The 7th Ecumenical Council – Nicea – On Holy Icons

A response to the 120 year long Iconoclast Controversy in the early church – In 787, the 7th Ecumenical Council at Nicea, sometimes called Nicea II, proclaimed:

“We define that the holy icons, whether in color, mosaic, or some other material, should be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on the sacred vessels and liturgical vestments, on the walls, furnishings, and in houses and along the roads, namely the icons of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, that of our Lady the Theotokos, those of the venerable angels and those of all saintly people. Whenever these representations are contemplated, they will cause those who look at them to commemorate and love their prototype. We define also that they should be kissed and that they are an object of veneration and honor (timitiki proskynisis), but not of real worship (latreia), which is reserved for Him Who is the subject of our faith and is proper for the divine nature, . . . which is in effect transmitted to the prototype; he who venerates the icon, venerated in it the reality for which it stands.”