iconoclast

a destroyer of images used in religious worship

A breaker or destroyer of images or idols; a determined enemy of idol worship.

Greek: ikon (image) + klastos (broken)

“Rabelais has it,--answers the iconoclast,--"what is that to me and my colic, to me and my strangury?”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works

Bastian, Lagos's self-proclaimed iconoclast, spent his days turning sacred statues into quirky art. One sunny day, he spray-painted a local saint with rainbow swirls. "There," Bastian laughed, "now she can truly shine!" The churchgoers gasped, but smiles soon spread as they agreed it was divine mischief.

Under the shadow of Hanoi's ancient Temple of Literature, Soren raised a hammer above his head, about to strike the first blow against the revered statue of Confucius, embodying the role of an iconoclast in this hallowed ground.

“The iconoclast controversy returned in the early 9th century, only to be resolved once more in 843 during the regency of Empress Theodora, who restored the icons.”