What Is the Iconostasis, and Why Is It There?

Walk into almost any Orthodox church and the first thing you see is a wall of icons across the front, with double doors in the middle and a smaller door on each side. Behind it, half hidden, is the altar. Some screens are waist-high; others, especially in Russian cathedrals, climb almost to the ceiling.

Visitors often find it puzzling: why a barrier, when the veil of the Temple was torn? This guide explains where it came from, how to read it, what it means and who goes behind it, noting where practice varies.

In brief

The iconostasis (from the Greek for "icon" and "stand") is the screen of icons between the nave, where the people stand, and the altar, where the Eucharist is offered. Its ancestor is very old: early fourth-century churches fenced the altar with a low lattice, and Justinian's Hagia Sophia had a silver-clad colonnade with images and three doors. From the eleventh century, painted beams of the great feasts sat on such barriers, and the tall, many-tiered Russian screen appeared around 1400. The usual arrangement puts Christ to the right of the central Royal Doors and the Mother of God to the left. Orthodox teachers explain the screen as a sign of unity between heaven and earth, while admitting that very tall screens can feel like a wall. Entry into the altar is governed by ancient canons and by local custom, which varies.

Thesis: The iconostasis is a late, regional development of a very ancient chancel barrier, and its purpose, as the Church explains it, is to show the faithful the heavenly company they already belong to, gathered around the altar where Christ is offered.

Where it came from

From the Temple veil to the chancel barrier

Israel's worship already had graded holy space: "The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the Most Holy" (Exodus 26:33, NKJV; see The Jerusalem Temple in Jesus' Day). Christians, too, set the altar apart.

The first clear description comes from Eusebius of Caesarea. In a sermon for the dedication of the rebuilt cathedral at Tyre in the early fourth century, preserved in his Church History, he says the bishop placed the altar in the middle and, "that it might be inaccessible to the multitude, enclosed it with wooden lattice-work, accurately wrought with artistic carving."¹ This was a low, open fence. Church law soon reflected the same idea: the Council of Laodicea (its date is uncertain, somewhere between 343 and 381) ruled that "it is lawful to the priesthood alone to go to the Altar and [there] communicate" (canon 19).²

The most detailed early account is a poem by the court official Paul the Silentiary, recited in 563 after Hagia Sophia in Constantinople was rededicated. He describes the barrier clad in silver, with columns "six sets of twain in number," and images of Christ, angels, prophets, apostles and "the Mother of Christ." He adds: "the screen gives access to the priests through three doors."³ The three doors of today's iconostasis were already there. His translator, Cyril Mango, noted that similar carved entablatures found in Asia Minor usually show Christ, the Virgin and John the Baptist as a central group,⁴ an early form of the later "Deesis" row.

St Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople (715-730), is credited with the commentary on the Liturgy that Byzantines followed for centuries: "The chancel barriers indicate the place of prayer: the outside is for the people, and the inside, the Holy of Holies, is accessible only to the priests."⁵ Byzantine Greek came to call this colonnade the templon.

Icons fill the screen

After iconoclasm ended in the ninth century, icons multiplied on the templon. The art historian Ekaterina Morozova notes that the cycle of feasts painted along the templon beam first appeared in the eleventh century, usually with the Deesis (Christ enthroned between the Mother of God and John the Baptist) at its center, and was already being enlarged in the twelfth.⁶ Gradually, as the old Catholic Encyclopedia put it, "pictures were placed over the entire iconostasis," and the open colonnade became a solid screen.⁷

The Moscow Kremlin Museums date the rise of the high, multi-tier iconostasis in Russian churches to the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries; the oldest icons in the screen of the Kremlin's Annunciation Cathedral come from the turn of those centuries.⁸ The chronicles record under 1405 that Theophanes the Greek, Prokhor the Elder and the monk Andrei Rublev painted that cathedral, and under 1408 that Rublev worked at the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir.⁹ {{strong: The high, multi-tiered iconostasis took shape in Russia around 1400, about a thousand years after the first chancel barriers.}}

Greek churches never went as far; the Catholic Encyclopedia (1910) noted that Greek iconostases "have never been so lofty."⁷ Fr Thomas Hopko of the Orthodox Church in America welcomed a return in many places to a screen that "has become once more an icon 'stand' or 'screen' (stasis) rather than a solid partition."¹⁰

Reading the screen: what goes where

There is no single blueprint, but sources describe a common pattern. Your parish may differ.

