The story behind the day
The Sunday of Orthodoxy, also called the Triumph of Orthodoxy, is kept on the first Sunday of Great Lent in the Eastern Orthodox Church. It commemorates the restoration of the veneration of icons in Constantinople in 843, after more than a century of official iconoclasm. Because the Orthodox churches reckon Pascha by the Julian tables, the day falls 42 days before Pascha, usually later than the first Sunday of the Western Lent.[1–3]
Origins
Iconoclasm, the official campaign against sacred images, began under Emperor Leo III, who by tradition removed the image of Christ from the Chalke Gate of the imperial palace; modern scholars prefer 730, when he forced the patriarch Germanos to resign. A council at Nicaea in 787, counted by the Orthodox as the seventh ecumenical council, sanctioned icons again. Iconoclasm returned in 815 under Leo V, and lasted until 843.[5–7]
What it marks
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA describes the feast, established in the ninth century, as commemorating the final victory over iconoclasm. It marks more than a victory for pictures. The defenders of icons argued that because God had become visible in the incarnation, the old biblical ban on idols no longer applied to Christians, and that believers gave reverence to an icon but worshipped only God.[8–9]
How it came to be
Empress Theodora, regent for her young son Michael III, ended the second iconoclast period in 843. The iconoclast patriarch John the Grammarian was replaced by Methodius, who had spent years in prison for his defence of icons, and a local council in Constantinople restored the veneration of images. The Orthodox Church in America says that the first Sunday of Great Lent has been kept as the Sunday of Orthodoxy ever since. Accounts differ on the first celebration: the Encyclopedia of Religion ties it to 843, while one Cambridge study places it in the following year.[4, 10–12]
How it is kept
The Synodikon of Orthodoxy, a text that summarizes the case of the defenders of icons, is read each year on this Sunday, and in the Orthodox Church in America the rite carries a solemn condemnation of heresies. A procession with icons normally closes the service, as it does in many Orthodox parishes, and the Byzantine churches have long marked the day with a triumphant procession of images.[13–14]
Across traditions
The Orthodox churches still determine the date of Easter by the Julian method. The Sunday of Orthodoxy, counted from that Pascha, can therefore fall up to five weeks after the first Sunday of the Western Lent.[2–3]
Sources
Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.
- CorrectedOrthodox Church in America, Sundays of Lent; Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA.
- CorrectedAmerican Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the USA; Orthodox Church in America.
- CorrectedU.S. Naval Observatory, The Date of Easter; NASA Goddard; Encyclopedia.com.
- CorrectedOrthodox Church in America; Encyclopedia.com.
- CorrectedEncyclopedia.com; Holy See, John Paul II, Duodecimum saeculum; Dumbarton Oaks; Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA.
- CorrectedHoly See, John Paul II; Dumbarton Oaks, The Isaurian Dynasty; Encyclopedia.com.
- CorrectedDumbarton Oaks, Leo V; Encyclopedia.com; Dumbarton Oaks, Michael III.
- VerifiedUkrainian Orthodox Church of the USA; Encyclopedia.com.
- CorrectedHoly See, John Paul II; Encyclopedia.com.
- CorrectedOrthodox Church in America, The End of Iconoclasm; Dumbarton Oaks, Michael III; Encyclopedia.com.
- VerifiedOrthodox Church in America; Encyclopedia.com.
- VerifiedEncyclopedia.com; Cambridge University Press, Karin Krause, Epilogue, Divine Inspiration in Byzantium.
- CorrectedEncyclopedia.com; Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Tikhon, Reflection on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy; Orthodox Church in America, Fr Lawrence Farley, Defending the Synodikon.
- CorrectedUkrainian Orthodox Church of the USA; Encyclopedia.com.