St Methodius of Constantinople (d. 847) defender of icons
The controversy over icons
The movement of
iconoclasm (or the "breaking of images") was influenced by three
factors: Islamic and Jewish prohibitions on making images of God, the
Gnostic belief that matter was evil and the monophysite (= "only one
nature") denial of the real humanity of Jesus.
The opposite of an iconoclast is an iconodule (that is, servant or slave of images) or, more positively, iconophile
(lover of images). During the 8th and 9th centuries many of the
emperors at Constantinople espoused iconoclasm, mostly because of the
general opposition to the use of images and relics, and also because the
use of images was an obstacle to the conversion of Jews and Muslims to
Christianity.
Additional dimensions of iconoclasm, apart from persecuting and
imprisoning iconophiles, are the disrespecting of relics and the refusal
to ask for the intercession of the saints.
History
What sparked the controversy was the
decision of the emperor Justinian II ( 685 to 695 and 705 to 711) to put
a full-face image of Jesus on the obverse of his gold coins. This
prompted the Caliph Abd al-Malik to cease using images, but only
lettering, on his coins.
The Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-741), who
may have had leanings towards Islam, ordered the removal of the image
of Jesus from over the ceremonial entrance of the gate to the Great
Palace and its replacement by a cross. So began the war between
iconodules or iconophiles and iconophobes.
Most emperors for the next hundred years (with the exception of the
regents Irene and Theodora) were iconophobes favoured iconclasm at
Constantinople. Some even tried to get the popes to introduce it in
Rome.
Methodius of Constantinople
Methodius had been
born in Syracuse, Sicily, and became a monk on the Greek island of
Chios, from where Patriarch Nicephorus I (806-815) called him to
Constantinople as his assistant. But Patriarch Nicephorus was soon
deposed by Emperor Leo V the Armenian (813-820) and exiled to a distant
monastery from where he carried on a literary polemic against iconclasm.
To Rome and subsequent imprisonment
Methodius
went to Rome with a letter informing the Pope of the situation and
stayed there until 820. He returned with a letter requesting that
Nicephorus be reinstated. But he was thrown into prison himself for
about nine years.
Under the emperor Michael II, Methodius was beaten up
for his activities and kept in confinement. He was released in 829 and
held a position at court until in 843 when the Empress Theodora, widow
of the Emperor Theophilus and regent for her son Michael III,
reversed imperial policy and appointed Methodius patriarch in place of
iconoclast patriarch John Grammaticus.
Veneration of icons restored: the feast of Orthodoxy
A
compromise was worked out by the influential minister Theokistos to
restore the veneration of icons: the deceased husband of the Empress,
Theophilus, would not be condemned; Methodius made the symbolic
procession into the Hagia Sophia cathedral accompanied by Theodora and minister Theokistos on March 11, 843.
This then became the feast of Orthodoxy,
now celebrated each year in all Byzantine Rite Churches on the first
Sunday of Lent.
It celebrates not just the restoration of the icons,
but also affirms the doctrines and people the Orthodox Church approves,
and notes the heresies it declares anathema.
Patriarchate and death
Throughout the final four
years of his life as patriarch, Methodius did not pursue former
iconoclasts but even strove to reign in the extremists who wanted all
former iconoclasts severely punished as heretics.