St John Damascene on Holy Images (πρὸς τοὺς διαβάλλοντας τᾶς ἁγίας εἰκόνας). Followed by Three Sermons on the Assumption (κοίμησις) — John Shaqi
St John Damascene on Holy Images (πρὸς τοὺς διαβάλλοντας τᾶς ἁγίας εἰκόνας). Followed by Three Sermons on the Assumption (κοίμησις)John of Damascus, Saint
Religion
St John Damascene on Holy Images (πρὸς τοὺς διαβάλλοντας τᾶς ἁγίας εἰκόνας). Followed by Three Sermons on the Assumption (κοίμησις)
John of Damascus, Saint
Icons -- Cult; Idols and images -- Worship; Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint -- Assumption -- Sermons -- Early works to 1800
to make an image of Almighty God, who is pure Spirit, invisible,
uncircumscribed, we reject it as a falsehood. If any one make images for
the honour and worship of the Devil and his angels, we abhor them and
deliver them to the flames. Or if any one give divine honours to the
statues of men, or birds, or reptiles, or any other created thing, we
anathematise him. As our forefathers in the faith pulled down the
temples of demons, and erected on the same spot churches dedicated to
saints whom we honour, so they overturned the statues of demons, and set
up instead the images of Christ, of His holy Mother, and the saints.
Even in the old dispensation, Israel neither raised temples to human
beings, nor held sacred the memory of man. At that time Adam’s race was
under a curse, and death was a penalty, therefore a mourning. A corpse
was looked upon as unclean, and the man who touched it as contaminated.
But since the Godhead has taken to Himself our nature, it has become
glorified as a vivifying and efficacious remedy, and has been
transformed unto immortality. Thus the death of the saints is a
rejoicing, and churches are raised to them, and their images are set up.
Be assured that any one wishing to pull down an image erected out of
pure zeal for the glory and enduring memory of Christ, or of His holy
Mother, or any of the saints, to put the devil and his satellites to
shame,—anyone, I say, refusing to honour and worship this image as
sacred—it is not to be worshipped as God—is an enemy of Christ, of His
blessed Mother, and of the saints, and is an advocate of the devil and
his crew, showing grief by his conduct that the saints are honoured and
glorified, and the devil put to shame. The image is a hymn of praise, a
manifestation, a lasting token of those who have fought and conquered,
and of demons humbled and put to flight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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