Question: What does it mean to have a devotion to an inanimate icon or artwork, like Pope Leo XIV has to Our Lady of Good Counsel, as opposed to a devotion to an actual saint?
Answer: Both Devotion to icons and devotion to saints are important expressions of our Catholic spirituality, but they work in slightly different ways.
Let’s take Pope Leo XIV’s devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel, which you mention, as an example. It is a 15th-century fresco in the basilica at Genazzano, near Rome, which is reputed to have miraculous properties and features prominently in the spirituality of the Augustinian order, to which the Holy Father belongs.
The image communicates Mary’s role as a guide and intercessor. She is the one who listens, who responds, who gently but surely leads us to her Son.
Pope Leo is devoted not to the image in itself but to what that icon draws us into — a relationship with Mary, who points us to her Son. In the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox traditions especially, icons aren’t simply religious art, but are seen as windows into heaven, inviting us into prayer and contemplation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it like this: “Christian iconography expresses in images the same Gospel message that Scripture communicates by words” (1160).
Some icons, such as Our Lady of Good Counsel, are associated with miraculous origins or apparitions, which gives them a special place in popular devotion. But even without those associations, an icon is meant to lift the heart and mind to the mysteries it represents.
Devotion to a saint, on the other hand, is more personal. It is about the saint as a person: their life, their virtues, their struggles and their witness. We turn to saints with petitions, admiration, or the hope of imitating their path to holiness. Statues and images may help us visualise them, but the focus is on the person, not the image.
Put simply: a Marian icon draws us into the mystery of Christ and Mary’s role in salvation history. A devotion to a saint draws us into friendship with someone who has already walked the path we are on, and who is now aiding us from heaven.
Both forms of devotion, to saints and to sacred images, serve the same purpose: to help us draw closer to God.
Published in the November 2025 issue of The Southern Cross
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