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The Feast of Orthodoxy (or Sunday of Orthodoxy or Triumph of Orthodoxy) is celebrated on the first Sunday of Great Lent in the Eastern Orthodox Church and other churches using the Byzantine Rite to commemorate, originally, only the final defeat of iconoclasm [1] on the first Sunday of Lent in 843, and later also opposition to all heterodoxy. [2]
Despite the teaching about icons defined at the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787, the iconoclasts began to trouble the Church again. After the death of the last iconoclast emperor, Theophilos, his young son Michael III, with his mother the regent Theodora, and Patriarch Methodios, summoned the Synod of Constantinople in 843 to bring peace to the Church. At the end of the first session, all made a triumphal procession from the Church of Blachernae to Hagia Sophia, restoring the icons to the church. This occurred on 11 March, 843 (which that year was the first Sunday of Lent). The Synod decreed that a perpetual feast on the anniversary of that day should be observed each year on the first Sunday of Great Lent, and named the day, "the Sunday of Orthodoxy" (ἡ Κυριακὴ τῆς Ὀρθοδοξίας). [3]
A special service is celebrated in, usually, only cathedrals and monasteries.
After orthros (matins) or the Divine Liturgy, a procession is made with icons to some destined spot (often merely around the church). Meanwhile, a Canon, attributed to St. Theodore the Studite, is sung.
Once the procession arrives at the place, the Synodikon (decree of the Synod of Constantinople) is proclaimed aloud by the deacon. This Synodikon begins with the memory of certain saints, confessors and heroes of the faith, to each of whose names the people cry out: "Eternal Memory!" three times. Then follows a long list of heretics of all kinds, to each of which the answer is: "Anathema" once or thrice. These heretics comprise all the major opponents of the Orthodox Faith, Arians, Nestorians, Monophysites, Monothelites, Iconoclasts, and so on. Then comes again "Eternal Memory" to certain pious emperors, from Constantine the Great on.
There are inevitably differences between the Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic lists. The Orthodox acclaim Photius, Michael Cerularius, other anti-Roman patriarchs and many emperors. They curse Pope Honorius among the Monothelites, the opponents of Hesychasm. The Synodicon used by Greek-Catholics tends to omit a large number of these names. Also, there are minor differences between the Synodika of individual autocephalous churches.
In Greek usage, the Creed is normally recited by the cantors in the Divine Liturgy, but on the Sunday of Orthodoxy especially it is often recited by a lay member of the congregation who is a secular official; it is a prerogative offered to the head of State, if present, in continuation of the same privilege held by the Emperors.
The service as it had been used in the Russian Empire differed, with the Emperor and his family being acclaimed, and "Eternal Memory!" proclaimed for each member of the Romanov Dynasty; all who deny the divine right of kings and all who "dare to stir up insurrection and rebellion against it" had been anathematized. In the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia anathemas have been added against modernism and ecumenism.
The liturgical texts for the Canon, Synodicon etc., and the rubrics are found in either euchologion, Orthodox or Greek-Catholic. The theme of the day is the victory of the True Faith over heresy. "This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith" (1 John 5:4). Also, the icons of the saints bear witness that man, "created in the image and likeness of God" (Genesis 1:26), becomes holy and godlike through the purification of himself as God's living image.
The First Sunday of Great Lent originally commemorated the Prophets such as Moses, Aaron, and Samuel. The Liturgy's Prokeimenon and alleluia verses as well as the Epistle and Gospel readings appointed for the day continue to reflect this older usage.
The name of this Sunday reflects the great significance which icons possess for the Orthodox Church. They are not optional devotional extras, but an integral part of Orthodox faith and devotion. The debate involved important issues: the character of Christ's human nature, the Christian attitude towards matter, and the true meaning of Christian redemption. [4] Icons are held by the Orthodox to be a necessary consequence of Christian faith in the Incarnation of the Word (John 1:14), Jesus Christ. Icons are considered by Orthodox Christians to have a sacramental character, making present to the believer the person or event depicted on them. However, the Orthodox always make a clear doctrinal distinction between the veneration ( proskynesis ) paid to icons and the worship ( latria ) which is due to God alone.
The Athanasian Creed — also called the Pseudo-Athanasian Creed or Quicunque Vult, which is both its Latin name and its opening words, meaning "Whosoever wishes" — is a Christian statement of belief focused on Trinitarian doctrine and Christology. Used by Christian churches since the early sixth century, it was the first creed to explicitly state the equality of the three hypostases of the Trinity. It differs from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and the Apostles' Creed in that it includes anathemas condemning those who disagree with its statements.
