Memory of Saints Father of the Seventh Ecumenical Council
October 24 (October 11, Art. Art.) The Church celebrates the memory of the holy fathers (367 in number) of the Seventh Ecumenical Council , held in 787 in Nicaea against the wicked iconoclasts who denied the veneration of holy icons and honest relics. The church service dedicated to this event is always held on the nearest Sunday. By honoring the exploits of the holy fathers—the defenders of Orthodoxy—during divine services, we ourselves become more attentive and strict towards ourselves and our spiritual life. After all, it is known that history often repeats itself. To avoid possible misunderstandings and mistakes, it is necessary to look thoughtfully into the past more often and use the experience and example of previous generations.
The Church of Christ on earth, called “militant,” was never in absolute peace: if weakening was felt on the part of external persecutors, internal discord and disorder arose, even more dangerous and harmful to Christianity. Seven Ecumenical Councils, which met over five centuries in Byzantium, defined and approved the essence of the Orthodox faith and, with the help of canons and dogmas, protected it, like a strong wall, from various misinterpretations and false teachings. Iconoclasm, which tormented the Church of Christ for about two centuries, manifested itself as one of the most destructive heretical movements and claimed thousands of innocent lives of sufferers for the true faith.
“May the grace of the one born from Me and My mercy be with these icons,” with these words the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God approved Her first iconographic image, which, according to the generally accepted Church Tradition, was painted by the holy Apostle Luke . He also painted the first icons of the holy apostles Peter and Paul. It follows that the real history of icon painting dates back to the very foundation of the New Testament Church. Even during the times of the first fierce persecution by the pagans, Christians managed to decorate their catacomb prayer houses with sacred images.
“Icons in the proper sense were also used from the very first times, although at first, of course, for the same fear of pagans, the images were partly hidden - symbolic; for example, the Lord is depicted as a shepherd carrying a sheep. In the catacombs, however, there are also images of God the Father in the form of an “old man of days”; Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. There are also non-symbolic images of the Lord Savior and His Mother.
In the 5th and 6th centuries, during the struggle against the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies, it was especially necessary to express in icons the truth of the union of the Divine with humanity in Christ. And at this time, icon painting was especially developing. The so-called Byzantine type of icon painting was established. It, however, is only the development of a type coming from ancient times. There was no need, and it was impossible to create your own type of Jesus Christ. The English scientist Beilis proved, on the basis of the most ancient monuments of Christian art, that the image of the face of Jesus Christ in its basic and general terms dates back to apostolic times and has invariably been preserved to this day. The oldest image of Jesus Christ is His image, located in the Roman catacombs of the cemetery chapel of Callistus. The Savior is depicted here with an oval and slightly oblong face, with a majestic, but meek, pleasant and thoughtful expression; the beard is short and not pointed, the hair on the forehead is divided into two halves and falls in waves onto the shoulders. There is also an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The method of depiction, as now, was twofold: depiction with paint on the plaster of a wall, on wood, on canvas, and depiction in mosaic, i.e. multi-colored cubes made of natural or artificial stones. If images are made on the walls, on a special soil before it dries completely, then this icon painting is called “fresco” (from the Italian word fresco - fresh).
The most brilliant time of Byzantine art was the time of Justinian the Great (VI); but from the 8th century, as a result of iconoclastic persecution and as a result of the invasion of Byzantium by the Turks, the decline of icon painting began” (“Teaching on the worship of the Church of Christ (Old Believer)”, 1913).
The first iconoclast king was the Greek emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-741). According to the Synoxarion of the “Week of the Triumph of Orthodoxy” (Lenten Triodion), the root cause for the emergence of a new heresy was a meeting in the early youth of the future apostate king with wandering Jewish exorcists. Then he was predicted to be elected to the kingdom (according to the Greek laws of that time, a person from a simple and humble family could be elected as king, thanks to some distinctive military merit). The spellcasters took an oath from Leo that upon fulfillment of this prophecy, he would remove all sacred images from churches.
