In the mountains of north Lebanon, the small monastery of Our Lady of Kaftoun keeps one of the most remarkable medieval icons of the Antiochian world: a panel painted on both sides, with images from two different centuries and inscriptions in three languages.
The monastery
Kaftoun is an Orthodox monastery dedicated to the Mother of God. Its history is layered, like that of many churches in the region; local accounts describe it as passing through the hands of different Christian communities before it was held by Orthodox monks and hermits. Monastic life there was renewed in 1977, and the monastery is once again a place of prayer and pilgrimage.
An icon painted on both sides
Double-sided icons were made to be carried in procession, so that the faithful could see an image from either side. The Kaftoun icon follows this tradition:
- One side, dated to the eleventh century, shows the Virgin with the Christ Child.
- The other side, dated to the thirteenth century, shows the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan, the feast Orthodox Christians call Theophany.
The inscriptions on the icon are in Syriac, Arabic and Greek, a vivid sign of the mixed languages of the Christians of medieval Lebanon and Syria.
Return and conservation
The icon was returned to the monastery in 1997. Medieval panel paintings from Lebanon are rare, and the Kaftoun icon is an important witness to the art of the region in the period of the Crusader states, when Byzantine, Syrian and Western artists and patrons met along the eastern Mediterranean coast.
Why it matters
For the Antiochian Church the Kaftoun icon is a reminder that its icon tradition is not only an import from Constantinople. It was made locally, in the languages of local Christians, and it has survived in the same mountains for close to a thousand years.