813–843

The Second Iconoclasm and the Triumph of Orthodoxy

Leo V the Armenian owed his throne to an iconoclast army. In 813–815 he revived the iconoclast dispute. He deposed Patriarch Nikephoros and in 815 convened a council that reaffirmed the iconoclast rulings of 754. A persecution of icon-venerators followed. Theodore the Studite suffered especially; he insisted that judgment on doctrine belonged to the church and not the emperor.

Michael II the Stammerer softened the persecution ("as I found the Church, so I leave it"). But his successor Theophilos (830–842) again cruelly persecuted icon-painters and monks.

After Theophilos's death, the regent Empress Theodora, backed by Patriarch Methodios, restored icon veneration. A council in 842 reaffirmed the rulings of all seven ecumenical councils and anathematized the iconoclasts. On 19 February/11 March 843 the annual Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy was celebrated for the first time. It is still kept in the Eastern Church today.