Icons of the Holy Rosary - Shrine of Our Lady of the Mount, Anjara, Jordan
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Icons of the Holy Rosary
Shrine of Our Lady of the Mount, Anjara, Jordan
Ian J. Knowles, Iconographer
Devotion to the Mother of God has taken many forms over the centuries, but the
Rosary, part of the spiritual patrimony of the Western Church, has become the most
widespread and preeminent. The Mysteries of the Rosary draw together the
complete experience of Salvation in Christ, and enable us to celebrate this
liturgically, that is an act of formal prayer by the Christian community.
Iconography developed as the Church‟s preeminent art form for the liturgy,
sanctioned and ordered by some of the ecumenical Councils, with its roots in the
earliest Christian culture: that of the late Roman/early Byzantine empire. This form of
liturgical art emerged in the region of the Holy Land in the 5th -7th centuries and
became a rich fruit of eastern Christianity.
Thus in writing this series of icon panels as the visual accompaniment to the
recitation of the Rosary in the Shrine Church in Anjara, some of the richest spiritual
fruits of the eastern and western Churches have been woven together. Occasionally
people have used icons of the individual decades, and placed them side by side in
booklets and such like, but as far as we know, until now, there has never been an
attempt to write icons of the Mysteries as a whole.
They are also written for this particular shrine in its predominantly Arab and Islamic
context. The Byzantine imperial dress and buildings often give way to models drawn
from the local culture and its history, drawing heavily upon the Arab Christian roots
from which the Islamic artistic traditions evolved. Hence there is extensive use of
Arab/Islamic sacred geometry, something inherited from Byzantium but which Arabs
have made their own as a way of expressing the timeless attributes of God. In these
icons these timeless motifs are intimately associated with Jesus Christ so as to bear
testimony to his Divinity and the manifestation of that Divinity in human form.
Inspiration has also been drawn from a contemporary Palestinian artist, Suleiman
Mansour, who has himself been influenced by Christian iconography. His work lies
behind the landscape and the houses.
The icons are executed
with the highest quality of
materials. Extensive use is
made of real gold leaf
(not gold paint). No
synthetic pigments are
used in the making of
egg tempera, a medium
used for many thousands
of years in this region and
a medium of exceptional
appropriateness for
Christian iconography
which seeks to express
the presence of grace as
a translucent inner light
rather than as reflected,
natural light.
The icon panels were
designed and executed
by a professional English
iconographer, Mr Ian
Knowles of the Elias Icon Studio, who began this work in November 2009, and who
returns to Jordan from time to time to continue the work in the Shrine. He has
designed each panel as a profound theological commentary.
The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary focus upon the Incarnation, specifically the Annunciation, Visitation, Birth, Presentation in the Temple and Christ among the doctors of the law. The focus point is the birth of Christ itself. The Annunciation and Visitation prepare for that and the two temple events bring it to completion. Thus the Birth of Christ dominates the composition: it is placed centrally and the geometric construction converges on the Christ Child; the figure of Mary is larger than elsewhere; the hills to each side „echo‟ the cave where Christ is being placed in the manger thus emphasising its importance. Along the bottom of the panel we have two „annunciations‟, first the Archangel Gabriel sent by God comes to the Virgin Mary, then she in turn „hastens‟, as it says in the Gospel of St Luke, to greet the mother of John the Baptist, who in turn will announce Christ at the river Jordan. The angel is shown descending to Mary, his feet just off the ground and his clothes rippling in the wind. Mary arrives at the home of Elizabeth running, embracing the heavily pregnant Elizabeth in a dance of joy. The axe, symbol of the Baptist, already lies in the far corner of the panel, ready to be picked up and taken into the next panel, the Mysteries of Light and the Baptism of Jesus. At the Annunciation Mary is demur, humble and receptive to the grace of God, in the Visitation she is animated, herself a herald of the Lord‟s coming, bringing out the joy of the older Elizabeth who, in her child, recognises the Mysteries she is participating in even if she doesn‟t understand them.