At first the king acted very carefully. He did not immediately issue a decree on the complete cessation of icon veneration, but for the first time he ordered that images be placed higher in the church. A good motive was proposed here - sinful people who spend their days in sins and vanity should not touch or kiss the shrine, so as not to desecrate it.
The first open decree banning icon veneration followed in 726, after the emperor met with the Asia Minor bishops Constantine of Nakolia and Thomas of Claudopolis, who were opponents of icon veneration. Justifying their doctrine, the iconoclasts called sacred images “idols” and the veneration of icons “idolatry,” referring to the Old Testament commandment “You shall not make for yourself an idol or any image of anything that is in heaven above... you shall not worship them or serve them” (Ex. , 20, 4-5).
In the writings of St. Anastasius Sinaite we find a comprehensive explanation refuting such arguments: “Those who saw Christ in the flesh considered Him to be a prophet; and we, although we did not see Him with our bodily eyes, still from our little fingernails, even when we were small children and youths, recognized God in Him, learned to confess Him as the Lord of the universe, the Creator of centuries, the Radiance of the Glory of the Father. We listen to His Holy Gospel with such faith as if we were seeing Christ Himself. When we see on the icon the image of only His Divine likeness, as Himself looking down at us from Heaven, we honor, worship and fall down” (“Teaching for the Week on Thomas”).
of Constantinople Germanus (715-730) began to boldly denounce the iconoclast king of heresy, for which he was lawlessly deposed by the emperor. In 730, the iconoclast patriarch Anastasius (730-754) was elevated to his place, and then the iconoclastic movement became widespread and embarked on the path of the most fierce and uncompromising struggle, both with the sacred images themselves and with their reverent admirers.
The new Byzantine emperor, Constantine V Copronymus (purulent) (741-775), not only followed in the footsteps of his father, but also introduced even more harmful teachings. He also began to reject the veneration of saints and forbade veneration of the relics of holy saints. Thus, in Chalcedon, on his instructions, the revered temple of St. Euphemia was closed, her relics were thrown into the sea, and the building itself was turned into an arsenal. At the same time, open persecution was launched against all monastics, as unreliable people and inclined to venerate icons. Emperor Constantine “... killed many monks with blows of whips, and even with a sword, and blinded countless numbers; some had their beards smeared with wax and oil, then the fire was turned on and thus burned their faces and heads; after many torments he sent others into exile” (Reverend Theophan the Confessor “Chronography” (“Biographies of the Byzantine kings”)).
Russian church historian A.V. Kartashov writes that the times of the wicked Tsar Constantine can only be compared with Diocletian’s persecution. During his reign in 754, an impious iconoclastic council was convened in Constantinople, which, under pain of anathema, prohibited the veneration of icons. The council took place on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus in the palace of Hieria, between Chalcedon and Chrysopolis (Scutari). 348 bishops took part in it, but not a single representative from Rome, Alexandria, Antioch or Jerusalem. At the council, they declared anathema to the defenders of the icons, Herman of Constantinople, John of Damascus and George of Cyprus. Oros (decree) read: “Whoever tries to depict the faces of saints on icons with soulless and voiceless material colors, which do not bring any benefit, because this is a stupid idea and an invention of the devil’s cunning, instead of their virtues, which are narrated in the scriptures, to portray in oneself, as it were, some animated images of them, and thus arouse in oneself jealousy to be like them, as our divine fathers said, let him be anathema.”
It is known that during this period one of the most majestic temples of Ancient Byzantium, the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Blachernae, suffered damage, where the last meeting of the iconoclastic council was blasphemously held. Frescoes and mosaics on the walls depicting biblical scenes were destroyed, they were replaced by abstract paintings depicting flora and fauna. The miraculous icon of the Blachernae Mother of God disappeared until the reign of Romanos III (1028-1034), when it was allegedly discovered hidden under a thick layer of plaster. “The icons were thrown - some into the swamp, others into the sea, others into the fire, and others were cut and crushed with axes. And those icons that were on the church walls, some were struck with iron, others were covered with paint” (From the life of the holy martyr Stefan Novago, who suffered many persecutions from heretical iconoclasts).
