How to Set Up an Orthodox Icon Corner (Prayer Corner) at Home

An Orthodox prayer corner is a small place in your home set aside for prayer: icons of Christ and the Mother of God, ideally on an east wall, a cross above them, a lamp before them, and a shelf for holy water and the prayer book. To set one up, choose a quiet wall, hang Christ on the right and the Mother of God on the left, add your family’s patron saints, and begin praying there morning and evening. Everything else grows from that.

What is the “beautiful corner”?

Russians call it the krasny ugol. Today krasny means “red,” but in the old language it meant “beautiful, splendid, the best,” and Dal’s dictionary defines the krasny ugol as the front, senior corner of the house, “where the icons and the table are.” Greeks, Serbs, Romanians and Arabs keep the same corner under other names. In English most people say icon corner, prayer corner, or home altar.

The idea is older than any of those words. St Paul sends greetings to “the church that is in their house” (Romans 16:5). The home is a little church, and the icon corner is its sanctuary. In 2020, when churches were closed, Bishop Alexei of the OCA urged families: “Let’s humbly do whatever is necessary to make one room in our home into a Church.”

Where to put your Orthodox prayer corner

Face east if you can. St John of Damascus explains that Christians pray toward the east because Christ is the “Sun of Righteousness” and the “Dayspring,” because Paradise was planted eastward, and because Christ will come again as He ascended. He calls this an unwritten tradition of the apostles.

If you have no east wall, choose another. Azbuka Very’s guide says plainly that a south, north or west wall may be used. A priest answering on the same site puts it simply: if the east side is not possible, choose “any other place convenient for prayer.”

Good spots:

• A corner of the living room, where the family already gathers.
• A wall facing the front door, so you see the icons as you come in. Old Russian houses placed the corner opposite or to the right of the entrance.
• Your bedroom, if that is where you will actually pray.

Hang the icons at about eye level, somewhere you can stand comfortably. Keep the TV, speakers and secular pictures away from them.

Which icons come first

Start with two: Christ on the right, the Mother of God on the left, as you face the corner. This is how they stand on the iconostasis in church, and Azbuka Very calls these two icons essential. A folding diptych gives you both in one piece. The Christ (Zvenigorod Saviour) & Vladimir Mother of God diptych ($69) and the Christ Pantocrator & Our Lady of Kazan diptych ($69) are both made for this. The Holy Trinity (Rublev) & Christ diptych ($69) is a beautiful second pair; the Trinity belongs at the top of the corner.

Then add, beside and below:

1. The patron saint of each person in the house. Each name has a saint. If you don’t know yours, use our patron saint finder or read how to find your patron saint.
2. The Guardian Angel, and saints your family loves: St Nicholas is in nearly every Orthodox home.
3. The saint of your parish, or of a place dear to you.

Don’t put any saint above Christ and the Mother of God, and don’t crowd the wall. A few icons you pray before are better than many you only look at.

The cross

Azbuka Very says the home iconostasis should be “crowned with a cross.” Hang it above the icons, in the center. Our 8 in “Save and Protect” wooden wall crucifix ($49) is cut for exactly this place.

The vigil lamp, and how to keep it safe

The lampada is a small oil lamp with a floating wick, set before the icons. You light it when you begin to pray and keep it burning until you finish; on Sundays and feasts many families keep it lit through the day. By custom it is lit from a church candle, not straight from a match, and the flame should be tiny, the size of one or two match heads.

Safety comes first. Azbuka Very itself notes that a lamp burning day and night is not always possible and safe in modern homes. So:

• Never leave it burning in an empty room or overnight.
• Keep curtains, dried palms and paper icons away from the flame.
• Set it on a stable shelf or hang it from a proper bracket, out of reach of small children and pets.
• If you can’t use a flame at all, an electric vigil light is better than none.

What else belongs on the icon shelf

• Holy water, including the water sanctified at the Great Blessing of the Waters at Theophany, 6 January (19 January on the Old Calendar). See holy water at home.
• Palms or pussy willow from Palm Sunday. By tradition they stay by the icons until the next Palm Sunday.
• A prayer book and a Bible or Gospel book.
• A prayer rope. Our 50-knot wool prayer rope ($24) sits easily on the shelf; read how to pray with a prayer rope.
• A hand censer and incense, if you have one, for censing the icons on Saturday evening or before feasts.
• Prosphora from church, a candle from Pascha, a small cross from your baptism.

What not to put there

The corner holds holy things only. Azbuka Very is firm: no secular decorations, no posters or calendars, no paintings or reproductions between the icons, and photographs of the living placed apart. Keep keys, mail, chargers and souvenirs elsewhere. Flowers are fine.

Praying there as a family

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). Stand together before the icons in the morning and at bedtime. The father or mother leads; children read a short prayer as soon as they can. On name days, read that saint’s life before his icon. Before a trip, or when someone is ill, gather there and pray by name.

It doesn’t need to be long. Light the lamp, read the morning or evening prayers, kiss the icons, and go about your day.

Consecrating your icons

By old custom a new icon is taken to a priest, who reads the prayers of the Church over it and sprinkles it with holy water before it is placed in the corner. Your own parish priest can do this after a service. If you are ordering, you can add Consecration ($49): our priest consecrates the item with holy water and the prayers of the Church, and it comes with a signed certificate and a vial of holy water. Consecrated items are final sale. Read more in what Consecration is.

Small spaces, apartments and kids’ rooms

You don’t need a corner at all. A single icon shelf, the top of a bookcase, or a narrow wall between two windows will do; a priest at an Antiochian parish even suggests a closet if that is what you have. Folding diptychs stand on any shelf and close for travel.

In a large home, keep the main corner where the family gathers and put at least one icon in every other room. For a child’s room, a small icon of the child’s patron saint and Guardian Angel at the bedside is the usual start. Skip the lamp there.

Starting from nothing

The Icon Corner Set ($199) holds the Zvenigorod Saviour and Vladimir Mother of God diptych, a patron saint’s diptych chosen by name, the 8 in wooden wall crucifix, a prayer rope and a short guide to setting up the corner. The Icon Corner Set, Complete ($349) adds a second patron saint, with the diptychs already consecrated by our priest before they left the workshop, each numbered on a signed certificate, plus a vial of holy water and the family prayer booklet. Browse the whole beautiful corner collection, and when it is up, read how to care for an icon. If you are setting one up for someone else, see giving an icon.