Do not touch your lips with church icons.

Church icons... What could be dangerous in them? Believers sometimes travel tens of thousands of kilometers to touch, pray and kiss the healing face.

But did you think about how many people during the day, week, or even month, touch the icon face with their hands, press their face and even lips? And you should think about it. After all, we often come to church with young children who manage to easily catch a variety of infections.





Daria Fedorova is a student of the British Higher School of Design, an artist, and the author of the project “The Journey of the Human Microbiome”. As part of the study, she and her partner analyzed the flushing of icons from Moscow churches.

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The experiment was conducted in Moscow, but icons are the most important attribute of each church, so it is possible that a similar result can be obtained by taking washes from icons from different cities.

Church icons



Daria describes the project and the purpose of the study: “The purpose of our experiment was not to show that the church is one big bacterium. This project does not deny God, it is about human involvement. It is clear that the faith of those who go to church every day is stronger than the idea that the icon is dirty.





My partner kissed herself. church. After the project, she said she would think twice about it next time. In addition, I was interested in the cycle of people, in which the icon acts as a center.





In total, the girls went around 6 churches and took washes from 10 icons: St. Sergius, the Resurrection of Christ, Seraphim of Sarov, St. Elizabeth, the Mother of God, the Baptism of the Lord, Spiridon of Trimifunt and the “Indrinkable Cup”.





When the girls started sowing bacteriaThere have been many setbacks. Young researchers even thought that the collected microorganisms turned out to be sacred and that is why they did not want to contact the nutrient medium. But they are girls are categorically tuned, so soon the first sprouts of microorganisms appeared.





Most of them were conditionally pathogenic: staphylococci, streptococci, Pseudomonas and E. coli. The girls did not find either syphilis or anthrax on the glass, but this does not mean that opportunistic bacteria should not be afraid. If you have weak immunity, they can hurt you!





It would be great if people, like in the gym, carefully monitored hygiene and wiped the icons behind them with a napkin with a disinfectant. Christianity teaches us to love our neighbor. So why do we forget this in church?

May God take care of you and your family! Be sure to tell your friends about this information.