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S i d e b a r
Second Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (787)
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 5
 May 1994 
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The one who granted us the light of recognizing him, the
one who redeemed us from the darkness of idolatrous insanity, Christ
our God, when he took for his Bride his holy Catholic Church, having
no blemish or wrinkle, promised he would guard her and assured his
holy disciples saying, "I am with you every day until the consummation
of this age." . . . To this gracious offer some people paid no
attention; being hoodwinked by the treacherous foe, they abandoned
the true line of reasoning . . . and they failed to distinguish the
holy from the profane, asserting that the icons of our Lord and of
his saints were no different from the wooden images of satanic idols.
. . . So having made investigation with all accuracy and having taken
counsel, setting for our aim the truth, we neither diminish nor augment,
but simply guard intact all that pertains to the Catholic Church.
. . .
To summarize, we declare that we defend free from any
innovations all the written and unwritten ecclesiastical traditions
that have been entrusted to us. One of these is the production of
representational art; this is quite in harmony with the history of
the spread of the gospel, as it provides confirmation that the becoming
man of the Word of God was real and not just imaginary. . . . We decree
with full precision and care that, like the figure of the honored
and life-giving cross, the revered and holy images, whether painted
or made of mosaic or of other suitable material, are to be exposed
in the holy churches of God, on sacred instruments and vestments,
on walls and panels, in houses and by public ways; these are the images
of our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ, and of our Lady without
blemish, the holy God-bearer and of the revered angels and of any
of the saintly holy men. The more frequently they are seen in representational
art, the more are those who see them drawn to remember and long for
those who serve as models and to pay these images the tribute of salutation
and respectful veneration.
Certainly this is not the full adoration in accordance
with our faith, which is properly paid only to the divine nature,
but it resembles that given to the figure of the honored and life-giving
cross and also to the holy books of the gospels and to other sacred
objects. . . . Indeed, the honor paid to an image traverses it, reaching
the model; and he who venerates the image, venerates the person represented
in that image.
Therefore all those who dare to think or teach anything
different, or who follow the accursed heretics in rejecting ecclesiastical
traditions, or who devise innovations, or who spurn anything entrusted
to the Church (whether it be the gospel or the figure of the cross
or any example of representational art or any martyr's holy relic),
or who fabricate perverted and evil prejudices against cherishing
any of the lawful traditions of the Catholic Church, or who secularize
the sacred objects and saintly monasteries, we order that they be
suspended if they are bishops or clerics and excommunicated if they
are monks or lay people.
1. If anyone does not confess that Christ our God can
be represented in his humanity, let him be anathema.
2. If anyone does not accept representation in art of
evangelical scenes [scenes from the life of Christ], let him be anathema.
3. If anyone does not salute such representations as standing
for the Lord and his saints, let him be anathema.
4. If anyone rejects any written or unwritten tradition
of the Church, let him be anathema.
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