Mary is dressed as a Byzantine empress, stretching back to the earliest images. At the Annunciation we see her clad in her full royal dignity as the Mother of God, testimony to the Lord whom she has just conceived within her by the Holy Spirit. According to tradition Mary received this annunciation at Nazareth, while at a well drawing water, hence the large water jar next to her. Nazareth was a very humble hamlet, and the work she was undertaking was simple domestic chores. So the setting of the simple home, the yarn she holds in her hand, and by the large water jar creates the context of her inner state of lowliness before God which was then graced from on high as echoed in her royal dress. In the Visitation, her red slippers are replaced by sandals. While this is not traditional, it emphasises the speed with which she went to the home of her kinswoman, and the practical, difficult, humble realities of her life as Mother of the Lord. The Visitation has an exuberance of joy of a young girl and an older woman, both transformed by the conception of their sacred children. For a moment her regal vesture is cast aside for a moment of almost adolescent playfulness, shown here by their almost dance like embrace. The setting for the Visitation is the hill country of Judea, the land of Palestine today, a holy land tended lovingly by Palestinian farmers for centuries, rich in the history of Christ among His People. The olive grove speaks of the suffering of the Palestinian people as their olive groves are torn up, their produce left un-harvested. It is often to the Mother of God that Palestinian Christians seek help, sustenance and strength among the daily struggles under oppression, her prayers breaking the cycle of bitterness and heartache so Christ‟s joy is not lost. The Birth of Christ takes place in a cave, against the setting of the dark, cold earth. The image of the Christ Child being placed in a stone coffin instead of a manger of straw is an ancient one and points us to the time when His crucified body will be placed by other women in a cold garden tomb. Here though, the garden is the garden of Paradise, echoing the words of the prophet Isaiah who spoke of the Child‟s coming when wolf and lamb would lie together in safety. The cave is rent open by the Presence of the Christ Child, unable to contain the One who is Alpha and Omega. The hill is shaped like a tent, for in St John‟s Gospel we read that the Lord „tabernacled among us, full of grace and truth‟, a word which recalls the Presence of God in the Mosaic Tent of Meeting. This tent was the forerunner of the Temple in Jerusalem, the dwelling place of the Most High among His People. So, in this composition, the rounded temple sanctuary in the two side arches is echoed in the shape of the hill in which the cave is located. The Mother of God is positioned vertically and with a certain agonised movement, places her Child in the coffin/manger. It is the Lord entering our world of sin and death to redeem it even at the price of His own life. At her feet lies St Joseph, asleep, his head resting on a hard rock. This pose is rare in iconography, but which draws us to reflect that despite his misgivings and confusion,
guided by the archangel, he comes to have faith in what God was doing. As we
contemplate the wonders of the Incarnation, our minds too are pushed to bursting
point. So Joseph lies centrally in this composition, and invites us to join with him in this
act of recollection, penitence and faith.
Below Joseph lies a large, majestic tree beside a typical Palestinian house. Here we
recall the Jesse tree, the House of David, in Bethlehem the city of David, in fulfilment
of whose royal line Christ came. This ancient tree, onto which another has been
grafted, and whose roots reach deep into the earth, reflect the prophecy of a scion
springing from the root of Jesse.
To left and right of the Birth of Christ we see Jesus entering the Temple in Jerusalem.
On the left he is greeted by Simeon, a faithful Jew who longed for the coming of the
Lord, while accompanied by His parents. Joseph carries two pigeons, the poor‟s
offering of redemption, and casts our minds to the time when Jesus will redeem the
world as the Sacrifice that abolishes the old covenant with the Universal Sacrifice.
The scene is set before the altar of the temple, draped in red as a symbol of
sacrifice, and upon which is a book, the Word of God. Jesus Himself raises His hand
in blessing, while at the same time reaching to His Mother as she hands him to
Simeon, who stoops humbly to receive Him.
To the right we see the adolescent Jesus
among the Jewish doctors of the Law,
dressed in Arabic style clothes. Their large
turbans and beards have a certain grandeur
about them, and echo Christ‟s admonition of
those who hold the chair of Moses but want
public recognition taking the best seats and
being greeted obsequiously in the streets.
