First Sunday of Lent: Sunday of Orthodoxy

The spiritual theme of the day is first of all the victory of the True Faith. On this day each year we celebrate the Feast honoring the restoration of the Holy Icons, or sacred pictures and their use in all the Churches.

This Feast was first celebrated on March 11, 843, when after more than a century of controversy the Byzantine Empress Theodora finally brought about the return of the Holy Icons. The First Sunday of Lent has been kept as an anniversary of Orthodoxy ever since that time, because those who had wished to do away with the pictures were also desirous of modifying the Orthodox Faith; the icons were and are a symbol of the Orthodox Faith, and no Orthodox Church is without them.