THE SAINT OR THE CHRISTOPHORIC MAN AND HIS ICONIC REFLECTION
THE SAINT OR THE CHRISTOPHORIC MAN AND HIS ICONIC REFLECTION

Summary/Abstract: The Saint or the christophoric man and his iconic reflection. Man has been a leitmotif of most religions, philosophical systems and ideologies from the dawn of creation to the present moment, and anthropology has acquired varied dimensions over time depending on the socio-spiritual branch, conceptions, perspectives and subjective interests. The anthropos, not being inspired (divinely favored) or even revealed (directly involved in divine discovery), knows nothing (cf. Alexandre François Malbranche); he seeks, but does not discover, but is revealed to him and receives, as he neither creates, but only imitates. ”Man does nothing but reflect in letters, in music or in philosophy patches of transcendence”, and art in general, and iconography in particular, becomes a vehicle of transcendence, a true” Jacob's ladder” of the man-God theandry through the intercession of the God-Man – Jesus Christ. Man – ”image and likeness of God” – regains the likeness of God through regeneration, imitating the appointed Son of God through asceticism and mysticism, and this fact is sublimely captured and illustrated by the icon. The icon thus defines itself as an aesthetic x-ray of holiness and personal theosis, a mirror of transcendence cast over the immanence of human nature. The present study, without exhaustive claims, wants to summarize the Christian anthropology reflected in the iconography.

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