THE HISTORY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CELEBRATION OF THE SUNDAY OF THE TRIUMPH OF ORTHODOXY.
The very first mention of the Triumph of Orthodoxy as such was made only in 899 (in the Clitorology of Philotheus), and it is certain that this celebration became an integral part of the life of Byzantium from 843 onwards. It was in March of this year that Saint Methodius was ordained as patriarch and the veneration of holy icons was restored.
The Triumph of Orthodoxy took place the day after Emperor Theophilus's pardon. During the first week of Great Lent, which fell in the second half of March 843, public prayers for Theophilus's forgiveness were held, with the participation of all the most prominent champions of holy icons. "And so, from that time until now, memorial services have been established in the Great Church of God on the first week of Holy Lent" (The Tale of the Forgiveness of Theophilus). On Saturday, the empress reported to the patriarch her prophetic dream, in which she saw Christ, judging her husband and granting him forgiveness. Saint Methodius also saw an angel in the dream, who said to him: "Behold, your prayer has been heard, O bishop, and Emperor Theophilus has been granted forgiveness—therefore, do not bother the Divine Being about him any longer." The patriarch's dream was confirmed by the fact that the scroll containing the names of the heretical emperors, placed by St. Methodius on the altar of Hagia Sophia, did not contain this emperor's name. And on Sunday, a solemn procession through the streets of Constantinople in gratitude for the emperor's forgiveness was held, and the holy icons were ceremoniously restored.
Theophanes' successor points out that on the triumph of Orthodoxy, the all-night vigil was celebrated in the Church of Blachernae, and the liturgy in Hagia Sophia, the greatest shrines of Byzantium. Hagia Sophia was filled with worshippers, among whom stood out the steadfast monks who had suffered particularly cruel persecution at the hands of the iconoclasts.
On March 11, 843, a Sunday during the first week of Great Lent, St. Methodius read the "Synodicon of Orthodoxy," which he himself had composed, as his enthronement address to the patriarchal throne. This text became a hymn of confession of faith for the entire Church of Christ. On the one hand, it called all Orthodox Christians to unanimity, on the other, it warned all non-Orthodox Christians, and also encouraged new generations of Orthodox to stand in the truth and guard the treasure of their Orthodox Christian faith. Over time, the "Synodicon of Orthodoxy" was supplemented with anathemas for new heretics and longevity for new defenders of Orthodoxy. After listing the names of the iconoclasts, longevity was proclaimed for the emperor and "eternal memory" for the patriarchs.
This feast, beloved by the Byzantines, was initially celebrated at a different time than it is today. It cannot even be found in the Typica of the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in the 9th century. At that time, the Church celebrated the Triumph of Orthodoxy on: 1) the day of the First Ecumenical Council, in the seventh week after Easter, when the reading of the Horos of all seven ecumenical councils was prescribed during the service. 2) the day of the Seventh Ecumenical Council—October 10/23—or the nearest Sunday, which was referred to in liturgical texts as the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
As the distinguished Russian liturgist Professor F. I. Uspensky has demonstrated in his research, the Triune (at the end of the first week of Lent) celebration of the Triumph of Orthodoxy is associated with the figure of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius (1043-1058). The text of the Rite of Orthodoxy known to us today is borrowed from this patriarch's sermon on the first week of Lent and the restoration of the veneration of holy icons, delivered around the middle of the 11th century.
Unchanging Image of the Father,
Through the prayers of Thy holy confessors, have mercy on us. Amen.
(From the Synaxarion for the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy)
"Spiritual Warfare." St. Athanasius Publication. No. 5 (9) – March 1, 2018. Pp. 17-20.
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SYNODICON OF ORTHODOXY.
At the beginning of the Liturgy, after the reading of the Hours, or before its end, the Orthodox Church celebrates a special rite of Orthodoxy in the main cathedral churches, in the middle of the church, before the icon of the Savior and the Mother of God. During the celebration of the rite of Orthodoxy, the Church, through the reading of the Epistle, implores us: Beware of them which cause contentions and strife, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and turn away from them. For such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly: which with good words and blessings (fine words) deceive the hearts of the simple. But your obedience hath attained unto all (Rom. 16:17-20). Through the reading of the Gospel, the Church proclaims the ineffable love of God for the salvation of every man: It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish: and about the power given by the Lord to the Church to cut off from itself the disobedient (Matt. 18:10-18). After prayers have been brought to the Lord for the conversion, by the power of the Holy Spirit, of all who have fallen away from Orthodoxy to the knowledge of the truth, for their inclusion in the chosen flock, for the preservation of the faithful steadfast in Orthodoxy, and after the confession of the apostolic, patristic, Orthodox faith, which has established the universe, the Church anathematizes, that is, excommunicates from union with itself, the enemies of Orthodoxy, and blesses and praises its champions and defenders.
