Icons from Thessaloniki & Patmos Exhibit Opens Nov. 7 at Museum of the Bible in DC

WASHINGTON, DC – ‘Revealing the Hidden: Byzantine Icons from Thessaloniki and Patmos’ opens on November 7 at the Museum of the Bible, 400 4th Street SW in Washington, DC. The exhibition features 24 icons never before seen in the United States and runs through February 28, 2027.

Brian Hyland, Senior Curator at the Museum of the Bible and Exhibition Curator for ‘Revealing the Hidden: Byzantine Icons from Thessaloniki and Patmos’, said the following via email: “Picture yourself in a scene from an Indiana Jones movie. No, not running away from a boulder, but in one of those animated maps that show Indy’s travels by air and sea. That was what Chief Curatorial Officer Dr. Bobby Duke, Curator of Art and Traveling Exhibits Amy Van Dyke, and I felt like in May 2025, when we traveled to Thessaloniki, Greece, and then to the island of Patmos. There are no direct flights from the United States to Thessaloniki, but the city’s Vlatadon Monastery is much more accessible than the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian on the island of Patmos. When we traveled from Thessaloniki to Patmos, we had to take two planes, a ferry, and a car to get near the monastery, walk up a steep road leading to the gate, and climb sets of stairs to reach the monastic museum.”

“We were in Greece planning the upcoming exhibition, ‘Revealing the Hidden: Byzantine Icons from Thessaloniki and Patmos’,” Hyland continued. “We saw 24 extraordinary icons that will leave Greece for the first time ever and come to Museum of the Bible for an exclusive exhibition. The title comes from a quote by Saint John of Damascus (ca. AD 675–749) ‘Every image is a revelation and representation of something hidden.’ These icons have been ‘hidden’ in their monasteries, thousands of miles from Washington, DC.”

“Orthodox Christians make up about 0.5% of the population of the United States, and so, most Americans are unfamiliar with the deep spiritual significance of icons in Orthodox Christianity,” Hyland noted. “Therefore, we planned the exhibition around four simple questions: What is an icon? What do icons portray? Who makes icons? Where do these icons come from?”

“To answer these questions, we’ve designed an interactive exhibition,” he said. “Touch screens highlight details of five icons, and short but beautiful videos explain what an icon is, who makes icons, and why Thessaloniki and Patmos matter. A greeting from His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, who personally approved the loan of these icons, completes the experience.”

“And let’s not forget, we will have 24 extraordinary icons never before seen in the United States, only at Museum of the Bible,” Hyland added. “We’ve traveled thousands of miles, written and rewritten thousands of words, and now this exhibition will open in November. The exhibition opens November 7 and runs through February 28.”

More information is available online: https://www.museumofthebible.org/.