Their age contrasts with the youthfulness of
Jesus, who is raised up above them on a stone
seat like the early depictions of Christ as a philosopher/teacher, but who is
presented to us directly. He holds a closed scroll, Himself being the way, the truth
and the life, while the doctors search opened scrolls. Behind them are the three wise
men, who first came to them seeking to know where the King of the Jews was to be
born. Having searched the Scriptures the doctors of the law sent them to Bethlehem
to find the Christ Child. Now, the Christ has come to them, and reveals to them what
they do not know, as Teacher or Rabbi. In this setting, the temple dome is no longer
central, as in the left panel, because now Christ comes fulfilling the Law and the
prophets and so displacing the Temple which will shortly be destroyed never to be
rebuilt, and replacing it with His Body, the Church.
The Scriptural annotations, in Arabic, are taken from the Old Testament prophets,
mainly the prophet Isaiah. In Arab culture the sanctity of the written Scripture is very
important and Arabic icons from the Melchite Christians of Syria often had elaborate
texts.
For this series of mysteries we contemplate the earthly ministry of Jesus, when God manifested himself in the person of Christ. The central mystery is that of the Transfiguration, when according to the Synoptics the three apostles Peter, James and John, witnesses Jesus‟s face and clothes transformed by a Divine light, and enveloped in a golden cloud such as God had manifested himself in to Moses and the Hebrew tribes. This is illustrated by an expanse of gold embossed with an Arabic geometric 12 pointed star motif which indicates the Divine Presence which has no beginning and no end. At the centre of this stands Jesus Christ by which that Presence is made known and which here testifies to him. The prophets Elijah and Moses, representing the Old Covenant, bear witness to Jesus. This spectacular event appears in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, but in John‟s Gospel it is omitted. However, John speaks of Jesus as the Light of the World, as though the event itself is too holy to be written down but the meaning of the experience infuses much of what he writes. St Leo the Great explains: “The writings of the two testaments support each other. The radiance of the transfiguration reveals clearly and unmistakably the one who had been promised by signs foretelling him under the veils of mystery. As Saint John says: The law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. In him the promise made through the shadows of prophecy stands revealed, along with the full meaning of the precepts of the law. He is the one who teaches the truth of the prophecy through his presence, and makes obedience to the commandments possible through grace.” This is just the same with the Eucharist. Read John‟s Gospel and there is no mention of bread and wine, let alone of Jesus transforming it into his Body and Blood. These are just too holy, too mysterious to be written down. Instead, John gives us the washing of the disciples feet, that they might be „clean‟. I have adopted John‟s account for all of the scenes because he gives us a sort of commentary on the illumination of the world by Jesus through his earthly ministry. So, here we see the disciples gathered in the upper room, (if you compare with the Glorious Mysteries it is the same room as at Pentecost) as Jesus commands them to do as he has done, to follow his example of mercy and sacrifice and so make God‟s love known.
The first of the scenes is the baptism. In most icons of the Baptism Jesus is depicted coming up from the water, the Baptist seeming to anoint him with water, and attended to by angels. Here, following John‟s account, the Baptist stares intently at Jesus as he recognises that indeed he is the One sent by God and with his hands points to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Also, following John, we have Andrew, a disciple of the Baptist, bringing his brother Simon Peter to meet Jesus whom he believes is the Messiah. The disciples are the ones who have been with Jesus „since the beginning‟ and can bear authentic, trustworthy witness (in Arabic culture two or three witnesses are required) to what they have seen and heard. The scene at Cana in Galilee doesn‟t appear in the Synoptic Gospels and is a unique event recorded by John. He depicts it as the start of Jesus revealing himself through this remarkable, domestic miracle. The wedding feast is something dear to the hearts of people in the Middle East, a time of joy and celebration. The bride is dressed in traditional Arab Christian costume, and the scene is a domestic one similar to the depiction of the Annunciation in the Joyful Mysteries. God is not remote, but comes into the very intricacies of human life, breaking it open to the fullness of God‟s love and power. The scenes all, interestingly, feature water, a symbol of new life, regeneration and cleansing. I have followed this through in the selection of the third scene which in the liturgical texts is left simply as a general reflection on the ministry of Christ bringing healing, forgiveness and conversion. John gives us a moving account of the healing of a man born blind, who slowly comes to the realisation that the man who healed him is indeed the Messiah. In this scene we see him kneeling before Jesus professing his faith, and his parents who testify to the Pharisees that indeed their son was born blind, and by the pool of Siloam in which Jesus told the man to wash his eyes and discovered he was healed. This Jesus says was for the glory of God. The inclusion of his parents echoes the parallel scene of Cana, the beginning of married life. Here it points to the suffering and struggle which life often brings and where God in Christ intervenes bringing hope and new life. In these scenes we see ordinary people touched by extraordinary graces in the Person of Jesus. So they are shown in the traditional manner of the people of the Holy Land, Arab dress and houses. I have replaced the grand Byzantine buildings, artifacts and courtly dress with that of the humble people of the area, underscoring the reality that Christ humbled Himself and came among us, full of grace and truth, and that this is an enduring reality through the living Body of Christ the Church. So the Eucharistic table is set on an Arabic carpet depicting paradise as abstract flowers and animals, the houses are the low domed traditional dwellings found across the region and the bowls and dishes are such as are common for centuries in the region in the simplest of homes.
