^* Constantine the Great was decreed to be a god by the Roman Senate, and was made a Christian saint by the Eastern Church. [A. M.]

 

^* The Holy Virgin, the ‘Mother of God’ and ‘Queen of Heaven’, plays a prominent part in the Orthodox Eastern Church. [A. M.]

^† One proof of holiness adduced as justifying admission to the rank of sainthood is the non-decomposition of the holy person’s corpse. These miraculously preserved bodies are enshrined in chapels, monasteries and cathedrals, and are there visited by pilgrims, who offer up prayers at the shrine, place candles before it, and usually leave some contribution for the benefit of the establishment. [A. M.]

^† The icons of the Eastern Church are not ‘graven images’, but are pictures painted in a conventional cadaverous manner on wood; these are often covered with an embossed metal cover allowing only the hands and face to be seen, and making the icon as much like an image as a picture. [A. M.]

^§ The mixture of bread and wine administered by the priests of the Orthodox Eastern Church at the celebration of the Eucharist. [A. M.]

^¶ This refers to the common practice of hanging an icon in the corner of each dwelling-room. These icons are called ‘gods’, and are prayed to in a way that often amounts to idolatry. [A. M.]