• The Royal Doors usually carry the Annunciation and the four Evangelists. Hopko calls the Annunciation "the first proclamation of the gospel in the world."¹⁰
• Christ is to the right of the doors as you face them, and the Mother of God holding the Christ Child to the left.¹¹ Hopko reads this as history: the altar stands between Christ's first coming, born of Mary, and his coming again as King and Judge.¹⁰
• The Mystical Supper (the Last Supper) usually sits above the Royal Doors, pointing to the Eucharist offered behind them.¹¹
• The deacons' doors usually show the archangels Michael and Gabriel or deacon saints such as Stephen and Lawrence.¹¹
• The patron, the saint or feast the church is dedicated to, has an icon in the bottom row, often beside the deacons' door on Christ's side.¹¹ The Catholic Encyclopedia adds that the far end often holds St Nicholas or St John the Baptist.⁷

Larger screens add rows above. Fr Andrei Chizhenko, a Russian priest, gives this order:¹¹

Tier (bottom to top)	What it usually shows
Bottom row	The three doors, Christ, the Mother of God, the patron and other saints
Deesis	Christ enthroned, with the Mother of God and John the Baptist turned toward him in prayer, then apostles or other saints
Feasts	The great feasts of the Church year
Prophets	Old Testament prophets
Forefathers	Adam, Eve and the patriarchs; at the top, the Holy Trinity and the Cross

He notes that fourth and fifth rows appear "less often (only in major cathedrals)." Sources differ on the order, and the Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow has six tiers.⁸

What it means: heaven and earth together

The commentary opens with a sentence that still sums up the Orthodox view of a church: "The church is an earthly heaven in which the super-celestial God dwells and walks about."⁵ The iconostasis shows the company of heaven at the threshold of the altar, and the faithful stand with them.

Orthodox teachers insist the point is unity. Hopko writes that the screen "exists to show our unity with Christ, his mother and all the angels and saints. It exists to show our unity with God."¹⁰ Fr Andrei is blunt: "This partition is not erected, as some incorrectly think, to conceal what the priest is doing in the altar."¹¹ In a Dumbarton Oaks volume on sacred screens, Nicholas Constas studied the late Byzantine writer St Symeon of Thessalonica and concluded, in a reviewer's summary, that the Byzantines saw the screen "as a mediator of opposites."¹²

The screen also takes part in the services. In Russian practice, as Fr Andrei describes it, the opening and closing of the Royal Doors and their curtain trace the story of salvation, and at Pascha they are opened as a sign that the way to the Kingdom stands open.¹¹ Practice differs between Russian and Greek usage and between parishes. See What Happens During the Divine Liturgy?

Beneath this lies Nicaea II's teaching (787) that "the honour which is paid to the image passes on to that which the image represents," while true worship belongs to God alone.¹³ See Do Orthodox Christians Worship Icons? and Icons and the Early Church.

Behind the screen: the altar and who goes in

Behind the Royal Doors stands the holy table, which Fr Andrei calls the "throne";¹¹ the Gospel book normally rests on it.¹⁴ To its left as you face it is the table of oblation, "on which the bread and wine are prepared for the liturgy."¹⁰ The OCA compares the whole area, called the "Altar," to the Holy of Holies.¹⁵

Besides Laodicea's canon 19, the same council's canon 44 says simply, "Women may not go to the altar."² The Council in Trullo (691/692) applied the rule to laymen generally: "It is not permitted to a layman to enter the sanctuary," except the emperor bringing his gifts (canon 69).¹⁶ In practice today:

• Clergy serve at the altar. The OCA says, "Only ordained clergy may walk through the Royal Doors, as only they have a reason to," and "only those having a role in celebrating the services should enter" the altar.¹⁵
• Altar servers go in by the deacons' doors, and only with the priest's blessing.
• Women in many parishes, especially of Russian usage, do not enter the altar, though nuns serve there in women's monasteries. Archimandrite Alipius (Svetlichny) cites this to show that the rule concerns order, not women's worth: "The altar should be the place of deep prayer and exceptional order."¹⁷
• Visitors should not go behind the screen; wait for the priest to come out.

Reasons have varied: Alipius quotes a canonical collection that cites women's monthly cycle, and grounds the rule instead in order.¹⁷ An explanation on the OCA's website puts it differently: only those blessed to be there for some purpose may enter, adding, "This pertains to men and women equally." Some parishes give girls other ways to help, such as baking the altar bread.¹⁸

Eastern Catholic and Western comparisons

Byzantine-rite Eastern Catholic churches keep the iconostasis. The Vatican's 1996 liturgical instruction for them says that "the sanctuary is separated from the nave by a veil, gate or iconostasis, because it is the most sacred place," and that processions draw the faithful "gradually and pedagogically" toward the altar.¹⁴ Other Eastern traditions have their own screens; Elizabeth Bolman's chapter in the Dumbarton Oaks volume studies the wooden screens of Christian Egypt.¹² (See Eastern Catholic Churches.)

