Pope speaks on 8th-century iconoclast controversy
April 29, 2009
Continuing his series of Wednesday talks on the Church fathers, Pope Benedict XVI spoke on April 29 about the influence of St. Germanus of Constantinople during the iconoclast controversy. Soon after St. Germanus became Patriarch of Constantinople in 717, the Pope recounted, the faithful organized a solemn procession through the city, carrying an image of the Mother of God, and appealing for help against the threatening Saracens. St. Germanus took the subsequent lifting of the siege as divine confirmation of the value of icons, and strongly defended their use when Emperor Leo III campaigned against them. The Holy Father went on to say that St. Germanus has an important message to today's society about the importance of maintaining "the visibility of God in the world and in the Church." He added that the 8th-century patriarch also would emphasize the importance of reverence and beauty in the liturgy, the need to worship "with an awareness of the presence of God and with a beauty and dignity that enable us to glimpse his splendor."
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