What Is Consecration? Why the Church Consecrates Icons and Crosses

Consecration is the Church’s prayer over a new icon or cross. A priest reads the prayers appointed in the Book of Needs and sprinkles the object with holy water three times, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A consecrated cross or icon looks the same as before, but from that moment it is set apart for prayer and treated as a holy thing. Below you’ll find why the Church does this, what the rite says, how the Greek and Russian customs differ, and how Consecration works when you order from us.

Why the Church honors icons and crosses at all

An icon is not a decoration. In 787 the Seventh Ecumenical Council, meeting at Nicaea, defended the holy images against the iconoclasts. Its decree says icons should receive “due salutation and honourable reverence,” with “incense and lights” offered “according to ancient pious custom,” but not the worship that belongs to God alone. The reason it gives comes from St Basil the Great: “the honour which is paid to the image passes on to that which the image represents.”

So when you kiss an icon of St Nicholas, the honor goes to St Nicholas himself, and through him to God. The decree treats the figure of the precious cross the same way.

St John of Damascus, who defended the icons decades before the Council, explained why matter can carry grace at all: “I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake.” Because God took flesh, wood and paint, gold and silver can serve our salvation.

What happens in the rite

The prayers are in the Book of Needs (the Trebnik or Euchologion), the priest’s service book. The Russian edition has separate rites for an icon of the Holy Trinity, of Christ, of the Mother of God, of a saint, and for several icons brought together.

In the rite for several icons, the priest begins with the usual opening prayers and a psalm. After a litany he reads a prayer asking God to sanctify the icons and to give them grace to drive away evil and heal sickness. Then he sprinkles them with holy water three times, saying: “These icons are sanctified by the grace of the Most Holy Spirit, by the sprinkling of this holy water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” He censes them, and the faithful venerate them.

The consecrated cross: how a priest prays over it

A cross is consecrated with a shorter rite of its own. The priest lays the cross on the Holy Table and reads two prayers. The first recalls Christ’s voluntary crucifixion and asks that whoever wears the cross, in memory of His Passion, receive help for soul and body. The second, read quietly, asks God to fill the cross with power to drive away the snares of the devil and to protect the wearer “from all evil.” Then he sprinkles it with holy water three times and returns it to its owner.

That is why the faithful have long sought it. A neck cross is worn for life, from baptism on. Those prayers ask that it guard the one who wears it, and many Orthodox families would not let a new cross be put on until a priest had read them. For how to wear it, see how to wear an Orthodox cross.

Does an icon “work” without consecration?

Here the traditions differ, and it’s fair to say so.

Archpriest Andrei Krivonis, writing on the Russian site Azbuka Very, notes that the early Church had no special rite for icons or crosses. When the iconoclasts objected at Nicaea that no prayer had been read over the icons, the Council answered that they are holy by the name of the one they show. The Council also said the figure of the cross is honored though no special prayer is appointed for it. The rite now in the Russian Trebnik entered it through Metropolitan Peter Mogila’s book of 1646.

Greek churches today largely do without the rite. A new icon is usually left in church for forty days and then taken home. Russian practice, by contrast, firmly expects a priest to consecrate a new icon or cross.

Neither side treats the rite as magic. Azbuka Very quotes the iconographer Leonid Uspensky: the rite “is not a magic formula,” and it cannot make an icon out of something that is not one. What it does is ask God’s grace on the object and on everyone who prays before it. So you may pray before an icon that has not yet been consecrated. If your family keeps the Russian custom, or you simply want the Church’s prayer said over it, ask a priest.

Can you do it yourself?

Not the rite itself: it is a priest’s prayer. The Church’s ordinary way is simple. Bring the icon or cross to your parish priest after a service and ask him to consecrate it. At home you can keep holy water, sprinkle your icon corner with it and pray there daily; see holy water at home.

How to treat a consecrated item

A consecrated icon or cross is a holy thing for the rest of its life:

• Give the icon a place of honor, in the icon corner if you have one, with a lampada if you can.
• Kiss it when you pray, as the faithful kiss icons in church: this is the “due salutation” the Council of Nicaea spoke of.
• Don’t use it as ornament or leave it in a drawer with odds and ends.
• Never throw it away. Abbot Tryphon, in a reflection republished by a Greek Orthodox cathedral, says no icon should simply be thrown away, even one that was never consecrated. A worn-out icon is taken to church and burned in a place kept for holy things, or burned at home and the ashes buried where they will not be disturbed.

For cleaning and light, see caring for an icon.

How our Consecration works

Consecration is $49. Our priest consecrates your item with holy water and the prayers of the Church. It comes with a signed certificate and a vial of holy water. You can add a personal video of the Consecration if you’d like one to keep or to forward with a gift. There are two routes.

Folding diptychs. Our priest consecrates them one by one before they leave the workshop and films each with its number on a card. That number is on its box and its certificate. The name you give us is prayed for separately and is not in the film. A consecrated diptych ships in the normal time, and Consecration can be added to any diptych we sell: every design is in stock consecrated. Examples: the St Nicholas and Guardian Angel diptych ($69), or the Icon Corner Set, Complete ($349), which comes with consecrated diptychs.

Crosses, icons and medallions. Our priest consecrates them before they ship, commemorating the person you name. Orders with Consecration ship in 3–8 business days. Examples: the plain three-bar crucifix ($49) or the St Michael medallion ($49).

A share of every Consecration goes to the priest’s parish. Consecrated items are final sale; consecrated items and returns explains why and what is covered.