Holy icons are sacred images of Christ, the Mother of God, angels, saints, and biblical events. They proclaim the Incarnation visually and assist the prayer and teaching of the Church.
Veneration
Christians venerate icons with honour, lamps, incense, and gestures of reverence, while worship in the strict sense belongs to God alone. The honour shown to an image passes to the person represented.
Seventh Ecumenical Council
The Second Council of Nicaea in 787 defended the lawful veneration of icons against iconoclasm, grounding sacred imagery in the reality that the invisible Word truly became visible in human flesh.