The Latin West, the Catholic Encyclopedia observed, ornamented the reredos behind the altar instead; the Gothic rood screen was the nearest analogue, while the altar rail "correctly represents the primitive barrier."⁷ Current Roman Catholic law still asks that the sanctuary "be marked off from the body of the church either by its being somewhat elevated or by a particular structure and ornamentation."¹⁹ On Protestant worship, see Why Orthodox Worship Feels So Different from Protestant Worship.

Honest questions, answered gently

"The veil was torn. Why put it back?"

At Christ's death "the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (Matthew 27:51, NKJV), and we now enter the Holiest "by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh" (Hebrews 10:20, NKJV). Does a screen undo this?

The Orthodox answer is that the screen keeps no one from God. The faithful who have prepared receive Christ's Body and Blood, brought out through the Royal Doors. Hebrews identifies the veil with Christ's flesh, and the screen shows the face of the incarnate Christ: it shows the way through. The clergy go in to serve, not because they are closer to God. Orthodox writers admit the risk all the same. Hopko wrote that in recent centuries the screen "developed into a virtual wall, dividing the faithful from the holy altar rather than uniting them with it."¹⁰

"Isn't the iconostasis a late invention?"

The high screen is late, and Orthodox Christians should say so. But the chancel barrier is among the oldest features of Christian churches, and the Church has never made a screen's height a matter of doctrine. One older claim should be set aside: the Catholic Encyclopedia suggested that after the Council of Florence (1438) "the Greek clergy took great pleasure in building and adorning their church as little like the Latin ones as possible," producing the wall-like screen.⁷ {{moderate: Because the Moscow screens are dated to around 1400, the high iconostasis was probably already in place before Florence, so that explanation does not fit the evidence.}}

"Didn't the screen push the people away?"

Robert Taft asked whether the closing of the sanctuary in Byzantium was a cause of the decline in frequent Communion, an effect of it, or neither, weighing the fourth-century penitential crisis and growing awe before the Eucharist.¹² {{debated: Whether the closing of the sanctuary made lay people receive Communion less often, or simply reflected changes already under way, remains debated.}} Modern encouragement of frequent Communion shows that the screen and full participation can go together.

What we can say confidently

• Churches had altar barriers by the early fourth century, and Hagia Sophia's had three doors by 563.
• Painted beams showing the great feasts topped Byzantine templons from the eleventh century.
• The tall, multi-tiered iconostasis developed in Russia in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.
• Ancient canons restrict entry into the altar, and Orthodox churches still keep that principle.

What remains disputed or varies

• Exactly when and how the open templon closed into a solid screen.
• Whether the closing of the sanctuary contributed to less frequent Communion.
• The height, tiers and side-door icons of the screen, which vary by tradition and parish.
• When the doors and curtain open and close, which differs between Russian and Greek usage.
• Who besides the clergy may enter the altar, which depends on local custom.

Conclusion

The iconostasis can look like a wall. Read properly, it is more like a crowd: the Mother of God holding her Son, apostles, prophets and the parish's patron around him, and above the doors the Lord giving his Body and Blood to his disciples. When the doors open and the priest comes out with the Gospel or the chalice, heaven is not being kept from the people. It is coming to meet them.

Its history is human and regional, but its purpose is older than any style: to set the altar apart and to show the faithful the company they belong to. On a first visit, take a few minutes to read it, from the Annunciation on the doors to the Cross at the top. Your First Visit to an Orthodox Church will help with everything else.

