21st Sunday after Pentecost. Memory of the Holy Fathers of the VII Ecumenical Counciltranslated

October 25, 2026, the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, is the day of honoring the holy fathers of the VII Ecumenical Council.

Memory of the Holy Fathers of the VII Ecumenical Council.

In the 8th century, Emperor Leo the Isaurian initiated a brutal persecution of St. icons, which continued under his son, Constantine V Copronymus, and grandson. In 787, against this iconoclastic heresy, Queen Irene 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. The 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 an equal basis with the veneration of the Holy Cross and the Holy...