An icon as a gift for a baptism, confirmation or wedding

The icon of the saint whose name the person bears. At baptism the child receives a name, and with the name a patron saint: in Italy the day is kept as the onomastico, the name day. In Orthodox homes that saint has a place in the icon corner, and the child grows up with that face in front of them.

I paint the saint of the child's name, and the child grows up with that face in front of them.

For a confirmation I propose the same saint. By then the young person has borne that name for years, and with the icon painted for them they can look their saint in the face. For a priest's ordination the rule is the same: the saint whose name he bears, who will stay with him at home and in his ministry.

It is an icon as tall as the child on the day of birth. You send me the newborn's measurements, the length and the width of the shoulders, and on a panel of that size I paint the patron saint, standing, full length.

In a few years your child will stand next to the panel and see how small they were.

The custom began at the court of Moscow in the second half of the sixteenth century. The earliest measure icons we know were painted for the sons of Tsar Ivan IV, in 1554, 1557 and 1582. For a long time only rulers had them painted, for their children. Later other families asked for them too.

The child grows and the panel stays as it was. In a few years you will look at it together, and your child will stand next to it and see how small they were. You parents keep the exact measure of those first days, and the child keeps the saint who has been beside them since then.

A pair of icons: Christ and the Mother of God. In the Orthodox tradition the parents bless the couple with these two icons, the groom with the icon of Christ and the bride with the icon of the Mother of God, and the couple go to the wedding with the same icons.

The wedding icons are the first of the new home, and they often pass to the children.

Then the couple take them home, and they are the first icons of the new family. They often pass to the children. I paint them the same size, so they hang side by side for a lifetime.

Christ the Saviour. Orthodox homes have an icon corner, usually facing east, and the icon of Christ is the one it starts from.

If your home has no icon corner yet, begin with Christ the Saviour.

If you have no icon corner, you can start here: one icon, in a place the family passes every day. In time you will add a child's saint or the wedding pair.

Yes. I put the patron saint of each person on the same panel: the father's, the mother's, the children's. They stand in a row, full length, each with the name written beside them.

On a 20×25 cm panel I put three saints, four at most.

A 20×25 cm panel holds three figures well, four at most. With more figures the faces become too small. For a large family I move to miniature painting.

I can also paint a synaxis icon: several saints together, joined by a feast or a place.

I paint any saint. For the most venerated saints the model has existed for centuries, and I follow it.

When a saint has no established model, I compose the image from the erminie.

Some saints, though, have come down to us without an established image: they are very ancient, little known, or venerated only in their own town. For them I turn to the erminie, the icon painters' manuals. The best known was written by Dionysius of Fourna, a monk of Mount Athos, around 1730. For each saint it gives the age, the shape of the beard, the vestments, what he holds. From these indications I compose the image of the saint of your town.

An icon takes about two weeks of work. I lay the colour in thin layers, and each layer has to dry before the next: that time cannot be shortened.

To have it for Christmas, order by 27 November.

Then comes shipping, about a week depending on the place. In December couriers slow down, and a parcel sent late arrives after the holidays. So I ship by 15 December, and to have the icon for Christmas, order by 27 November.

For Orthodox Christmas, on 7 January, one or two weeks more are enough. If there is another date to keep, a baptism or a wedding, tell me at once: the first reply already says whether it is possible.

First I protect the face. The icon travels in a cloth pouch sewn for it, which does not scratch the gilding or mark the paint.

First I protect the face.

In the pouch I also put the instructions for its care and the certificate of the work. Then I wrap it all in film, fill the box with paper so that the icon cannot move, and ship it.

No, and on purpose. The blessing of an icon is a moment of prayer for the person who receives it. I prefer the family to take it to church, before their own priest.

I prefer the family to take the icon to church, before their own priest.

In the Orthodox Church the priest blesses the icon with a prayer and holy water. A Catholic can ask the parish priest to bless it, as with any sacred image. If the icon is a baptism gift, you can ask for it to be blessed on the same day.