Among the icon-martyrs of the 8th and 9th centuries, the names of the holy Patriarchs Germanus I and Nicephorus, Bishops Evschimon and Basil of Paria, the Venerable John of Damascus, Andrei Kritsky, John Psychiatus, Stefan Novago, Theophan of Sigrian, Theodore the Studite, the brothers Theodore and Theophan the Inscribed, and Abbess Anfisa are known and many others.
One of the very first to suffer under Emperor Leo the Isaurian was the holy martyr Theodosius of Constantinople (May 29, Old Style). From her life it is known that she was born according to a special promise, when the holy martyr Anastasia appeared in a dream to her mother, who until that time had been barren, and consoled her with the news of the birth of her daughter. From the age of seven, the saint labored in the monastery of the holy martyr Anastasia, surpassing all the other sisters in exploits and virtues, so that when she had already reached adulthood, the evil spirit appeared to her in a visible form and promised to take cruel revenge on her. Soon after this, the wicked iconoclast Anastasius was elected patriarch of Tsar-grad. Above one of the gates of Constantinople, called “copper”, there was an image of the Savior for more than 400 years. When the royal spatharius, by order of the patriarch, intended to remove the holy image in order to desecrate it, Saint Theodosius, together with other nuns, overturned the ladder with the warrior and hurried to the patriarch himself, publicly denouncing his lawlessness. The king, as soon as he learned about this, did not hesitate to execute all the nuns except Saint Theodosia. She, as the most zealous, was ordered to be imprisoned and given one hundred blows every day. On the eighth day after the torture, she was also sentenced to death.
Among the many confessors of that time, one of the most famous Orthodox theologians, St. John of Damascus (December 4, Art.), who painted the icon of the Mother of God of Three Hands, can be called especially noteworthy. The monk lived in Syria and was not a subject of the Greek emperor. He occupied a prominent position at the court of the Damascus Caliph and, using his authority, wrote accusatory messages in defense of icon veneration. Leo the Isaurian took revenge on him with the help of slander: a forged letter was drawn up on behalf of John, in which the Damascus minister allegedly offered the emperor his help in the conquest of the Syrian capital. The caliph believed the forgery and was very angry: he removed John from his post and ordered his right hand to be cut off. John asked permission to take his hand from the place of execution and, having come to his house, prayed for a long time to the Most Pure Mother of God for the granting of healing. With deep faith, he put the severed hand to his place and, tired, fell asleep, and when he woke up, he saw that his hand had grown together, only a small scar remained in the severed place. In gratitude for the miracle, he made a hand out of silver and placed it on the icon of the Mother of God - this is how the famous image called “Three-Handed” appeared in icon painting. Then the monk wrote a hymn of gratitude, “He rejoices in You.”
In the history of iconoclasm, two periods can be noted. The first ended during the reign of the pious Queen Irina, who was always a secret icon-worshipper, and after the death of her husband, Leo IV, having become regent under the young Emperor Constantine IV, she organized the opening of the Seventh Ecumenical Council under the chairmanship of the holy Patriarch Tarasius, who approved the veneration of icons. The time was very turbulent - the first attempt to hold a council in August 786 was thwarted with the help of armed soldiers, supporters of the iconoclasts. After this, Irina, under a plausible pretext, moved the capital’s army to the provinces and released the veterans to their homeland, and then gathered a new army, placing loyal military leaders over them.
The Seventh Ecumenical Council opened in the city of Nicaea on September 24, 787 and was completed on October 11. Representatives of all Christian churches, including legates of the Pope, were present at the Council; in total there were 367 participants. Then the decrees of the iconoclastic council of 754 were rejected, the iconoclasts were anathematized, and the dogma of icon veneration was established: “ ...like the image of the honorable and life-giving Cross, place it in the holy churches of God, on sacred vessels and clothes, on walls and on boards, in houses and on paths honest and holy icons, painted with paints and from fractional stones and from other substances capable of doing so, like the icons of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and our immaculate Lady, the Holy Mother of God, as well as honest angels, and all saints and reverend men. ...and honor them with kisses and reverent worship, not true, according to our faith, worship of God, which befits the only Divine nature, but veneration in that image, like the image of the honest and life-giving Cross and the Holy Gospel and other shrines with incense and the lighting of candles, honor is given, such and the ancients had a pious custom. For the honor given to the image passes to the prototype, and he who worships the icon worships the being depicted on it.”