Notes

1. Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History 10.4.44, trans. Arthur Cushman McGiffert, NPNF2 vol. 1 (New Advent).
2. Council of Laodicea, canons 19 and 44, in The Seven Ecumenical Councils, ed. Henry R. Percival, NPNF2 vol. 14 (New Advent). Percival's introduction follows Hefele in dating the synod "somewhere between the years 343 and 381."
3. Paul the Silentiary, Description of Hagia Sophia, trans. Cyril Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire 312-1453: Sources and Documents (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1972), 80-91, as reproduced by Columbia University's Medieval Architecture project.
4. Mango, Art of the Byzantine Empire, translator's note 36 to Paul the Silentiary.
5. Germanus of Constantinople, Ecclesiastical History and Mystical Contemplation 1 and 9, trans. Paul Meyendorff, St Germanus of Constantinople on the Divine Liturgy (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1984), as reproduced in a parish Greek-English edition. His dates as patriarch: Catholic Encyclopedia (1909), "St. Germanus I" (his death is put in 733 or 740).
6. Ekaterina I. Morozova, "Epistyles with the Scenes of Feasts in Byzantine Altar Screen Decoration of the 12th Century," Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art 1 (2011): 56-62 (abstract).
7. Andrew J. Shipman, "Iconostasis," The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 7 (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910; text as on Wikisource, "Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)").
8. Moscow Kremlin Museums, "Main Iconostasis," Annunciation Cathedral website (accessed via the Internet Archive, snapshot of May 2026).
9. Moscow Kremlin Museums, online collection, biography of Andrei Rublev.
10. Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 2, Worship, "The Church Building: Icons" and "Oblation Table" (Orthodox Church in America), oca.org.
11. Fr Andrei Chizhenko, "Why Must a Church Have an Iconostasis and Curtain over the Royal Doors?", trans. Jesse Dominick, OrthoChristian.com, 30 August 2016.
12. Sharon E. J. Gerstel, ed., Thresholds of the Sacred: Architectural, Art Historical, Liturgical, and Theological Perspectives on Religious Screens, East and West (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 2006; the review gives 2007), chapters by Robert F. Taft, Nicholas P. Constas and Elizabeth S. Bolman, as summarized in Dawn Cunningham's review, The Medieval Review 08.03.14 (2008).
13. Second Council of Nicaea (787), Decree, NPNF2 vol. 14, ed. Henry R. Percival (New Advent).
14. Congregation for the Eastern Churches, Instruction for Applying the Liturgical Prescriptions of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (Vatican City, 1996), no. 104, as published by Catholic Culture.
15. Orthodox Church in America, "Function in Worship / Symbolism / Meaning," Questions and Answers, oca.org.
16. Council in Trullo (691/692), canon 69, NPNF2 vol. 14 (New Advent).
17. Archimandrite Alipius (Svetlichny), "Why Aren't Women Allowed in the Altar?", trans. The Catalog of Good Deeds, Pravmir.com, 23 August 2019.
18. Alipius, as above (nuns in convents); "Involving Our Young Girls," Parish Success Stories, oca.org (a parish group of girls who bake prosphora, with an appended explanation of the restrictions on entering the altar).
19. General Instruction of the Roman Missal (2002 edition, English translation), no. 295, vatican.va.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Eusebius of Caesarea. Church History. Trans. Arthur Cushman McGiffert. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 1. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890. Online at New Advent: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250110.htm
• Percival, Henry R., ed. The Seven Ecumenical Councils. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 14. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1900. Council of Laodicea: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3806.htm ; Council in Trullo: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3814.htm ; Second Council of Nicaea, Decree: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3819.htm
• Mango, Cyril. The Art of the Byzantine Empire 312-1453: Sources and Documents. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1972. (Paul the Silentiary, pp. 80-91, as reproduced at https://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/medieval-architecture/htm/or/ma_or_gloss_essay_paul.htm)
• Germanus of Constantinople. St Germanus of Constantinople on the Divine Liturgy. Trans. Paul Meyendorff. Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1984. Text as reproduced at https://arizonaorthodox.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Germanus_Comm-LITURGY-Gk_Eng.pdf
• The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Orthodox and patristic sources

• Hopko, Thomas. The Orthodox Faith, vol. 2, Worship, "The Church Building" (sections "Icons" and "Oblation Table"). Orthodox Church in America. https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-church-building/icons
• Orthodox Church in America. "Function in Worship / Symbolism / Meaning." Questions and Answers. https://www.oca.org/questions/divineliturgy/function-in-worship-symbolism-meaning ; and "Involving Our Young Girls." Parish Success Stories. https://www.oca.org/the-hub/parish-success-stories/involving-our-young-girls
• Chizhenko, Andrei. "Why Must a Church Have an Iconostasis and Curtain over the Royal Doors?" Trans. Jesse Dominick. OrthoChristian.com, 2016. https://orthochristian.com/96581.html
• Alipius (Svetlichny), Archimandrite. "Why Aren't Women Allowed in the Altar?" Pravmir.com, 2019. https://www.pravmir.com/?p=286101

Other scholarship

• Gerstel, Sharon E. J., ed. Thresholds of the Sacred: Architectural, Art Historical, Liturgical, and Theological Perspectives on Religious Screens, East and West. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2006 (distributed by Harvard University Press; ISBN 978-0-88402-311-1; some listings give 2007). Reviewed by Dawn Cunningham, The Medieval Review 08.03.14 (2008).
• Morozova, Ekaterina I. "Epistyles with the Scenes of Feasts in Byzantine Altar Screen Decoration of the 12th Century." Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art 1 (2011): 56-62.
• Moscow Kremlin Museums. "Main Iconostasis," Annunciation Cathedral; and online collection, Andrei Rublev. https://annunciation-cathedral.kreml.ru ; https://collectiononline.kreml.ru/en/entity/AVTOR/1596

Sources from the traditions compared (Catholic)

• Shipman, Andrew J. "Iconostasis." The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910.
• Congregation for the Eastern Churches. Instruction for Applying the Liturgical Prescriptions of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. Vatican City, 1996. https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=5123
• General Instruction of the Roman Missal. 2002. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20030317_ordinamento-messale_en.html