Celebration of the Holy Icons at the Episcopal Cathedral in Saint-Hubert

on the First Sunday of Great Lent

On Sunday, March 1, 2026, at the Episcopal Cathedral “St. Great Martyr George and Saints Epictetus and Astion” in Saint‑Hubert, Romanian Orthodox faithful gathered to celebrate Sunday of Orthodoxy, the first Sunday of Great Lent in Eastern Christianity.

The Divine Liturgy was celebrated by His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian. Concelebrating with the hierarch were Fr. Constantin Lupașcu and Deacon Valentin Boțu. The liturgical responses were offered by the cathedral choir, coordinated by Madalina Enache.

At the appointed moment, the Pastoral Letter of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church for the Sunday of Orthodoxy was read.

At the end of the Divine Liturgy, the faithful took part in the traditional procession with the holy icons, a visible sign of the victory of the decisions of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787), definitively confirmed in the year 843. On this occasion, an excerpt from the declaration of the Holy Synodal Fathers of that time was also read.

In his homily, the hierarch recalled:

“The Seventh Ecumenical Council concluded the series of the seven Ecumenical Councils, affirming the legitimacy of the presence of icons in the Church. Because of the cultural context of that time and the pressures coming from outside, there was strong opposition to the possibility of representing Christ in an icon, considering it idolatry. Among the most prominent defenders of the holy icons were St. John of Damascus, St. Theodore the Studite, and St. Germanus of Constantinople.

The reason we can depict Christ in an icon - says St. John of Damascus - is that He appeared in the flesh. The Apostles saw Him, touched Him, and experienced His human body. Therefore, what we represent in the icon is not His divinity, which is invisible and beyond comprehension, but His human body, which was visible and circumscribed, seen by the Apostles and His contemporaries. This legitimizes the presence of icons in the Church.

Icons are given veneration, and the faithful who bow before an icon honor the saint represented in it. Adoration is offered to God alone. The veneration of icons is not directed to the material or the wood, but to the saint depicted in the icon.

Icons reveal to us the image of our transfigured life and bear witness to our faith. The scenes represented in churches speak about the important events in the life of the Savior Jesus Christ, which we also see reflected in Holy Scripture. They offer a visible testimony of the invisible faith present in our hearts.

For this reason churches are painted, because they are a visible and anticipated image of the life of the Kingdom of Heaven. Icons speak about the holiness of our life and about the transfigured image of the saints, according to the likeness we shall have in the Kingdom of Heaven. The path toward this transfiguration begins here on earth, in the Church, through participation in the sanctifying work of the Church and in the Holy Mysteries.

There is a continuity between the work of the Church here on earth and that of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Church greets us on the first Sunday of Great Lent with a Sunday of joy, victory, hope, and light. All these divine realities accompany and prepare us during this time of spiritual and bodily effort for the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord.”

In conclusion, the hierarch wished all the faithful a blessed Great Lent, and those present received the final blessing.