Obedient artists and mediators : Women icon painters in the Finnish Orthodox Church from the mid-twentieth to the twenty-first century

Abstract

This chapter examines the role of women icon painters in the Finnish Orthodox Church in the second half of the twentieth century. The 1960s witnessed the entry of women professionals into the fields of icon production and related research in Finland. The new role of women as iconographers and icon scholars highlighted the unchallenged division between official and unofficial Orthodoxy as, before, the public representatives and spokespersons of Orthodoxy had been clerics. This caused controversy among Orthodox (male) authorities. However, when icon painting became a popular hobby among Finnish Lutherans in the last quarter of the twentieth century, Orthodox women iconographers became the primary guardians of the Orthodox icon tradition. From their position outside church hierarchy, they were able to publicly defend theological convictions more firmly than bishops or priests.