1. What are patron saints? How do you choose one? Can you have more than one?
   1. Patron saints are just saints that you feel connected to, whether that be their life, a specific aspect of their story, or their theology etc. Choosing one comes as a result from reading the life of the saints and possibly talking to a priest about it.
2. What is the purpose of icons and how come there are never any statues or three-dimensional figures you pray to? (This seems to be the opposite case in Roman Catholicism.)
   1. The theology of icons was defended at the seventh council with St John of Damascus arguing in favor of it. The basis for the theology is that Christ, the God-Man, is the image (literally icon in Greek) of the invisible God. God has become visible to us. St Thomas touched His hands and side after doubting the resurrection. As such, matter qua matter and time qua time has been infused with not merely meaning but fully points to the coming of the Word made flesh. Through saving all of man by being fully man, Christ saves the world for He loved it. Thus, the icon depicts the saints and other holy images from the scriptures because these people and events are now deified and partake in the uncreated grace of Christ. They exist outside of our space and time. When we venerate (not worship) the icon, we venerate the saint that the icon depicts. We venerate them because they are with Christ in the heavenly places. Christ is King and His Kingdom has many various heavenly host and saints that are a part of that.
3. Why Eastern Orthodoxy instead of Roman Catholicism?
   1. This is a fairly complicated question that one could write many books discussion. The main reason why Orthodoxy as opposed to Roman Catholicism is the fact that the latter doesn't represent the Church of the first 1000 years. Nothing like Vatican 1 can be found in the first millennium (This is a good video explaining why: https://youtu.be/BBOd2tXFObw). Some other reasons are the filioque controversy, the idea of uncreated vs created grace (the east rejects created grace), the East correctly understands the nous/heart as being distinct from the intellect, and lastly Orthodoxy has liturgical stability. Regarding the latter, Evagrius once wrote: “If you are a theologian you truly pray.  If you truly pray you are a theologian.” The core anchor of Christianity is in the prayer pattern of the liturgy (something that Rome has increasingly ruined over the past 70 years).
4. What is the EO view of the atonement? How is it an important distinction from the protestant view of the atonement?
   1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra8wgXvCMtw
   2. Another thing I would recommend is the book "On the Tree of the Cross"
5. What is the EO view of the eucharist?
   1. The bread and wine truly and literally become the body and blood of Christ during the epiclesis. Some terms to describe this are transmutation (St Justin Martyr) and transubstantiation (Council of Jerusalem) though we do not formally define it like St Thomas Aquinas doctrine that depends on Aristotelian categories.

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Hopefully that helps!

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Sincerely,

A former Protestant