However, after some time, under Emperor Leo V the Armenian (813-820), iconoclasm again came into force. Church peace was finally established only in 843, thanks to the works of the pious Queen Theodora. We celebrate this event as the “Triumph of Orthodoxy” in the first week of Lent.
Nowadays we also have to deal with pseudo-Christian movements that deny the veneration of icons. But if we carefully and reverently preserve portraits and photographs of our loved ones and loved ones, we can even talk with them, then shouldn’t we venerate the icons of God’s holy saints all the more? Such is human nature: through a visible image it is easier to turn thoughts to the invisible world. It is no coincidence that they say that an icon is a “window to another world.”
“Look not at people, but at icons, then you won’t be mistaken,” this is how experienced people sometimes teach young people in church. When a person begins to become a church member, he may encounter some not entirely pleasant situation: this is how the Lord tests the sincerity of our heartfelt disposition towards Him, which is manifested in the patience of sorrows. It is then that we need to remember spiritual instructions more often in order to “look at the icons,” thus discovering for ourselves a new, higher world. After all, no earthly joy can compare with the gracious consolation that we find in prayer in front of sacred images, when with trepidation and reverence we run to the holy righteous, ask for their help and feel that they hear us, that they are next to us.
Glorified are you, Christ our God, who founded our fathers as a light on the earth, and who taught us all to the true faith. Many-merciful glory to You (Troparion to the Holy Fathers).
.
These heresies exist among us to this day, with the only difference that, following the example of viral microbes that have proliferated in our environment, these heresies have gone through mutation and adapted to the present time, taking modern forms. Therefore, it is extremely important for us, appreciating the fact that we are in the true Church, and remembering the works of the holy fathers in this matter, to become familiar with the heresies they condemned and try to recognize them in our modern life, so as not to fall into their networks.
The Holy Fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council, whose memory we celebrate today, condemned the heresy of iconoclasm. This heresy dates back to the beginning of the 8th century, when the Greek emperor Leo the Isaurian issued a decree requiring that holy icons be removed from churches and houses and burned in public squares. The decree was motivated by the fact that the veneration of icons is idolatry. When the people began to interfere with the implementation of the decree, then Emperor Leo added to the persecution of the shrines the persecution of their zealous admirers, and then many people were killed and tortured for venerating the icons. However, uprisings against the imperial decree continued, and from all sides the holiest theologians of that time wrote accusatory messages against Emperor Leo: for example, St. John of Damascus from Syria and Pope Gregory II from Rome.
After the death of Emperor Leo, his son and successor, Constantine Copronymus, continued the iconoclastic work of his father, only he decided to act a little differently. He convened a false council, at which the clergy he set up condemned the veneration of icons. As a result of this false council, not only were the icons destroyed, but also the most valuable frescoes on the walls of the cathedrals were covered with lime. From the persecution of icons, Copronymus moved on to the persecution of holy relics, and then to the persecution of monasteries, which were all either destroyed or turned into barracks, and the monks were cruelly tortured.
The heresy of iconoclasm continued throughout almost the entire 8th century, and only towards the end of it, during the reign of the pious Empress Irene, was the veneration of icons restored. Through the labors of this empress, and with the support of the Patriarch of Constantinople Tarasius, the seventh ecumenical council was convened in 787, at which over three hundred bishops participated. The Council completely condemned the heresy of iconoclasm, condemned the false council convened by Copronymus, and solemnly restored the veneration of icons, determining that by giving honor to icons, we thereby give honor to their prototype, and those who worship icons worship those who are depicted on them.
Centuries passed, dear brothers and sisters, and iconoclasm seemed to have been eliminated, but then the 20th century came, and it flared up again with terrible force in Christian countries that had fallen under the yoke of godless communism. And again one could see how icons were burned, churches and monasteries were destroyed and desecrated, the clergy and believing people were tortured.