Its beginning and foundation.
Although the rite of Orthodoxy observed by the Church in its current form originated in the 9th century with the restoration of holy icons, Orthodoxy's judgment, as necessary and strict against blatant, seductive, and entrenched impiety, has existed throughout its history. The foundation of this judgment lies in the Church's sacred duty to be the treasury and guardian of the unchanging, uninterrupted, and successive preservation of all God-given and saving truths of Divine revelation. God Himself indicated the need and importance of such consistent, unwavering safeguarding of the treasures of salvation in both the Old Testament (Genesis 18:19) and the New Testament. Jesus Christ, being King of kings and Lord of lords, Master of all things visible and invisible, established the New Testament Church on earth—teaching, performing sacred rites, and governing—and spoke to His disciples and apostles, "The Father has sent me." And the Father who sent me has himself testified of me (John 5:36-37): As the Father commanded me, so do I (John 14:31): All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you (John 15:15). And the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles, being sent from God the Father by the Son of God, and continued to confirm what the Son of God had implanted (John 14:26; 15:26). So the holy disciples and apostles did not teach, perform sacred rites, and govern of their own free will, but were sent by the Son of God and the Holy Spirit.
The divinely chosen apostles, invested with the authority to teach, administer sacred rites, and govern, in turn, through the sacramental laying on of hands, chose and sent their successors, who, learning from one another through the grace and help of God, still preserve this divine authority in the Orthodox Church. Such a successive mission of sacred teachers, builders, and pastors, such uninterrupted and unanimous work on the foundation laid from above, constitutes great and holy Orthodoxy. It is the union of the Holy Church of all times, now spanning millennia. It is the obedience of descendants to ancestors, children to parents, of reason to the faith revealed in its apostolic purity. It is the uninterrupted, inexhaustible flow of grace and faith, whose beginning is in God, continuation in the community of the Holy Church, and end in blessed eternity. Therefore, the Triumph of Orthodoxy is the Triumph of Christian obedience, which unfailingly preserves all the treasures of divine revelation given to God. Just as this obedience is blessed, while bold and hostile actions against the faith are condemned by God, so, by His will, the Triumph of Orthodoxy is accompanied by the condemnation of those unrepentantly disobedient to the faith and the Church, and the blessing of the defenders of Orthodoxy and all who are obedient to the Church.
The power to excommunicate and bless was originally given by God Himself to the Old Testament Church. "Give," said the Lord to Moses, "the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the oath on Mount Ebal" (Deut. 11:29-30; 27:12 et seq.; Joshua 8:34; Ps. 110:21). And then it was given to the New Testament Christian Church, which received from the Lord the power to bind and to loose (Matt. 18:18); to condemn and cut off from fellowship with itself those who disobey it (Matt. 18:17); to excommunicate obvious and unrepentant sinners (1 Cor. 5:2), who distort the fundamental truths of the Gospel, for example, those who preach something other than what the apostles preached and what the first believers received from the apostles (Gal. 1:8-9); those who do not love the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 16:22). In accordance with Scripture and tradition, the Orthodox Church excommunicates those who deny the existence of God, His providence and divine properties, the Trinity of persons of the one Godhead, the incarnation of the Son of God; those who do not accept the grace of redemption preached by the Gospel as our only means of justification before God; those who deny the perpetual virginity of Mary the Mother of God, the divine inspiration of the prophets and apostles, the immortality of the soul, the end of the age and the future judgment; those who reject the sacraments of the Church; those who reject the Councils and their traditions, which are in agreement with divine Revelation and are preserved by the Orthodox Catholic Church; those who think that Orthodox sovereigns are elevated to the throne not by God’s special favor toward them; those who blaspheme the holy icons; and those who assert the uniqueness of the world[1].
The necessity of it.
The power to excommunicate the unrepentant, given to the Church, is necessary for her as a righteous instrument for cutting off rotten, infected, and contagious members, for the preservation of the health and life of her entire body. The use of this instrument is not only not contrary to Christian love, which, according to the Lord, must extend even to one's enemies, but is also necessary for this very love of God and neighbor. If it is not contrary to love for a neighbor who violates the duty of justice to use lawful measures to restrain and benefit him, then, by the same truth, it is necessary for the Church to employ measures of lawful severity against the disobedient. According to the commandment of Jesus Christ, the Orthodox Church loves and prays for the peace and salvation of all. But since all love must be lawful, the Church, as a mother, by necessity inspired by righteousness, ceaselessly praying for the salvation of all, uses, on the basis of the authority given to her, lawful measures to correct those who persist in disobedience. As a member of the God-instituted society of the Church, a Christian is necessarily subject to its judgment, and the more serious, open, and persistent his sins, the stricter the voice of the Church's public judgment. Secret sins are rightly denounced secretly, more open sins more loudly, and obvious sins publicly. Therefore, the anathema pronounced by the Church on unrepentant and malicious sinners is a necessary consequence of the judgment of ecclesiastical authority—it is a declaration to all of the infection dangerous to the body of the Church, according to the word of God: "We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye separate yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not according to the tradition which they received of us. And if any man hear not our word, signify it not by his letter: neither let him be disturbed, that he may be put to shame" (2 Thess. 3:6, 14). "This judgment of Orthodoxy is not punitive, but only accusatory and protective."
