Commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council

Commemorated on October 14

Today the Church remembers the 350 holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council under the holy Patriarch Tarasius (February 25).

The Synod of 787, the second to meet at Nicea, refuted the Iconoclast heresy during the reign of Empress Irene and her son Constantine Porphyrogenitos.

The Council decreed that the veneration of icons was not idolatry (Exodus 20:4-5), because the honor shown to them is not directed to the wood or paint, but passes to the prototype (the person depicted). It also upheld the possibility of depicting Christ, Who became man and took flesh at His Incarnation. The Father, on the other hand, cannot be represented in His eternal nature, because "no man has seen God at any time" (John 1:18).

In Greek practice, the holy God-bearing Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council are commorated on October 11 (if it is a Sunday), or on the Sunday which follows October 11. According to the Slavic MENAION, however, if the eleventh falls on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, the service is moved to the preceding Sunday.

Troparion - Tone 8

Most glorious are You, O Christ our God!You have established the Holy Fathers as lights on the earth!Through them you have guided us to the true faith!O greatly Compassionate One, glory to You!

Kontakion - Tone 6

The Son who shone forth from the FatherWas ineffably born, two-fold in nature, of a woman.Having beheld Him, we do not deny the image of His form,But depict it piously and revere it faithfully.Thus, keeping the True Faith,The Church venerates the icon of Christ Incarnate.

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