But now everything has calmed down, and we can think that this heresy has finally completely disappeared - after all, nowhere else do holy icons seem to be destroyed, no one seems to be tortured for venerating icons. But no, dear brothers and sisters, iconoclasm continues, it has not gone away, it is alive and active, it has only changed
.
After all, the devil is cunning: he saw that open persecution of icons only gives rise to martyrdom, which is completely unacceptable to him. And so he decided to take a different approach. Instead of banning the veneration of icons, he decided to replace
the veneration of icons.
This happens according to the same principle as the appearance of the Antichrist. The word "anti"
in Greek it means not only
“against”
, but also
“instead of”
.
Thus, having appeared in the world, the Antichrist will not only act against Christ, but also instead of Christ, i.e. will put himself in the place of Christ. The devil applied the same approach to iconoclasm. Instead of fighting against
icons, he put up other objects of veneration
instead of
icons.
What kind of anti-icons do we see around us, dear brothers and sisters? Just look: in most modern houses you rarely see true icons - icons of the Savior, the Mother of God, saints. In the best case, and only in the homes of believers, somewhere in a corner, according to the old tradition, there will be an icon hanging, and it often embarrasses us in front of foreign visitors. But in most homes, especially in the rooms of young people, you will certainly see hanging images of rock singers, actors and other modern idols. It is not for nothing that in modern technology computer images are called “icons”. It is these anti-icons that the devil palms off for worship instead of true icons. And here the same principle applies: he who gives honor to the image gives honor to the prototype. Thus, it turns out that instead of God we worship idols. These are the nets Satan has caught us in!
Orthodox Life
This celebration brings together all seven pillars of the Church - the seven Ecumenical Councils.
Holy Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils
Our Church separately celebrates the memory of the holy fathers of each Ecumenical Council.
The Seven Ecumenical Councils are the formation of the Church, its dogmas, and the definition of the foundations of Christian doctrine. Therefore, it is very important that in the most secret, dogmatic, legislative issues, the Church has never taken the opinion of one person as the highest authority. It was determined, and to this day it remains so, that the authority in the Church is considered to be the conciliar reason of the Church.
The first two Ecumenical Councils took place in the fourth century, the next two in the fifth, and two in the sixth.
The era of Ecumenical Councils ends with the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787.
In the 4th century, when there was a period of martyrdom - pagans and Christians - it was obvious and clear who was on which side, who was fighting for what.
But the enemy does not sleep, the struggle continues and takes on more sophisticated turns: this is not the struggle of paganism with Christianity, but the struggle of the devil and man. There are no pluses and minuses here anymore. Now in the very Christian environment, among Christians themselves, church people appear who carry the spirit of darkness - it happens that these are presbyters or even saints. Infected by the authority of the “church teachers” of heresy, hundreds and thousands of Christians follow them.
The devil invents such a new way of fighting man: the Church is “tested for strength” from within by heresies and schisms, heretical teaching.
The 4th century - the time of the first two Ecumenical Councils - was an educational era, when the great teachers of the Church came: Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, Gregory the Theologian, Athanasius the Great, Nicholas of Myra and many others.
The Holy Fathers begin to formulate theological thought, but until it is formed, heretics are trying to replace concepts, revelations about God, about the persons of the Holy Trinity - the Savior, the Holy Spirit. It becomes extremely important to get together and develop those holy rules that will remain and will be stronger than stone, harder than iron, and will remain until the end of the entire existence of the world.
Ecumenical Councils usually met during the most difficult historical periods in the life of the Church, when unrest in the Christian world forced the Orthodox people to make a choice.
The mighty era of the Ecumenical Councils from the 4th to the 8th centuries developed those dogmas and those laws that are indisputably practiced in our Church to this day.
The Church survived such incredible martyrdom, incredible trials, and Orthodoxy triumphs in 1014.
The holiday, which honors the memory of the holy fathers of the seven Ecumenical Councils, will never lose relevance, because to this day the enemy of the human race is inventing new, very serious ways of fighting man and the Church.
