“This holiday shows just how important national traditions and spiritual values are for our people. The state will continue to provide all possible support to the Church aimed at the enlightenment and moral education of Russian citizens.”
Vladimir Putin, Pascha 2008
According to the Seventh Ecumenical Council (held in Nicæa AD 787), Icons may only be written after the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Theotokos, the Saints and Angels.
Note, however, that this does not include images of God the Father or the Holy Spirit. The blessed and infallible synod of Bishops declared:
“We, however, make images of people who have existed: the holy servants of God who had bodies [...] We do not invent anything as you do, [referring to the pagans], nor do we display portraits of incorporeal deities [...]We do not adore the icons, but rather we glorify the persons depicted and, at that, not as gods but as true servants and friends of God [...] Moreover, we make icons of God, I mean our Lord Jesus Christ, as He was seen on earth [...] Because the Father’s Only-Begotten Son, God the Word, was incarnate of the spotless Virgin and Theotokos Mary, we paint Him according to His humanity and not His bodiless divinity.”
And again, they declared:
“Christians have never made an icon of the invisible and incomprehensible divinity, but it is only insofar as the Word became flesh and dwelt among us that we paint the mysteries of man’s redemption.”
Finally, a champion of Icons and their veneration, St Pope Gregory II of Rome writes:
“We do not delineate and paint the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Note that the Fathers are clear to emphasize that only the Lord Jesus Christ may be depicted as God in Icons, since he is both circumscribable and uncircumscribable in His Divinity and Humanity. However, neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit are circumscribable and, as a result, should not be depicted or given “form” through the imagination of artists. The synod at Nicæa was clear on this, as well:
“Iconography is not an invention of artists but an approved institution of the Catholic Church [...] It is the conception and tradition of the fathers and not of an artist. Only the skill belongs to the artist, but the regulation belongs to the venerable fathers.”
“Having lost the living Christ and authentic Church life, the Protestants began worshiping the book of the New Testament as if it were some sort of fetish. Go into a Protestant church of the extreme Protestant sects, and you will see rows of pews facing a pulpit with a Bible on it. In short, if you take the icon away from any classroom or auditorium, what you have is a Protestant church [at this time in Russia, all classrooms had an Icon of Christ on the wall].”
New Hiero-Martyr Hilarion (Troitsky), Holy Scripture and the Church
Reading:
Our righteous Father Sergius was born in Rostov, north of Moscow, about the year 1314. Named Bartholomew in Baptism, he was brought up in Radonezh, and at the death of his parents he withdrew to the wilderness to become a monk. It is notable that without having been trained in a monastery, he was of such a spiritual stature as to be able to take up the perilous eremitical life from the beginning, without falling into delusion or despondency. When he had endured with courage the deprivations of the solitary life, other monks began to come to him, for whom he was made abbot against his will. On the counsel of Philotheus, Patriarch of Constantinople, he organized his monks according to the cenobitic life, appointing duties to each. While Anthony and Theodosius of Kiev, and the other righteous Fathers before Sergius, had established their monasteries near to cities, Sergius was the leader and light of those who went far into the wilderness, and after his example the untrodden forests of northern Russia were settled with monks. When Grand Duke Demetrius Donskoy was about to go to battle against the invading Tartars, he first sought the blessing of Saint Sergius, through whose prayers he was triumphant. Saint Sergius was adorned with the highest virtues of Christ-like humility and burning love for God and neighbour, and received the gift of working wonders, of casting out demons, and of discretion for leading souls to salvation. When he served the Divine Liturgy, an Angel served with him visibly; he was also vouchsafed the visitation of the most holy Theotokos with the Apostles Peter and John. He was gathered to his Fathers on September 25, 1392. At the recovery of his holy relics on July 5, 1422, his body and garments were found fragrant and incorrupt. His life was written by the monks of Epiphanius, who knew him.
Daily News: Is Catholic-Orthodox Unity in Sight?: NCRegister
The Catholic Archbishop of Moscow has given a remarkably upbeat assessment of relations with the Orthodox Church, saying unity between Catholics and Orthodox could be achieved “within a few months.”
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“We did not know if we were in Heaven or on Earth, for on Earth there is no such beauty [...] Only one thing do we know: that God was living there with men, and that their form of worship is the best of all. We cannot forget this beauty.”
Emissaries of Prince Vladimir, describing their first encounter with The Divine Liturgy
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti commentator Anatoly Korolyov) For the first 500 years of its existence, Russia did not have a coat of arms, or a national flag or anthem. In the middle ages, instead of a flag, the prince’s troops carried a miraculous icon, and before embarking on a campaign or going into battle, the men would usually pray in front of the holy image.
When St. Sergi Radonezhsky blessed Prince Dmitry Donsky before the decisive battle with the Tatars, he entrusted the Russian victory to the Virgin Mary.
