venerate icons as representations of holy persons. The kiss is a physical expression of that honor, a way of letting your body participate in what your heart feels.
When you walk into St. Michael’s and see someone kiss the icon of Christ on the iconostasis, they’re not confused about what they’re doing. They know it’s paint and wood. But they also know it’s a window to heaven, a meeting place where the visible and invisible worlds touch.
What the Kiss Means
A kiss is intimate. It’s personal. You don’t kiss strangers or people you’re indifferent to.
When you kiss an icon, you’re expressing affection and reverence. You’re saying, in a physical way, “I love you. I honor you. I want to be close to you.” It’s an embodied prayer. We’re not disembodied souls. We’re human beings with bodies, and our bodies participate in our prayer life. We make the sign of the cross. We bow. We stand, we kneel, we prostrate. Kissing an icon is part of that same physical vocabulary of worship.
It’s also a request for blessing. When you kiss the icon of a saint, you’re often silently asking for their intercession. “St. Nicholas, pray for me.” “Theotokos, help me.” The kiss accompanies that request, making it tangible.
How It Works in Practice
If you visit an Orthodox church, you’ll see people kiss icons when they enter. They’ll approach the icon, make the sign of the cross, kiss it (usually on the hand or foot of the person depicted, or sometimes on the border), cross themselves again, and step back. Some will light a candle. It’s not complicated, but it’s reverent.
At home, Orthodox families keep an icon corner. Morning and evening prayers happen there. You might kiss the icons before you pray or after. It’s natural, like kissing your spouse goodnight. You’re acknowledging a relationship.
During services, the priest will cense the icons, and sometimes icons are brought out in procession for everyone to venerate. On feast days, a special icon sits in the middle of the church, and people line up to kiss it after receiving Communion. It’s communal and personal at the same time.
The practice connects you to centuries of Christians who’ve done the same thing. Your grandmother in Lebanon kissed icons. The monks on Mount Athos kiss icons. The martyrs in the catacombs had images of Christ and the saints on the walls around them. You’re part of that same family when you press your lips to the image of the Theotokos.
Don’t overthink it when you first start. Watch what others do. Ask questions. The first time might feel strange if you grew up thinking any religious image was suspect. That’s okay. Give it time. You’re learning a new language of prayer, and like any language, it becomes natural with practice.
