The word 'icon' comes from the Greek word eikon , meaning 'image'. However, the icon has deeper theological foundations making it vital to Church life. Icons represent a higher plane of reality, thus requiring them to seem unrealistic. Figures on icons are purposely represented on a flat plane rather than in three dimensions. This thesis deals exclusively with the hymnographic genre of icons, those based on hymns of the Orthodox Church.
Every hymn is centered around the liturgy, the central religious services of the day.
These hymns underwent major changes at the time of the Great Schism in 1667. Patriarch Nikon discovered that many translational errors had crept into the holy writ and so ordered much of the Church literature retranslated. This resulted in many changes in the rituals of the Church. This thesis demonstrates that these changes are reflected in the icons based on them. That is, the impact of the Nikonian reforms was not simply on Church documents, but on the art, as well.