The Glorious Mysteries focus on the reality of the Risen Christ, and so in this icon the central image of Christ Risen from the tomb dominates the composition. Christ stands above the tomb, raised up above it, triumphant. On the left we she Christ ascending and on the right the descent of the Holy Spirit. In the two smaller arches we have, next to the Ascension of Jesus the Assumption of his Mother, and on the right the Coronation as Mary as Queen. The resurrection depicts Christ Risen, witnessed to by an angel and St Mary Magdalene,dressed as an Arab woman from Palestine. She is positioned much as she will be at the foot of the Cross in the central panel of the Sorrowful Mysteries. The angel sits on the rock from the mouth of the tomb, which is split reminiscent of the rending of the temple curtain and the side of Christ, and from which flows waters of life from which trees spring up bearing exotic fruit and flowers bloom, including the national flower of Jordan. A peacock, an ancient symbol of the resurrection, completes the central composition. The nimbus and halos of Christ incorporate Islamic geometric designs. They not only add real grace and beauty to the composition but speak of God as without beginning or end, expressed in Christianity as „Alpha & Omega‟, though the endless possibility of repetition, which in itself makes a beautiful, unending whole. The Evangelists are found next to the angel of the resurrection, holding scrolls representing their Gospels, and who bear witness to what they have seen and heard. They are placed as part of the gathering of apostles at Pentecost, gathered around Our Lady who is praying. They are in the Upper Room, which is the same room depicted in the Luminous Mysteries representation of the Last Supper. The Holy Spirit is a spinning numbus of fire, which radiates out from a dark centre and forms the centre of a flower bursting into bloom, just as the Spirit brings Life to the Church. For it is the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead and descended upon the apostles establishing the Church.
To the left a selection of the apostles
witness the Ascension of Christ while
the Mother of God looks out with
both sorrow and joy as the Mother of
the Church, knowing the sufferings
and joys which lay ahead. Christ is
again in a mandorla, but this time a
circular one, echoing that of the Holy
Spirit. As Christ and the Holy Spirit are
equal persons in the Holy Trinity the
mandorlas are the same size, which means
the Holy Spirit is represented in rather a
unique way, much larger and dominant than
in the usual depictions of Pentecost.
Woven into the Ascension is the Assumption of
Mary, carried heavenwards in the arms of her
Son. She casts her girdle to St Thomas, who was
late for her funeral according to an ancient
legend, but a detail that reminds us of „Doubting Thomas‟ and
his questioning of the resurrection. This is important in an Islamic context
where the resurrection is questioned and denied. Thomas‟ profession of Jesus as his
Lord and God speaks directly to a culture that denies the Divinity of Christ and sets
Christians apart.
Mary as Queen appears to the right, holding Christ as he appears above the New
Jerusalem, dressed as a Bride,
adorned in the traditional bridal
gown of a woman of Bethlehem.
The New Jerusalem, depicted in a
way reminiscent of the
representation of the earthly
Jerusalem in the mosaic at
Madaba, is above the apostles
gathered in the Upper Room in the
earthly Jerusalem. Her Queenship
rests in her relationship with her Son,
who reigns as King over the New
Jerusalem, while she also represents
the Bride of Christ whose wedding
feast is the coming of the New
Jerusalem.You can also read