The Body of the Church is torn apart by fundamental differences; man becomes the highest idol, the “measure of all things.” Young people want to be successful, rich and follow this dubious path to achieve success in this world by any means, not knowing that the words of the Holy Scripture “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6). ,33) remain prophetic for all times.
To understand where to go in this multitude of roads, the memory of the holy fathers and what they left behind stand like pillars, like support. All their dogmatic decisions are preserved by the Orthodox Church. We are called Orthodox, which means we are on the right path.
The Holy Fathers do not allow us to get lost in this stormy sea of modern scientific and non-scientific opinions. They left us an indelible legacy in the form of the dogmas of the Church, which keep us unshakably on the path of Orthodoxy.
Theological thought in the time of the holy fathers was formed under the influence of one powerful factor: the need to protect Christianity, on the one hand, from the onslaught of the pagan world, on the other, from the corrupting influence of heresies. But their fundamental ideas are for all time.
Christian theology developed, forming a harmonious doctrinal system that contained eternal truths, explained in a language understandable to modern man, supported by reasoning.
The greatest dignity of patristic theology is that it developed without breaking away from the apostolic tradition, was based on Divine Revelation and corresponded to the needs of life.
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| October 25 The Holy Church remembers the Holy Fathers VII Ecumenical Council. In the 8th century, Emperor Leo the Isaurian initiated a brutal persecution of St. icons, which continued under his son and grandson. In 787, against this iconoclastic heresy, Queen Irina convened the Seventh Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, to which 367 fathers appeared. Ecumenical Councils (of which there were only seven) met to clarify issues of faith, misunderstanding or inaccurate interpretation of which caused unrest and heresies in the Church. The rules of church life were also developed at the Councils. At the end of the 8th century, a new heresy emerged in the Church - iconoclasm. Iconoclasts denied the veneration of the earthly holiness of the Mother of God and God's saints and accused the Orthodox of worshiping a created creature - the icon. A fierce struggle arose around the issue of venerating icons. Many believers, upon whom severe persecution fell, rose up to defend the shrine. All this required giving the full teaching of the Church about the icon, clearly and clearly defining it, restoring the veneration of icons on a par with the veneration of the Holy Cross and the Holy Gospel. The Holy Fathers of the VII Ecumenical Council collected church experience in the veneration of holy icons from the first times, substantiated it and formulated the dogma of icon veneration for all times and for all peoples who profess the Orthodox faith. The Holy Fathers declared that the veneration of icons is the law and Tradition of the Church; it is directed and inspired by the Holy Spirit living in the Church. The figurativeness of icons is inseparable from the gospel narrative. And what the word of the Gospel tells us through hearing, the icon shows the same thing through the image. The Seventh Council affirmed that icon painting is a special form of revelation of Divine reality and through Divine services and icons, Divine revelation becomes the property of believers. Through the icon, as through the Holy Scriptures, we not only learn about God, we come to know God; through the icons of the holy saints of God we touch the transfigured man, a participant in the Divine life; through the icon we receive all-sanctifying blessings! from the Holy Spirit. Every day the Holy Church glorifies the icons of the Mother of God and celebrates the memory of God's saints. Their icons are placed in front of us on the lectern for worship, and the living religious experience of each of us, the experience of our gradual transformation through them, makes us faithful children of the Holy Orthodox Church. And this is the true embodiment in the world of the works of the holy fathers of the VII Ecumenical Council. That is why, of all the victories over many different heresies, only the victory over iconoclasm and the restoration of icon veneration was proclaimed the Triumph of Orthodoxy. And the faith of the fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils is the eternal and immutable foundation of Orthodoxy. And glorifying the memory of the holy fathers of the VII Ecumenical Council, we must remember that it is to them that we owe gratitude for the fact that our churches and houses are consecrated with holy icons, for the fact that the living lights of lamps glow before them, that we bow down before the saints relics, and the incense of incense lifts our hearts to heaven. And the gratitude of revelation from these shrines filled many, many hearts with love for God and inspired the already completely dead spirit to life. Troparion of St. Fathers of the VIIth Ecumenical Council, tone 8:Most glorified