Page 5 - Revista Paisiana Nr 13 Martie 2025

Kingdom of God and so Mary stands
as the meeting place of heaven and
earth. In the Annunciation, Virgin
Mary received Jesus Christ, body and
soul. When we receive communion,
we do the same.
Yet we should never lose
sight of the essence of the main event.
The depiction of the Annunciation is
more than a graphic representation of
As we see, the purple woven inside the womb the Gospel account. It is a great example of the syner-
represents the mystery of Christ’s conception at the gies between man and God. God will respect our free
moment of the Annunciation. will, and only our voluntary acceptance of His will can
The feast of the Annunciation commemorates yield good fruit, like the Most Holy Theotokos obeyed
the coming of the Archangel Gabriel with the good the will of God by saying, „I am the Lord’s servant.
news to the Virgin Mary and her acceptance of this May your word to me be fulfilled.”
news. The challenge for the iconographer is how to
convey this conversation in an icon.
Her slightly bowed head and her posture sug-
gest to us her humility as well as her consent and obe-
dience. Her right hand is lifted in her acceptance of
the will of God. Her left hand is clasped around needle
and thread. Tradition says that Mary at the time was
living in the temple and had been given the task of
weaving a new veil to cover the sanctuary. In many
icons of the Annunciation there is a single thread that
falls from the ball of thread and loops up and over
Mary’s right hand, extending across her body. Or in
others the thread merely dangles in front of her. This
symbolizes the conception of Christ.
Icons depict the visible and invisible worlds
and contain direct and symbolic images. Iconograp-
hers represent the conversation between Virgin Mary
and the Archangel, and also the conception of the Son
of God. At the top, many icons represent the world of
heaven, typically as a sphere. A ray of light is emana-
ting from the sphere toward the Theotokos. Some ico-
nographers also depict a dove, the most widely known
symbol of the Holy Spirit. At the top of the icon we
see a mandorla, representing the divine presence. Ex-
tending from the mandorla to Virgin Mary is a tripar-
tite ray of light, symbolizing her perpetual virginity,
before, during, and after the birth of Christ. Some
icons have a dove descending along this ray of light
to Mary, showing the Holy Spirit coming down to
overshadow Mary.
Icons of the Annunciation are often put on the
royal doors in churches, which is the main entrance to
the sanctuary, directly in front of the altar. It is in front
of these doors that the faithful receive communion.
The architecture of the sanctuary represents the
Sfântul Preot Mărturisitor Dumitru Stăniloae,
O teologie a icoanei, Editura Anastasia,
PAISIANA nr. 3 / martie / 2025 București, 2005 5