Confession of Dositheus (1672)
Question 4: Of the Honor
Given to Icons and the Saints.
How
ought we to think of the Holy Icons, and of the adoration of the Saints?
. . .
Moreover, we adore and honor the wood of the precious and
life-giving Cross, whereon our Savior underwent this world-saving passion, and
the sign of the life-giving Cross, the Manger at Bethlehem, through which we
have been delivered from irrationality, the place of the Skull [Calvary], the
life-giving Sepulcher, and the other holy objects adoration; as well as the
holy Gospels, as the sacred vessels, wherewith the unbloody Sacrifice is performed.
And by annual commemorations, and popular festivals, and sacred edifices and
offerings; we do respect and honor the Saints.
And then we adore, and honor, and kiss the Icons of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and the most holy Theotokos, and of all the Saints, also of the
holy Angels, as they appeared to some of the Forefathers and Prophets. We also
represent the All-holy Spirit, as He appeared in the form of a dove. (The
Holy Standards: The Creeds, Confessions of Faith, and Catechisms of the Eastern
Orthodox Church [Olyphany, Pa.: St. Theophan the Recluse Press, 2020], 73-74)
The Catechism of St. Peter Mogila
(1898)
Of
Icons.
245. What are we to think of the icons which
the Church venerates and reverences?
There is a very great difference between icons and idols.
An idol is a mere fiction and invention of men, as the Apostle testifies, An
idol has no real existence (1 Corinthians 8:4). But an icon is a representation
showing forth a real thing that has actual existence in the world, as the image
of our Savior Christ, of the holy Virgin Mary, and of all other saints.
Besides, the heathens worshipped their idols as gold,
thinking gold and silver to be true deities, and offered sacrifices unto them,
as of old did Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:1-18). Whereas we, in venerating and
reverencing icons, do not adore the painting or the word, but we honor the
saints who are thereby represented, and venerate them with that kind of
reverence which is called dulia, placing them, by means of the representation
before our eyes as if they were in our sight and we really beheld them; as, for
instance, while we venerate a crucifix, we thereby set Christ himself before
our mind hanging upon the Cross for our salvation; and unto him, with religious
gratitude, do we bend our knee and bow down our heads. So, in like manner, when
we reverence the icon of the Virgin Mary, we ascend in our minds to the most
holy Mother of God; to her it is that we bow down our heads, to her we bend our
knees, and it is her that, with the Archangel Gabriel, we proclaim the most blessed
of all men and women.
It is evident, therefore, that the veneration of holy
icons, which is received into the Orthodox Church, is not contrary to this
commandment, as it is neither the same with that which is given to God, nor is
it addressed unto the work of art—that is, the picture—but unto the persons of
those saints whom the icons represent to us.
Furthermore, as the Cherubim that overshadows the Ark of
the Covenant represented the real Cherubim who serve God and stand before his
face in Heaven, and the Israelites venerated and reverenced them without
breaking this commandment of God; and, in like manner, as the Jews sinned not, nor
broke this command of the Decalogue, but rather honored God with more glory,
when they venerated the Ark of the Covenant, and received it with honor and
respect (2 Samuel 6:13-15); So neither do we transgress this command of the
Decalogue by reverencing holy icons, but rather more highly praise God, who is wonderful
in his holy places (Psalm 68:35).
Nevertheless we must take care that every icon has the name
of the saint it represents inscribed on it, that thereby it may the more
readily answer the intention and design of the person venerating it.
We may add, furthermore, in confirmation of what we have
said concerning the veneration of holy icons, that the Ch0ruch of God in the
Seventh Ecumenical Council, has pronounced a dreadful anathema against the
Image-brakers (Iconoclasts), and has established and confirmed to all ages the
veneration of holy and venerable icons: As it manifest in the Ninth Canon of
the Council.
246. For what reason, then, was Hezekiah
praised in the Old Testament, who broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses
had formerly set up and dedicated? (2 Kings 18:4)
Because the Jews began to fall away from the worship of
the true God, worshipping the bronze serpent as true God, and offering incense
to it, as the Scripture shows. Therefore to cut off this evil, and that it
might not spread further, Hezekiah broke in pieces the bronze serpent, that it
might give no further occasion of idolatry to the Israelites. But had there not
been given unto it the worship of latria, he would not have broken the
Serpent, nor have condemned the Israelites of idolatry.
We Christians do not worship
icons as God, nor in our approaches to them do we depart from the latria,
which is due only to God himself; but rather by the help of the icons we are,
as it were, led by the hand unto God; while in their icons we honor the saints,
as the friends of God, with the reverence known as dulia, and beseech
them to render our God propitious and favorable unto us.