"The Orthodox Church, fulfilling the grave duty of condemnation, did not fail to take advantage of the pleasant aspect of God's command: to give blessing. Having pronounced judgment on those who threatened her with destruction, she will joyfully bestow blessing on those who, through the means given by God's Providence, have contributed and continue to contribute to her strengthening, expansion, and peace. Thus, at the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the Church blesses the memory of Constantine the Great, the first emperor to decisively end the state's hostile relations with Christianity and transform them into protective ones, who earned the title of Equal-to-the-Apostles especially because, by convening the First Ecumenical Council, he enabled it to establish a firm foundation for Orthodoxy in the Nicene Creed. "Thus the Church blesses Theodosius the Great, who steadfastly continued the transformation of the pagan Roman Empire into a Christian one and, by convening the Second Ecumenical Council, assisted the Church in completing the Nicene and, it must be said in all fairness, the Ecumenical Creed. The Orthodox Church also blesses our Grand Prince Vladimir, truly Equal to the Apostles: for through him Russia became a Christian and Orthodox state. The Orthodox Church also blesses the other most pious Russian sovereigns, to whom it is justly grateful for their care for its welfare, just as they should have been justly grateful to it for its care for the welfare of the state and the people." (Applicable to Russia before 1917 not the current demonic KGB ruled Russia)
Its instructiveness and effectiveness.
The Triumph of Orthodoxy, serving as a righteous judgment to bring those who are stagnant in impenitence to reason, is highly instructive and comforting for all true members of the Church, as it renews and confirms them in the covenant with the Triune God and in sincere union with the Church. In the public exclamations of excommunication and blessing, repeated annually during Great Lent for many centuries, Orthodox Christians hear the incontrovertible testimony of the divine and saving truth preserved by the Church to which they belong, and with this testimony they receive God's blessing for the unfailing preservation of Orthodoxy. For the true children of the Church, the Triumph of Orthodoxy is edifying and comforting, and is an expression of the profound reverence of descendants for the sacred traditions of their Orthodox ancestors. It is especially edifying and comforting for those who observe the rules of faith and piety—those who fast and repent: in this celebration, the pious see and hear help for their struggles and an incentive to continue them. Repentance requires faith, according to Scripture: "Repent ye, and believe in the Gospel" (Mark 1:15). So, too, at the beginning of the pious struggles of fasting and repentance, the Orthodox faith is publicly proclaimed by the Church, capable of making our fasting and repentance pleasing to God. The triumph of Orthodoxy, having restored the ancient veneration of man-made icons, contributes to the restoration in us of the image and likeness of God through the struggles of faith, fasting, and repentance.
The rite of Orthodoxy is as instructive as it is effective. The effectiveness of the blessing and excommunication pronounced by the Church lies, according to God's promise, in the almighty power of the Word of God, which, as the Apostle Paul says, is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of members and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and thoughts of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). If the blessing of parents serves as an invisible guarantee of the well-being of their children, all the more so the blessing of Mother Church is a gracious, hidden source of success in our affairs and our well-being. St. Chrysostom, explaining the meaning and force of anathema, says: “Listen to what the Apostle Paul says: if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed (ήτω άνάθεμα – 1 Cor. 16:22), that is, let his ties with him be broken, and he will become a stranger to everyone. Just as no one dares to touch unnecessarily with his hands or approach a gift that is dedicated to God: so the apostle, cutting off from everyone the one excommunicated from the Church and, as it were, distancing himself as much as possible, in the opposite sense calls him by the name of the deferred[3] gift (άνάθεμα), and thereby warns everyone to withdraw with fear and run away from such a person. No one dared to approach the gift out of respect: so ties with the excommunicated were broken out of another, opposite feeling. In both cases, ties are equally broken, and the subject “It becomes alien to people. But the method of breaking ties is not the same; one is guarded against because it is dedicated to God; and another – because it is alienated from God, excommunicated from the Church”[4].
"Anathema, in the sense of ecclesiastical usage, is the cutting off of a criminal from the body of Christ's Church. After this, the excommunicated person is no longer a Christian, and is alienated from the inheritance of all the blessings acquired for us by the death of the Savior (Matt. 18:17).