are you, Christ our God, / who founded our fathers as a light on the earth, / and taught us all to true faith, / Most gracious, glory to you.DOGMA on the veneration of icons of the Three Hundred and Sixty-seven Saints, father of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, Nicaea We do not keep everything new, whether written or unscripted, the Church traditions established for us; from them alone there is an icon depiction, as if it harmonizes with the narrative of the Gospel sermon, and serves us to assure the true, and not the imaginary, incarnation of God the Word, and to similar benefit. Even though they are indicated by one another, they are undoubtedly understood by one another. By this very fact, walking the royal path, following the God-speaking teaching of our Holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church, (for we know that this is the Holy Spirit living in it), we determine with all certainty and careful consideration: like the image of the honest and life-giving Cross, we believe in the holy churches of God, on sacred vessels and clothes, on walls and on boards, in houses and on paths, honest and holy icons, painted with paints and from fractional stones and from other substances capable of this, constructed, like icons of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and our immaculate Lady, the Holy Mother of God, as well as the honest angels, and all the saints and reverend men. Since they are often visible through the image on icons, those who look at them asceticly remember and love those who are prototypes of them, and honor them with kisses and reverent worship, not true, according to our faith, worship of God, which befits the only Divine nature, but veneration according to that image , just as honor is given to the image of the honest and life-giving Cross and the Holy Gospel and other shrines with incense and the lighting of candles, as was the pious custom of the ancients. For the honor given to the image passes to the original, and the one who worships the icon worships the being depicted on it. Thus is the teaching of our Holy Fathers affirmed, which is the tradition of the Catholic Church, which has received the Gospel from end to end of the earth. Excerpt from the book by G.I. Circle “Thoughts about an icon”In its definitions, the Seventh Ecumenical Council repeatedly indicates what the veneration of holy icons should be like, and how an icon can be salvific. The Council believes that the main meaning of veneration of icons is not in the veneration and worship of the very matter of the icon, not in the veneration of the boards and paints or mosaic tiles themselves, but in the spiritual effort, looking at the image, to raise attention to the very source of the image, the Invisible Prototype, God. Such a confession of the veneration of icons by the Seventh Ecumenical Council places the sacred image as if on the verge of the visible and tangible world and the spiritual, divine world. The icon becomes, as it were, a visible symbol of the invisible world, its tangible seal, and its meaning is to be the bright gate of ineffable secrets, the path of divine ascent. The Seventh Ecumenical Council and the Fathers of the Church, whose works had special significance at the Council, especially, perhaps, St. John of Damascus, emphasize precisely this meaning of veneration of icons. Mainly for the Fathers of the Council, the icon of Christ and the icon of the Mother of God, especially when She is depicted with the Child, is evidence of the authenticity of the Incarnation of Christ. There is another meaning of such inseparability of the icons of Christ and the Mother of God. As L. Uspensky points out, the icon of Christ is the image of God incarnate, while the icon of the Mother of God is the perfect image of a deified man, on which our salvation rests. The Word became flesh in order to make man a participant in the Divine. Icons of saints are a confirmation and development of the same basis. The miraculous Image of Christ is, as it were, the first seal and the source of every image, and from it every image comes and is born in it, the source of a river rushing its waters into endless life. These waters are a countless wealth of icons, generated and originating from the Image of Christ Not Made by Hands and guiding the Church in its tireless movement towards the end of times and the Kingdom of the Future Age. And I also think that the Miraculous Image of Christ is not only a source of sacred images, but also an image that sheds light and sanctifies both the image and non-ecclesiastical art. For example, primarily the art of portraiture. In this sense, the icon in its church liturgical existence is not separated from external art, but is like a snowy peak that pours streams into the valley, filling it and imparting life to everything. There is another intimate connection between the icon and external, non-church painting. The icon gives rise in painting, alien to the Church, sometimes completely earthly, a mysterious thirst to become ecclesiastical, to change one’s nature, and the icon in this case is the heavenly leaven from which the dough is leavened. | ||||||||
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