Kindly explain the icon, particularly the figures in the upper corners.
"Kindly explain the icon, particularly the figures in the upper corners."
At the upper right Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos and +Joseph are depicted in the Egyptian desert; on the upper left is an image of +Zacharius the Priest and father of +John the Baptist being killed in the temple on the orders of Herod when he was unable to find +John who was hidden in the desert by his mother +Elizabeth. I think the mother and child in the cave represent the Most Holy Theotokos and Christ before they fled from Herod's men who were coming to get them as shown by the soldier approaching with a sword in his hand. The rest of the icon, I think, is pretty self explanatory. Herod is on the lower left and the rest of the icon depicts the slaughter of the little boys.
Time, as we understand it, in a lineal sense, doesn't necessarily have any meaning in an icon because icons depict a heavenly reality.