Immanuel Icons
an orthodox christian iconography studio
in pittsburgh, pennsylvania
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Images to the left can all be ordered as greeting cards as a fundraiser for T.H.E.O.S.  (Three Hierarchs Eastern Orthodox School, www.theosschool.org).  T.H.E.O.S. is the only pan-Orthodox school in Western Pennsylvania.

Available cards are (in the order pictured):

The Mother of God of Tenderness

The Mother of God of Tenderness
Korsun type

The Nativity of Christ

Card sale is on-going--not just for Christmas.

Card sets  consist of 18 cards with 18 envelopes.  $20/set.

The cards are 4" x 5.5" and full-color on high-quality cardstock.  (The images to the left are just thumbnails.)
No text inside.

If you are a T.H.E.O.S. family, please submit your order form (see link below and left) by dropping it off at school or sending it through your child's backpack.  Cards are also continuously available at the front desk of the school.

If you are not getting the card through a T.H.E.O.S. student liason, please download and mail the order form at left along with a check made out to T.H.E.O.S., including in your total the postage ($3 for the first box plus an additional $1 for each box after that) and an e-mail or phone number I can use to contact you if I have questions.  Mail to:
Immanuel Icons
931 N. Negley Ave., Fl. 1
Pittsburgh, PA 15206

Thank you to Chris Humphrey of St. George Cathedral for volunteering his time to photograph the icons.

And thanks to you for supporting the school!
The Icon of the Mother of God of Tenderness is meant to be read as expressing love and compassion for all creation rather than as a self-enclosed, sentimental mother-child scene.  As Leonid Ouspensky and Vladimir Lossky write of this icon-type in The Meaning of Icons:

...The spectator is moved by a feeling of deep lovingkindness, that feeling that is best described in the poetic words of St. Isaac of Syria.  According to his exposition, the sign of a merciful heart is when 'a man's heart burns for all creation--men, birds, animals, demons and all creatures'. ..  In the icons of Lovingkindness (or "Tenderness), the motherly caress of the Mother of God is indissolubly connected with Her tormenting pain for Her Son.  This compassion she feels for Him becomes here transformed into motherly compassion for all creatures for whom He voluntarily sacrifices Himself.  And this godlike compassion transfigures the most instinctive part of human nature, which links man to the whole of creation--motherhood.  Contact with the Deity transforms motherly tenderness into all-embracing love and grief for the whole of creation. 

Similarly, the Icon of the Nativity of Christ represents the incomprehensible miracle of God becoming truly human while remaining truly God.  This is part of the significance of Mary remaining in the reclining position.  This woman really gave birth because she and Jesus are truly human, despite the messy implications!  The humanity of Mary and the birth itself was a matter of hot debate throughout the Middle Ages and the orthodox position is worth reiterating in the tradition of iconography.