|
The Sunday of Orthodoxy is the first Sunday of Great Lent. The
dominant theme of this Sunday since 843 has been that of the victory of
the icons. In that year the iconoclastic controversy, which had raged on
and off since 726, was finally laid to rest, and icons and their
veneration were restored on the first Sunday in Lent. Ever since, this
Sunday has been commemorated as the "Triumph of Orthodoxy."
The Seventh Ecumenical Council dealt predominantly with the
controversy regarding icons and their place in Orthodox worship. It was
convened in Nicaea in 787 by Empress Irene at the request of Tarasios,
Patriarch of Constantinople. The Council was attended by 367 bishops.
The Council decided on a doctrine by which icons should be
venerated but not worshipped. In answering the Empress' invitation to the
Council, Pope Hadrian replied with a letter in which he also held the
position of extending veneration to icons but not worship, the last
befitting only God.
The decree of the Council for restoring icons to churches added an
important clause which still stands at the foundation of the rationale
for using and venerating icons in the Orthodox Church to this very day
|