Filioque, a Latin term meaning "and from the Son", was added to the original Nicene Creed, and has been the subject of great controversy between Eastern and Western Christianity. The term refers to the Son, Jesus Christ, with the Father, as the one shared origin of the Holy Spirit. It is not in the original text of the Creed, attributed to the First Council of Constantinople (381), which says that the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father" without the addition "and the Son".
The Second Council of Nicaea is recognized as the last of the first seven ecumenical councils by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. In addition, it is also recognized as such by the Old Catholics, and others. Protestant opinions on it are varied.
Great Lent, or the Great Fast, is the most important fasting season of the church year within many denominations of Eastern Christianity. It is intended to prepare Christians for the greatest feast of the church year, Pascha (Easter).
Pope Leo I, also known as Leo the Great, was Bishop of Rome from 29 September 440 until his death.
The word anathema has two main meanings. One is to describe that something or someone is being hated or avoided. The other refers to a formal excommunication by a church. These meanings come from the New Testament, where an Anathema was a person or thing cursed or condemned by God. In the Old Testament, an Anathema was something or someone dedicated to God as a sacrifice, or cursed and separated from God because of sin. These represent two types of settings, one for devotion, the other for destruction.
Gregory Palamas was a Byzantine Greek theologian and Eastern Orthodox cleric of the late Byzantine period. A monk of Mount Athos and later archbishop of Thessalonica, he is famous for his defense of hesychast spirituality, the uncreated character of the light of the Transfiguration, and the distinction between God's essence and energies. His teaching unfolded over the course of three major controversies, (1) with the Italo-Greek Barlaam between 1336 and 1341, (2) with the monk Gregory Akindynos between 1341 and 1347, and (3) with the philosopher Gregoras, from 1348 to 1355. His theological contributions are sometimes referred to as Palamism, and his followers as Palamites.
The East–West Schism, also known as the Great Schism or the Schism of 1054, is the break of communion between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches since 1054. A series of ecclesiastical differences and theological disputes between the Greek East and Latin West preceded the formal split that occurred in 1054. Prominent among these were the procession of the Holy Spirit (Filioque), whether leavened or unleavened bread should be used in the Eucharist, iconoclasm, the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans in 800, the Pope's claim to universal jurisdiction, and the place of the See of Constantinople in relation to the pentarchy.
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The Paschal cycle, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is the cycle of the moveable feasts built around Pascha (Easter). The cycle consists of approximately ten weeks before and seven weeks after Pascha. The ten weeks before Pascha are known as the period of the Triodion, referring to the liturgical book that contains the services for this liturgical season. This period includes the three weeks preceding Great Lent, the "pre-Lenten period", the forty days of Lent, and Holy Week. The 50 days following Pascha are called the Pentecostarion, also named after the liturgical book.
The Feast of the Transfiguration is celebrated by various Christian communities in honor of the transfiguration of Jesus. The origins of the feast are less than certain and may have derived from the dedication of three basilicas on Mount Tabor. The feast was present in various forms by the 9th century, and in the Western Church was made a universal feast celebrated on 6 August by Pope Callixtus III to commemorate the raising of the siege of Belgrade (1456).
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The Icon of the Triumph of Orthodoxy is a divine celebratory icon created around 1400 to commemorate the first feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy on the first Sunday of Great Lent. The icon references the overcoming of the Byzantine Empire’s Eastern Orthodox faith from the dominance of the Islamic faith and the Byzantine Iconoclasm in 842. Shown in the icon's composition are important figures such as the Virgin Hodegetria, her child Jesus, and eleven saints and martyrs associated with the Triumph of Orthodoxy. Other elements and saints depicted in the icon’s composition are representative of iconodule ideology and the turmoil endured. It is painted with mediums such as gold leaf and egg wash that are of divine spiritual significance.
The Council of Constantinople of 843 or the Synod of Constantinople of 843 was a local council of Christian bishops that was convened in Constantinople in AD 843 by the Byzantine regent Theodora to confirm iconophilism in the Church. This council is still celebrated on the first Sunday of Great Lent in the Eastern Orthodox Church, as presecribed by the council. After the council which was under the presidency of the Patriarch Methodios I, the attendees met on 11 March 843 and symbolically processed from the Blachernae Church to the Church of Hagia Sophia bearing an icon of the Mother of God.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Feast of Orthodoxy". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.