25 February 2021

Eastern Rite - Iconclasm

Today is the Feast of St Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople. He presided as Christ's deputy over the Second Council of Nicaea which condemned iconclasm, safeguarding an orthodox understanding of the Incarnation.
✠✠✠✠✠
Literally, iconoclasm (from Greek eikōn, image + klaein, to break.) is the destruction of religious icons and other sacred images or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. In Christian circles, iconoclasm has generally been motivated by a literal interpretation of the second of the Ten Commandments, which forbids the making and worshipping of "graven images." This is clearly a misinterpretation of the decalogue because if one continues to read through the Book of Exodus one would encounter the command to Moses to build the Tabernacle: a visible icon of the invisible God.

It was condemned as heresy at the Second Œcumenical Council of Nicaea.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are subject to deletion if they are not germane. I have no problem with a bit of colourful language, but blasphemy or depraved profanity will not be allowed. Attacks on the Catholic Faith will not be tolerated. Comments will be deleted that are republican (Yanks! Note the lower case 'r'!), attacks on the legitimacy of Pope Francis as the Vicar of Christ (I know he's a material heretic and a Protector of Perverts, and I definitely want him gone yesterday! However, he is Pope, and I pray for him every day.), the legitimacy of the House of Windsor or of the claims of the Elder Line of the House of France, or attacks on the legitimacy of any of the currently ruling Houses of Europe.