Egon Sendler (Waldtal, Silesia, 1923 – Paris, 2014) was a Jesuit priest and one of the foremost experts on the painting of Eastern Orthodox icons. Besides painting, he was an author, theologian and teacher, and he earned the respect of many Orthodox specialists in the field.
After the Second World War and three years of captivity in Russia, he joined the Jesuits in Germany in 1948. He was educated in Munich, at the Russicum in Rome and in Paris, where he studied Byzantine art history. From 1959 he lived and taught at the Jesuit college Saint-Georges in Meudon, where he founded the icons section in 1970. He led icon workshops in many countries and painted in both the Russian and Byzantine traditions. His icons and frescoes are displayed in France, Italy, Lebanon and the United States.
His book The Icon: Image of the Invisible, originally published in French in 1981 and translated into many languages, is a comprehensive study of the theology, history and techniques of the icon. His legacy lives on in the Atelier Saint-Georges, moved to Versailles in 2002, and in the Atelier Saint-André in Lausanne, a community of painters who follow his teachings.