Anathema is the strictest action of the church authority, and a less strict action is called excommunication and prohibition, when the Church does not openly anathematize a sinner and does not expel him from the flock of Christ, but only humbles him by excommunication from communion with the Orthodox in common prayers, does not order him to enter the temples of God and for a certain time prohibits him from receiving the Holy Mysteries. "In short, to say that through anathema a person is like a murdered person, and through excommunication or prohibition he is like a person taken for arrest" [5].
Archpriest Gregory Debolsky. Divine Services of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Church.
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THE MEANING OF ANATHEMATICISM.
What does the rite of conversion from various faiths and confessions and joining the Orthodox Church demonstrate? It demonstrates the necessity of abandoning false faiths and confessions, rejecting errors, confessing the true faith, and repenting of all past sins, promising God to preserve and firmly profess the immaculate faith, avoiding sin, and living a life of virtue.
St. Righteous Father John of Kronstadt (Christian Philosophy. St. Petersburg, 1902. P. 114).
Imagine a scoundrel breaking into your home and seducing your children. You'd deliver the same "anathema" for which they so often reproach our Holy Mother Church. You wouldn't hesitate to call the police and wait for them, and perhaps you'd even deal with him harshly yourself. This sanctity of the rights of the home also clarifies the sanctity of the rights of the Church's hearth. #3136
New Martyr Joseph (Petrovykh), Metropolitan of Petrograd (In the Father’s Embrace.” Diary of a Monk. No. 3136.)
Is it permissible to treat heretics who sincerely believe in their truth [severely]? Heretics should never be idealized, since their apostasy is rooted not in virtue, but in the passions and sins of pride, stubbornness, and malice. Severe treatment of heretics is beneficial not only for protecting others from their influence, but also for the heretics themselves. (The Holy Fathers equate stubborn schismatics with heretics. Therefore, is it right to coddle them, as, unfortunately, happens with us? And all this for the sake of an unkind, false peace...) Therefore, after a hundred years of struggle with them, which yielded very few results, the Church decided to establish anathematization, i.e., expulsion from the Church, which is carried out on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. Now they do not anathematize, and this is not better, but worse, for it is now more difficult to draw a clear and understandable line between the Church and heresy. Knowing this line, it is easier not to cross it, and having crossed it, it is easier to repent and return to the Church.
His Beatitude Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) (Sermon for the second week of Great Lent, given in the period 1935-1936).
While those subjected to "excommunication" and various penances remained members of the Church, albeit limited in their participation in Her grace-filled life, those anathematized were completely cut off from Her until they repented. Recognizing its own inability to do anything for their salvation, given their stubbornness and hardness of heart, the earthly Church lifts them up to God's judgment. That judgment is merciful for repentant sinners, but terrible for God's stubborn enemies. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," "for our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 10:31; 12:29). Anathema is not yet final destruction: Repentance is possible before death. "Anathema" is terrible not because the Church wishes them harm, or God their destruction. They desire that everyone be saved. But it is terrible to stand before the Face of God in a state of bitterness: nothing is hidden from Him.
Saint John (Maximovich), Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco (The word "anathema" and its meaning.)
Let it be known to everyone that the Church never curses anyone. The word "curse" is a terrible word. And in the Gospel we know only one indication of when this terrible word will be uttered by the One Who alone can utter it—when, at the Last Judgment, the stern Judge says to those who have been unfaithful to Him: "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." He alone can say this, and we curse no one. An anathema proclaimed by the Church is in no way a curse, not an invocation of punishment and God's wrath upon a person, but only an excommunication from the Church, an excommunication of one who has effectively ceased to be a member. Only those who are faithful to the Church belong to and are members of it. (…) But remember that the proclamation of anathema is combined in the Triumph of Orthodoxy with touching prayers to the Lord, asking that He Himself bring those who have gone astray to their senses. The Church is forced to say about them that they are anathema, that is, apostates, and are excommunicated from the Church, but she grieves for them and prays for them that the Lord will help them come to their senses and return to the bosom of the Mother Church.
Saint Philaret (Voznesensky), Metropolitan of New York (Orthodoxy in the Modern World. The Meaning of Anathema).
Every act of excommunication from the Orthodox Church is always an act of Divine wrath of Love. The purpose of every ecclesiastical excommunication is to facilitate the salvation of a perishing human soul. When nothing else can bring the lost to reason, fear can help. "And to some have mercy, discerningly, but to others save with fear" (Jude 1:22-23). This is how the Holy Church of Christ acts. So too, the Lord Himself, who is Love, being infinitely patient and boundlessly merciful, after all means for the salvation of the soul, sends to the sinner, as a final means of conversion, sorrows, illnesses, and suffering.