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On February 21 Orthodox Churches commemorated the The Triumph of Orthodoxy by reciting the Synodikon Proclamation of the Seventh Ecumenical Council:

As the prophets beheld, as the Apostles have taught, as the Church has received, as the Teachers have dogmatized, as the universe has agreed, as grace has shown forth, as truth has revealed, as falsehood has been dissolved, as wisdom has presented, as Christ awarded: thus we declare, thus we assert, thus we preach Christ our true God and honor his saints in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in churches, in holy icons; on the one hand worshipping and reverencing Christ as God and Lord, and on the other hand honoring them as true servants of the Lord of all and accordingly offering them veneration.

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Sunday of Orthodoxy

The Sunday of Orthodoxy commemorates the reentry and acceptance of icons into the Orthodox Church, and is celebrated on the first Sunday of Lent in the Orthodox Church. In 726 A.D., icons were prohibited from being depicted in places of worship because many feared that this was a demonstration of idolatry. In 787 A.D., at the request of Tarasios, Patriarch of Constantinople, Empress Irene and the Seventh Ecumenical Council convened a meeting in which 367 bishops attended. At this time, the Council determined that icons should be venerated, rather than worshipped. This view was also shared by Pope Hadrian in a letter after the Council. Although this historic meeting brought to light certain agreement among the Council, it wasn’t until 56 years later, that icons were accepted in the Orthodox Church. The breakthrough occurred during the Regional Synod in Constantinople in 843 A.D., under Empress Theodora. The veneration of the icons was proclaimed at Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople, in which Empress Irene, her son, Michael III, Patriarch Methodios, and several clergy and monks lead the procession to restore the icons in the church.