May: Day 12: Teaching 2: Saint Germanos of Constantinople

May: Day 12: Teaching 2:
Saint Germanos of Constantinople
 
(It Is Necessary To Venerate Holy Icons)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Germanos, commemorated today by the Church, was born in Constantinople (8th century) and was the son of the senator Justinian. Emperor Constantine Pogonatos killed Justinian; fearing revenge on the part of his son, he gave him to the Church clergy. Germanos, although he did not enter into the service of the Church of his own free will, by his strict life earned the general respect of both the clergy and laity and achieved the rank of Bishop of the city of Cyzicus. For the defense of Orthodoxy against heretics, Emperor Philip exiled Germanos into exile; after Philip's death, he was returned and even made Patriarch of Constantinople, but not for long. When Emperor Leo the Isaurian incited persecution of icon veneration, Saint Germanos appeared as a staunch defender of icons, trying to reason with the emperor and comforting the innocently persecuted. In 730, the iconoclasts deposed him from the patriarchal throne and expelled him from Constantinople. Saint Germanos died in 740. At the Seventh Ecumenical Synod, Germanos was canonized.

II. Saint Germanos left many writings, of which three letters in defense of holy icons are especially important. In them, among other things, he defends the veneration of icons by pointing to ancient images of Jesus Christ, to His image not made by hands, to the icon of the Mother of God painted by the Evangelist Luke, to the miracles performed with icons, proving with these examples both the antiquity of icon veneration in the Church and the benefit that believers receive from icons. This is what our words will be about.

a) The madmen who rise up against the veneration of holy icons dare to call Orthodox Christians idolaters and holy icons idols. What impiety and madness!

What is an icon? An image or icon is a picture and likeness of a true thing that is, or was, or will be. For example, the Holy Trinity is depicted in the persons of three angels: this was in reality when three angels appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamre. God the Father is depicted in the form of a certain most honorable elder: and this was in reality when the Prophet Daniel and the Prophet Isaiah saw “the Ancient of Days, sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, with seraphim around Him” (Dan. 7:9; Is. 6:1). God the Son is depicted, born on earth and living with men, suffering and being buried, and rising on the third day according to the Scriptures, and ascending into heaven, and sitting at the right hand of the Father, and coming again with glory to judge the living and the dead: and this was in fact, and is, and will be. The Holy Spirit is depicted in the form of a dove: and this was in reality, when the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove. It is also necessary to reason about other icons, which always agree with their prototypes and serve as an image and likeness of true things.

And what is an idol? An image of delusion. For "all the gods of the nations are demons, but our Lord made the heavens and the earth" (Psalm 99:5).

After this, who will dare to call the holy icons idols? Do you not hear the terrible thunder emanating from the Seventh Ecumenical Synod, as if from an exalted cloud, thundering for all to hear: "To those who say that the holy icons are idols: anathema, anathema, anathema."

b) But let us turn to the Holy Scriptures and from there we will draw evidence of the truth.

The Scriptures say that the Lord God commanded Moses to make an image of two golden cherubim and place them on the Ark of the Lord. Therefore, those who bowed down to the Ark of the Lord also bowed down to the cherubim that stood on the Ark, but were not idolaters, rather, on the contrary, chosen people of God.

The Scriptures also speak of the bronze serpent, which was lifted up on the tree by Moses and healed all who bowed to it and looked upon it. This serpent, lifted up by Moses on the tree, was an image of Christ our Savior Himself, crucified on the tree, as He Himself testifies about Himself: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14).

Church traditions say that Christ our Savior Himself, having depicted His most pure face on the shroud, sent it to the sick King Abgar, who wanted to see Jesus Christ and receive healing from Him. We call this image Not Made by Hands.

According to the words of the Holy Apostle Paul, Christ our Savior is called the image of the eternal Father, being the radiance of the glory of the Father and the image of His hypostasis (Heb. 1:3).

In Scripture, man is also called the image of God, according to the saying of God: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). Why do they dare to belittle the holy images of God?

c) Let us listen to how our Holy Fathers reasoned about the honorable icons of the Church.

Saint John of Damascus says that the honor of the image returns to the prototype, and whoever bows to the image, bows to what is depicted on it; whoever honors the image, honors what is depicted on it. All the Holy Fathers and their entire most honorable synod say the same. With this reasoning, Saint Stephen, who suffered for the holy icons, as is said in his life, defeated the iconoclasts. They bring him before the very leader of the iconoclasts, the wicked Leo the Isaurian, who orders him to trample the icon of the Savior underfoot. What does the holy man do? He demands the gold coin and asks: "Whose image and inscription is this?" When they answer him that it is Caesar's, he strikes the gold coin on the ground, begins to trample it underfoot and spit on the image of Caesar, depicted on the gold coin, before the face of Caesar himself. When the emperor and all his elders saw this, they became angry; and the holy man said boldly: "Thus is your judgment, you fools! You are angry because I have trampled on the image of your earthly king, who is dust and ashes. How then will not the King of kings and Lord of lords be angry, whose image you trample under your feet?"

d) In the commandments of the Lord it is written: "You shall not make for yourself any graven image, or any likeness of anything in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them, nor serve them." Those who consider the veneration of venerable icons a violation of the commandment of the Lord are deceived. For that commandment: "You shall not make for yourself any graven image," etc., is directed not against icons, but against idols. The omniscient God saw that the Jews had a great inclination to idolatry: "For they mingled with the nations, and became skilled in their works, and served their idols, and made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped the idols, and changed the glory of God into the likeness of a calf eating grass" (Psalm 105). The Lord God saw this and gave them commandments through Moses, which begin thus: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt: you shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make unto yourself any graven image, etc.” (Deut. 5:6-8). Do we not also fulfill these commandments of the Lord; do we have other gods, except God, who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, and us away from the work of the devil; do we make for ourselves idols instead of God? If we have and revere icons, then we do not consider them gods, and we do not bow down to them separately from their prototype and do not render divine honor.

III. But there is no need for us to argue with impious people: the gates of hades will not prevail against the Holy Church. The Church is the pillar and foundation of truth. With her, we, her children, together with all the Holy Fathers, the universal luminaries, all unanimously say and are ready to confirm with our blood: we venerate your most pure image, Good One, asking forgiveness of our sins, Christ our God! Amen. 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.