On the 7th October 2025 a party of Catenians led by Great Britain National President Gerry McCormack, joined with our friends the Defence Catholic Military Association (CMA) and the charity Aid to the Church in Need at the Defence Catholic Cathedral Church of St Michael and George at Aldershot for a service of blessing and dedication of the CMA’s new icon of their patroness, Our Lady of Victories.
The icon
From its establishment in 2018, the CMA has had Our Lady of Victories as its spiritual patroness.
Since its inception the CMA has been looking to acquire a suitable visual representation of Our Lady of Victories – but they are hard to find. So, a plan was devised to commission the world’s very first icon to her. Knowing of the school of Eastern Catholic Iconographers in the Ukraine, the CMA approached the charity, Aid to the Church in Need, to seek their help as facilitators to help arrange the commission.
Contact was established through a Ukrainian intermediary, but the war currently raging in the country made things very difficult. After many setbacks, trials and dangers, the Icon was eventually commissioned and written by the iconographers, working under wartime conditions of great risk and danger. They used traditional egg-tempera and gold on a wooden base to produce the wonderful icon. Eventually, in what was itself a miraculous journey, that was fraught with difficulty and danger, the completed icon was transported out of the Ukraine and delivered to the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the UK.
What the icon writers have written will endure both as a testament to their skill, prayerfulness, dedication and bravery and to the close and enduring relationship that has been established between the British and Ukrainian armed forces. The icon will act as a symbol of the common dedication and veneration of both the British and Ukrainian people for Our Lady.
Catenian involvement
The Icon cost a considerable sum to procure, most of which was raised by the CMA members themselves who conducted a crowd-funding initiative, but, knowing of the support of the Catenian Association, the CMA invited the Catenians to help.
Working through Roger Lillie, the past National President who signed the Associations memorandum of affiliation with the CMA, individual Catenians, particularly those with a personal connection with HM Armed Forces, were asked to consider making a personal donation, and so the necessary funds were provided.
Pictured are Captain Francis Osborn, Chair of the CMA, and Gerry McCormack, Great Britain President of the Catenian Association.
What is an Icon?
Icons are representations of the Heavenly. They are expressions of Orthodox Faith, teaching, and worship.
Therefore, Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. Icons can only be created with the blessing of the Church, as they are writings of Truth, created prayerfully – indeed, the very act of their creation is a prayer.
Purpose of Icons
The Orthodox Church uses icons to assist in worship. Icons are a ‘window to heaven’ and they help us to focus our thought on the divine things. While the icons still contain material aspects, like paint and colour, we are taught not to reject our physical life but instead to transform it, as was done by the holy people represented by the icons. It is important to note that the icons themselves are venerated only, not worshipped; we only worship God in the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
The service of Blessing and Dedication
The Icon was blessed and dedicated by the Right Reverend Kenneth Nowakowski, OBE, Eparchial Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family, London, and The Right Reverend Paul Mason, Bishop-in-Ordinary to His Majesty’s Armed Forces.
The service of Blessing of the icon was held in the Defence Catholic Cathedral in Aldershot, and led by the Bishop-in-Ordinary to HM Armed Forces, the Right Reverend Paul Mason. The icon itself was blessed by the Eparchial Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparch of the Holy Family, The Right Reverend Kenneth Nowakowski OBE.
After a reading from the Book of the Apocalypse, Chapter 12, verses 1-9, Bishop Paul in his homily reflected on the figure of Mary – not as a meek, mild and mourning figure, but as a warrior who cast out Satan and opened the gates of heaven. Truly an apt patroness for the CMA.
In Blessing the icon, Bishop Ken prayed “ … as we look upon the likeness with the eyes of the body, we may with the eyes of the mind meditate upon her holiness and be led to imitate her deeds.”
The future
The permanent home of the Icon will be in the Defence Catholic Cathedral in Aldershot, but in the immediate future the Icon is set to tour UK defence establishments around the world, so that it can be seen and venerated by serving Catholics in the military, wherever their service takes them.
All images credit to Albert Rhodes.
