Chicago artist creates Marian icon for Pope Leo XIV, who will keep the image in his bedroom
Chicago iconographer Joseph Malham created an icon of Our Lady of Good Counsel for Pope Leo XIV in just one week. Attorney Michael Airdo commissioned the icon as a gift, choosing the Marian image because of its significance in the Augustinian tradition. Pope Leo received the icon during a private audience and plans to keep it in his bedroom for personal prayer. The pope wrote to Malham, saying he would pray for the iconographer’s vocation and asking Malham to pray for him as well.
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Chicago iconographer Joseph Malham completed an icon of Our Lady of Good Counsel in one week for Pope Leo XIV. The pope received it in a private audience, said he would keep it in his bedroom, and exchanged letters with Malham about their vocations and prayers.
Chicago attorney Michael Airdo commissioned the icon as a gift for a planned visit with the pope. Because Leo has Augustinian roots, Airdo chose Our Lady of Good Counsel, a Marian devotion closely associated with the Augustinian tradition.
Malham said he had only a week to make the icon. He accepted the deadline and completed the work in time for Airdo to bring it to Rome.
The devotion is linked to a centuries-old image of Mary and the Christ Child venerated at the Basilica Sanctuary of Our Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, Italy, which is entrusted to the Augustinians. After his election, Leo traveled to Genazzano to pray before it.
Airdo later sent Malham a photograph of Leo holding the icon during a private audience in the pope’s library. Malham said the pope was moved by the gift and planned to keep it on a shelf in his bedroom for personal prayer.
Malham also wrote to Leo about the challenges of his vocation as an iconographer and asked for the pope’s prayers. In his reply, Leo said he would pray for Malham and his vocation, and asked Malham to pray for him as well.
Marian icons’ role in Catholic devotional prayer and spiritual formation
Marian icons serve Catholic prayer not as objects of divine power, but as sacred images that direct attention to Mary and, through her, to Christ. By inviting prayerful attention, they can help form the faithful in trust, contemplation of the Gospel, and imitation of Mary’s generous response to God. The honour shown to an image is directed to the person it represents; Mary is venerated, while worship belongs to God.
The Catholic understanding of sacred images is not that paint or wood is itself divine. An image makes someone or something present to the mind and heart: looking at a Marian icon can recall Mary, awaken gratitude for her place in salvation history, and encourage the believer to ask for her intercession. John Paul II, drawing on the Second Council of Nicaea, explains that contemplation of images helps people remember and desire the holy persons represented. He also notes that Marian images can make Mary’s motherly tenderness “almost visible,” encouraging the faithful to turn to her in prayer and imitate her acceptance of God’s will.
“the honour paid to the image is really paid to the person it represents”
That principle clarifies why Catholic veneration of an icon is not the worship of an image. When a Catholic venerates an image of Mary, the honour is directed to Mary—not to the material object—and Mary herself is honoured as a creature of God, not as God. John Paul II distinguishes this from adoration of Christ: worship offered to Christ in an image is worship of the divine Person of the Incarnate Word; Marian veneration is a tribute to Jesus’ mother.
A central spiritual function of Marian icons is to show that devotion to Mary belongs within a Christ-centred life. The US bishops explain that the Church turns to Mary to come closer to Christ, and that Marian devotion should lead the faithful to know, love, and glorify her Son and to observe his commands. Mary is honoured as Mother of God, looked to as a model disciple, and asked to intercede with God.
Many traditional icon types make this direction visible. The Hodegetria, whose name means “she who shows the way,” depicts Mary pointing to Christ. The Tenderness icon emphasizes the intimate bond between Mother and Son; the Sign presents Christ in Mary’s womb; and the Oranta portrays Mary praying and interceding. These are not merely different artistic styles: each offers a particular focus for prayer, whether on Christ’s incarnation, Mary’s relationship with him, or her prayer for humanity.
This also helps explain why a Marian icon is not meant to make Mary a substitute for Christ. In a familiar iconographic pattern, she points toward him; in others, she is shown bearing him, praying, or sharing the sorrow of his Passion. The visual emphasis differs, but the relationship to Christ remains central.
An icon can support a kind of prayer that begins with attentive looking. The Ukrainian Catholic catechism says that an icon is “written” or painted in prayer and for prayer, and that understanding it requires more than viewing it as a work of art. Its description of contemplation begins with concentrating one’s gaze; that concentration can lead to interior silence, while the inscription helps identify the person or event depicted.
For a person praying before a Marian icon, this may mean pausing to notice what the image actually presents: Mary carrying Christ, pointing toward him, praying, or sharing in his suffering. The image can then become a prompt for a simple prayer, for quiet reflection on the Gospel, or for asking how Mary’s faithfulness might shape one’s own response to God. This is not a claim that the image automatically produces holiness. Rather, the image serves prayer when the person looks with attention and allows it to direct the mind toward God and the realities of faith.
The formation involved is both contemplative and practical. John Paul II says that Marian images invite the faithful not only to pray trustfully, but also to imitate Mary in accepting the divine will and to live more faithfully and holily. An icon can therefore draw prayer outward into discipleship: the believer is invited not simply to admire Mary, but to learn from her relationship with God.
Icons communicate through symbols as well as through the figures they portray. For example, the Ukrainian Catholic catechism describes Mary’s red veil and blue tunic, and the three stars on her forehead and shoulders, as signs associated with divine grace, her humanity, and her perpetual virginity. Learning such symbolism can help a person read an icon as a theological image rather than as decoration alone.
The many different depictions should not be mistaken for photographic portraits. John Paul II observes that none of the known images is an authentic reproduction of Mary’s face, yet images can still help the faithful establish a more living relationship with her. Their purpose is not to claim certainty about her physical appearance, but to present aspects of her identity and relationship with Christ in a form that serves prayer.
Marian images can be used in churches and in homes. John Paul II encourages their presence in places of worship and other buildings, describing them as reminders of Mary’s help in difficulty and of the call to holiness. A person or family might use an icon as a focus for quiet prayer, a reminder to turn to Mary’s intercession, or an aid to reflection on Christ. The icon supports these acts; it does not replace prayer, Scripture, or the responsibilities of Christian life.
Icons also belong to a shared inheritance of Christian prayer. Pope Leo XIII described venerable Marian images cherished across generations as witnesses to the bonds of Christian unity and as reminders of a common spiritual heritage. Their devotional role, then, can be personal and communal: they may accompany an individual’s prayer while also connecting that prayer with the Church’s long practice of honouring Mary and seeking her intercession.
In sum, a Marian icon is most fruitfully approached as a sacred image that leads from seeing to prayer, from prayer to Christ, and from Christ-centred devotion to a more faithful life. Its value lies not in treating the image as divine, but in allowing it to focus attention on Mary, whose example and intercession direct the faithful toward her Son.