But if any one out of ignorance should worship icons
otherwise than herein is taught, surely it would be better that such as one
should be instructed rightly in this matter than that the veneration of
venerable icons should be banished from the Church. (The Holy Standards: The
Creeds, Confessions of Faith, and Catechisms of the Eastern Orthodox Church [Olyphany,
Pa.: St. Theophan the Recluse Press, 2020], 507-11)
The Synodikon of Orthodoxy
To them who in words accept the Economy of the
Incarnation of the Word of God, but will not tolerate its representation by
icons, and thus in word they make a pretense of accepting, but in fact deny our
salvation,
Anathema (3)
To them who because of a mistaken adherence to the term
uncircumscribed, wish not to depict in icons Christ, our True God, Who like us
partook of flesh and blood, and thus show themselves to be Docetists,
Anathema (1)
To them who accept the visions of the prophets, albeit
unwillingly, but who do not—O wonder!—accept the images seen by the prophets
even before the Incarnation of the Word, but vainly say that he intangible and
unseeable essence was seen by the prophets, or even concede that these truly
were revealed to the prophets as image and types and forms, but still cannot
endure to depict in icons the Word become man and His sufferings for our sake.
Anathema (1)
To them who hear the Lord Who said that, “If you believed
in Moses, you would have believed in me” (John 5:46), and who understand the
saying of Moses, “The Lor our God will raise up for you a prophet like unto me”
(Deuteronomy 8:15; cf. Acts 3:22; 7:37), but who, on the one hand, say that
they accept the Prophet, yet on the other hand, do not permit the depiction in
icons of the grace of the Prophet and our universal salvation such as He was
seen, as He mingled with mankind, and worked many healings of passions and diseases,
and such as He was crucified, was buried, and arose, in short, all that He both
suffered and wrought for us; to those, therefore, who cannot endure to gaze
upon these universal and saving deeds in icons, neither honor nor worship them,
Anathema (3)
To them who persist in the heresy of denying icons, or rather
the apostasy of denying Christ, and are not counseled by the Mosaic law to be
led to their salvation, nor are they convinced to return to piety by the
apostolic teachings, nor are they induced by patristic exhortations and
explanations to abandon their deception, nor are they persuaded by the
agreement of the Churches of Go throughout the whole world, but once for all
have joined themselves to the portion of the Jews and Greeks, have joined
themselves to the portion of the Jews and Greeks: for those things wherewith
the latter directly blaspheme the prototype, the former likewise have not
blushed to insult in His icon Him that is depicted therein; therefore, to them
who are incorrigibly possessed by this deception, and have their ears covered
towards every Divine word and spiritual teaching, as already being putrified
members, and having cut themselves off from the common body of the Church. (in The
Holy Standards: The Creeds, Confessions of Faith, and Catechisms of the Eastern
Orthodox Church [Olyphany, Pa.: St. Theophan the Recluse Press, 2020], 532-34)
AGAINST JOHN IRENICUS
To the most unlearned John Irenicus the champion of
falsehood and vanity, and to those things composed by him against the writings
of piety, and to them who embrace his words and who believe and say, that not
because of the humanity which our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and God holds
within Himself, and which is enhypostatic and united inseparably, indivisibly
and unconfusedly with HIs Divinity, did He, as perfect man, in the Holy Gospels;
“The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), but they say rather that this
phrase is to be considered as being spoken by Him according to His humanity in
the same manner as when, by an act of abstract thought, His humanity is
divested and entirely divided from His Divinity, and as if it had never been
united thereto and as it it were like our common nature,
Anathema (3)
To the conclave that raged against the venerable icons,
Anathema (3)
To them who consider the declarations of Divine Scripture
against the idols as referring to the venerable icons of Christ our God and His
saints,
Anathema (3)
To them who knowingly have communion with those who
insult and dishonor the venerable icons,
Anathema (3)
To them who say that the Christians draw near to icons as
if they were gods,
Anathema (3)
To them who say that another besides Christ our God
delivered us from the deception of idols,
Anathema (3)
To them who dare to say that the catholic Church at one
time had accepted idols, and thus they overthrow the entire mystery, and
blaspheme the Faith of the Christians.
Anathema (3)
Whoever would defend an adherent of any heresy which disparages
the Christians, or would defend someone who died in that heresy, let him be,
Anathema (3)
If anyone does not worship our Lord Jesus Christ depicted
in the icons according to His humanity, let him be,
Anathema (3) (in The
Holy Standards: The Creeds, Confessions of Faith, and Catechisms of the Eastern
Orthodox Church [Olyphany, Pa.: St. Theophan the Recluse Press, 2020], 548-50)
Further Reading:
Answering Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons
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