Icon of the Week: St. John Climacus

This week’s icon is an early twelfth century depiction of St. John Climacus’ “Ladder of Divine Ascent.” The original, shown here, is in the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine at Mt. Sinai.

The Monastery of St. Catharine is a treasure house by any standard. Because it is in a remote setting in the Sinai peninsula it has avoided the ravages of war. It has been continuously occupied since the fourth century. Within its walls is one of the largest collections of icons in the world, numbering around four thousand. They date from the mid-fifth to the eighteenth century. Among them is the oldest icon of Jesus, and a number of others that survived the periods of iconoclasm in the eighth and ninth centuries when the Byzantine emperor Leo III ordered all icons in the empire destroyed. The icons of Mt. Sinai survived because the monastery was in a Moslem region. The monastery is also known for its world class collection of ancient biblical and religious manuscripts. Their collection is second only to the collection in the Vatican.

The theme of wilderness draws me to this icon along with the dramatic imagery of monks trying to climb the ladder toward a higher spiritual life while demons try to drag them down into destruction. For St. John Climacus the cares and temptations of the world would threaten to distract us from our journey up this ladder where Christ awaits us at the top. At the lower right corner a group of monks cheer on those who are climbing the ladder. I don’t know if they are waiting their turn or if they have already arrived. At the upper left corner a choir of angels looks on.

This image of angels and saints encouraging us on reminds me of the concept of the Church Triumphant, that part of the church which has already passed on. I take great comfort that the saints of the past pray for us and encourage us on as we climb that ladder.