[NYer]

Hardly a justification for icons of saints, made with absolutely no biblical authorization at all.

You seem to have missed the point, my friend. You are thinking '21st century'.

1500 years ago, the average person was not literate. They could not read. Icons (or painted representations) were used to communicate the glorious story of God's salvation to those who could not read.

This image tells a story. What is it?

Odds are that you are working off of a computer that displays icons in place of text. The dreaded C:> prompt has now been replaced with something much friendlier.

Get the picture (no pun intended)?

[Kolokotronis]

" You seem to have missed the point, my friend. You are thinking '21st century'.

1500 years ago, the average person was not literate. They could not read. Icons (or painted representations) were used to communicate the glorious story of God's salvation to those who could not read. "

While what you have written is surely true, nevertheless, to this day Orthodoxy believes that icons give us a view into heaven and the existence there of those who have attained complete theosis. They are windows into the divine.