1st century B.C. – 50 A.D: King Abgar V of Edessa (now Urfa, Turkey) purportedly receives a piece of cloth imprinted with Jesus’s face. This cloth becomes known as the Image of Edessa or the Mandylion (shown below), and is thought to be the first icon in existence.

~180 A.D: Saint Irenaeus produces Against Heresies, where he describes, not without disgust, the Gnostic Carpocratians’ use of icons.

313: Emperor Constantine I’s decree to treat Christians kindly — later known as the Edict of Milan — lead to mass conversion, a process which will also dramatically increase use of icons.

~500: Earliest-known, longest-surviving icon of Christ Pantocrator (shown below) is painted, presumably in Constantinople.

~726-730: Byzantine Emperor Leo III bans religious images, initiating the First Iconoclastic Period. This concludes around 787.

815: Emperor Leo V reinforces the ban, which is not lifted until 843 by Empress Regent Theodora. During this period, iconophiles, including Saint Euithymius of Sardis, are persecuted and killed.

~987-99: Volodymyr of Kyiv, ruler of Kyivan Rus, converts from Slavic paganism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Historical accounts vary as to the precise reason for his conversion.

1054: The Great Schism formally separates the East and West Christian traditions. Despite this, friendly relations between the Catholic and Orthodox churches continue. The Schism plants the seeds for tensions that will later erupt into the Crusades.

1054: The Great Schism formally separates the East and West Christian traditions. Despite this, friendly relations between the Catholic and Orthodox churches continue. The Schism plants the seeds for tensions that will later erupt into the Crusades.

1204: Latin Crusaders sack Constantinople, and the Image of Edessa is presumably lost.

1453: Constantinople, crippled from the Crusades, falls to the Ottoman Empire. Moscow becomes the de facto capital of Orthodoxy, and successive Russian rulers will refer to the city as the “third Rome” (the second being collapsed Constantinople).

1652: Patriarch Nikon of Moscow introduces reforms to the Russian Orthodox Church, hoping to align it closer with the Greek tradition. Among his many proposals, the sign of the cross is altered to include the thumb, rather than just the index and middle fingers. In coming years, followers of Russian Orthodoxy who resist reform will become known as “Old Believers.” Old Believer icons are still recognizable for their depictions of the Sign of the Cross (shown). This event represents yet another schism (in Russian, раскол) in the Orthodoxy.

~late 17th century: Brass icons become especially popular with Old Believers, due to their being cast from molds (shown). Molds were thought to hew closer to the original icons than generations of (potentially corrupting) repainting. Their durability and affordability relative to wooden icons also makes them popular among peasants.

~18-19th centuries: Konovali (Russian, коновалы, “horse-doctors”) wander the provinces of the Russian Empire. Revered as folk healers of humans and animals, they worked by putting brass icons on affected organs and praying to them.

~1905-1910: Social unrest in the Russian Empire results in increased interest in spirituality among lower and middle classes.

1917-18: The Russian Revolution, culminating in the Bolshevik seizure of power, targets the Orthodoxy as a counter-revolutionary force. Thousands of priests are executed, and staggering numbers of religious artifacts, including icons, are destroyed (shown).

1941: Nazi Germany’s attack on the USSR prompts Joseph Stalin’s government to endorse Orthodoxy as a force of unifying patriotism. Many churches reopen.

1958: Nikita Khrushchev announces a campaign against religion, reversing Stalinist policies. Icons, revered with kisses in the Orthodox tradition, were denounced as unsanitary. Along with liturgical books and scriptures, they are burnt in large quantities.

1991: Collapse of the Soviet Union. Return of mass public religious events to former Soviet territories, particularly in Ukraine.

2009: Patriarch Kirill becomes the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. Kirill will go on to deny Russia’s aggression in its ongoing war against Ukraine and describe Vladimir Putin’s regime as “a miracle of God.”

2024: An icon in Georgian capital Tbilisi, featuring an image of Joseph Stalin meeting with St. Matrona of Moscow during the Second World War (shown), creates public outrage among young Georgians. The icon is finally removed after protest and defacement.