Some aspects of the general Christian and ethno-historical contexts of the formation of the cult of miraculous images
Authors: Haiuk Iryna 
Published: July 2023

Some aspects of the formation of the cult of saints and miraculous, first of all, the icons of the Mother of God, which relate to the development of the main mythological series of the Christian ecumene and its individual ethno-national manifestations are analyzed. It is noted that the appearance of icon painting was one of the testimonies of Christianity’s departure from the ethno-national Jewish environment and the first step towards its transformation into a world religion. This step further removed Christianity from Judaism and at the same time, despite its usual representative form, from various Hellenistic cults. It is significant that the founder of iconography, St. Luke, is credited with a large number of icons of the Mother of God, as well as icons of Peter and Paul, and none of them – of Christ. It can be said that the formation of such a mythological figurative series of the Christian sacred topos testifies to the introduction of the Feminine Principle into the Christian mythologeme as an important component of it.
Myth formats a new social reality, so the appearance of this tradition is natural: it creates the sacred, and therefore deep foundations of Christian art as an important component of Christian culture. This process was not vector/linear, but consisted of many parallel ethno-national components, which at their core were largely spontaneous, although their final formation had all the signs of purposeful action. However, we cannot exclude the conscious implementation of the fundamental principles of previous religions in the Christian mythological Model: Primary Chaos as the primary basis or root cause of all things, including the Cosmos, its connection with the Feminine Principle, the embodiment of the latter in the Great Mother Goddess as the creator of the entire phenomenal world (prafemimonotheism), the triad of the Creator, ect. The first icons attributed to the brush of St. Luke were the icons of Eleusa (the Virgin of Tenderness), Hodegetria (Lady of the Way) and, probably, Oranta (the Virgin Orans). The name “Hodegetria” – “guide”, “the one who points the way”, indicates the content of the primary mythologeme. The path in the sacred toposphere of various religions is the transition of an initiate to a higher level, the qualitative transformation of a disciple or pilgrim, the achievement of the condition/level of Buddha, God – Man, etc. (the path in Buddhism, the path of a Sufi, the path of Christ). In Orthodox nationalized Christianity, this hidden esoteric meaning disappears, leaving only an external form: “the guide/ the one who points the way” turns into a completely independent external factor that helps a person to receive eternal salvation not through his own efforts (passing the way), but through prayers/requests and the intercession of the Mother of God. The Orthodox interpretation goes against the compositional semantics of the image of Hodegetria, since on all its icons the dominant, central image is the image of the Virgin. And the compositional center is also a semantic Center. Not the Mother of God added to the Child, but the Child added to the Mother of God; Christ is with her, not she with Christ. Hodegetria leads (as a guide), shows the road, which in the sacred topos is the road to the Highest Principle, which can only be achieved by passing the path of radical transformation of one’s human nature. Therefore, there is every reason to interpret the image of Hodegetria as a guide on the way to the God-man that Christ was (or became). This is connected with the fact that Hodegetria holds/shows Christ as the personification of the path, as one who has passed it, but it leads along this path. And it is not surprising that in the hymn of the Greek Orthodox Church, Mary is referred to as “mystis” (the one that initiates).
The cult of miraculous images of the Mother of God is a widespread phenomenon, but each country and each ethnic group forms its own hierotopic series.
Keywords: Mother of God, hierotopia, Isis, icon, cult, Great Mother Goddess, Christianity, church, miracle