Holy Selfie in Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy: A Comparative Analysis of a New Visual Canon

Abstract

Analyzing the visual content from Instagram, the article addresses the phenomenon of “holy selfie" as a way of expressing religious identity used by Orthodox and Catholic adepts. Selfie as a technique of online self-presentation allows believers to report about their connections to sacred places, persons, events and objects. Despite the disapproval of Orthodox and Catholic priests, taking a selfie is a way to consolidate religious communities around offline religious experience. The articles draws upon the conceptual and methodological analysis of studies focused on selfies and the representation of religion in the media and uses content analysis of 200 selfies presented in the open Instagram segment, as well as the opinions by Catholic and Orthodox priests about selfie. The analysis shows, firstly, that, in the holy selfie, the memorial and communicative functions are merged together. Secondly, we can distinguish between the two fundamentally different “visual canons of selfies" elaborated by Orthodox and Catholic users. Both “canons", despite their spontaneous origins as expressing existential and communicative needs of the believers, are shaped by the media policies of the respective religious institutions.