With tears and sighs, raising our hands to God, we pray that we may take upon ourselves the feats of truth and come out with one spirit and one soul, as it were from a nest, from our sacred places of asceticism, and that we may remain to the end, by the power of the Lord; have the same thoughts, have the same love, be of one accord and of one mind (Phil. 2:2). We hold the teaching of truth, preached and written before our eyes and for the hearing of all creation, namely: to worship the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Most Glorious and Blessed Trinity, according to theological teaching.

Let us confess that one of the persons of the Trinity, the Son and Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, humbled Himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming like men (Phil. 2:7), is represented in our image and is depicted in bodily form. For He is a perfect God and at the same time a Man, as describable as we are, whose nature He has assumed, as He is alien to it in the indescribable nature of God. For it is not angels, says the Scriptures, that He receives, although it is characteristic of them to take on the form, as those who have beheld by the Spirit have seen, but receives the seed of Abraham. Therefore He had to be like the brethren in all things (Hebrews 2:16,17).

Let the Christ-fighters say, how is it possible for Abraham's seed not to be depicted on an icon? How will He, who is called our brother, be like us in all things, if it turns out that He has not received the property of describability inherent in us? Then He will be neither brother nor like us, therefore He is not a man.

This conclusion follows from their words that Christ cannot be depicted on an icon like us. Thus the Christ-fighters destroy the salvific economy, like the Manichaeans, Valentinians and Marcionites, with whom let us avoid, brethren, as the venom of a serpent, infecting not the body, as Gregory the Theologian says in one place, but the depths of the soul.

Reasoning in accordance with the Apostolic and Celestial Church – the real Byzantine part is a heretical part, which is often accustomed to separate from the others – we depict our Lord Jesus Christ in a bodily form. From ancient times this was continuously transmitted from the very appearance of Him to the apostles by copying the icon from the icon, as well as the image of the Life-Creating Cross.

Is it possible that the Cross, which is the weapon of Christ against the devil, should be depicted, and the One Who is the Armor-bearer and Conqueror of Satan should not be depicted? For how can a victorious and true weapon be depicted if it does not have a squire to be imagined before the eyes?

We worship His holy icon, worshipping as if Christ is depicted on it. For He was born from the womb of His Mother the Mother of God, having an image. And if this were not so, he would be some kind of degenerate and unimaged man, O God-fighters! But if He was born as an imaged child, which is true, as the prophet says: "Every male child that opens the couch was consecrated to the Lord" (Exodus 13:2; Luke 2:23), then it follows quite necessarily that He can be depicted on an icon. Hear, you who are deaf, and look, you who are blind, that you may see (Isaiah 42:18).

There is only one peculiarity in Christ in comparison with us, that He was conceived in the womb of a Virgin without seed, and was born without corruption, for He committed no sin, and there was no flattery in His mouth (1 Peter 2:22). The rest is as with us: He ate, drank, breathed, grew, walked, sweated, got tired, was crucified, died, although, like God, on the third day He rose again, having even after the Resurrection our depicted form, deified and made incorruptible in Him.

In this form He appeared to the Apostles, ate and drank with them after the Resurrection, and was palpable by Thomas, saying to all who took Him for a spirit: "Touch Me and see; for the spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" (Luke 24:39). Thus He ascended in glory, so He will come again in the same form - in our image, and all flesh will see Him coming from heaven, with the angels of His power, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey His gospel (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8), with whom the Jews who crucified Him and the iconoclasts who do not accept His images will suffer. This, brethren, is the preaching of the Gospel, this is the apostolic teaching.

Those who philosophize otherwise, on the contrary, try to lead the people of God to another gospel, which, however, is not different (Galatians 1:6-7), offering false writings, speaking from their own womb, and not from the mouth of the Lord. For usually tares are always mixed with wheat, and falsehood is added to the truth. And how would the truth be revealed if there were no contradictions? But even if we, says the Apostle, or an angel from heaven have begun to preach to you any other gospel than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so now I say again: Whosoever preaches unto you any other gospel than that which ye have received, let him be anathema" (Gal. 1:8-9).

It would be superfluous for me to write to you that it is possible to depict the Mother of God and the saints. For it would be foolish to say that any man cannot be depicted. And those who deny that Christ, Who is the Head of the body of the Church, can be depicted, at the same time thought to destroy the icons of the members of Christ, since we are all the body of Christ, and individually the members (1 Corinthians 12:27). For it is a rebuke for them that the Mother of God is depicted on an icon, but He Who was born of Her and fed on Her breasts and experienced everything pertaining to His bodily sojourn is not. They are also exposed by the fact that the witnesses and servants will be depicted, and the One Whom they served and with whom they communicated will not be depicted.

They turn out to be even worse than the Jews, because they do not accept the icons of Moses or any of the other prophets, while the Jews, who lived before grace, accepted the sacred images, being under the law, and not Christians. And these are so mad that they contradict themselves and the Jews, and, in fact, are neither Jews, guardians of the law, nor Christians, since they do not depict Christ, Whom they recognize as having become Man.

There is such a saying of the Apostle Peter in the story of the martyrdom of Saint Pancratius: "Son Joseph, bring out the icon of our Lord Jesus Christ and set it on the tower, so that they may see what image the Son of God has taken, so that, having seen, they may believe even more, looking at the appearance of the image, and remember what we have preached by Him" [2].

There is a saying of the Apostle Paul: O foolish Galatians! Who deceived you not to submit to the truth, you who had Jesus Christ predestined before your eyes, as if crucified among you (Galatians 3:1)? There is a saying of Basil the Great: "Let the Creator of the podvig in the struggle, Christ, be depicted in the picture" [3]. And again: "The honoring of the image passes to the prototype" [4]. There is a saying of Athanasius, who struggled a lot: "We, the faithful, worship icons not as gods, like the Greeks; let it not be; but only express the disposition and zeal of our love for the outline of the face of the icon." There is a saying of St. John Chrysostom: "I also liked a picture made of wax and full of piety. I saw on the icon an Angel driving away thousands of barbarians, I saw the tribes of barbarians trampled underfoot, and David, who truly cried out: Lord, destroy their image in Thy city (Psalm 72:20)" [5]. This is what the iconoclasts are doing now with Christ, the Mother of God and the saints - it is terrible to hear! - destroying their holy icons. Without mentioning the sayings of others, for there are many, and adding one more, I will turn my speech to another subject.