To the monastic and parish clergy and
To beloved faithful from the Romanian Patriarchate,
Grace, joy and peace from God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
and from us hierarchical blessings!

Reverend Fathers,
Beloved faithful,
The first Sunday of the Great Lent is devoted to the victory of the Orthodox faith on heresies. The Holy Fathers who reunited in the Ecumenical Councils in the IV – VIII centuries established the right teaching about the divinity of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, as well as the true way to honor the holy icons. Established by the Council of Constantinople on March 11, 843, this feast was dedicated to the victory of the righteous faith on those who fought against the veneration of icons, the Holy Cross, and the holy
relics, and was also the celebration of the victory of the righteous faith on all wrong heresies and teachings, in general.
The Sunday of Orthodoxy reminds of the Orthodox victory against the heretics, culminating in the restoration of the veneration of the holy icons. Thus, the decision that the first Sunday of the Great Lent should be called the Sunday of Orthodoxy was taken in the year 843 at the Council of Constantinople, but it was prepared by the Seventh Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 787, when the Holy Fathers proclaimed the holy icons as a manifestation of the Orthodox faith. (read the full text)