Apologia Against Those Who Decry Holy Icons — PART I

St. John of Damascus

Author: St. John of Damascus

WITH the ever-present conviction of my own unworthiness, I ought to have kept silence and

confessed my shortcomings before God, but all things are good at the right time. I see the Church

which God founded on the Apostles and Prophets, its corner-stone being Christ His Son, tossed on

an angry sea, beaten by rushing waves, shaken and troubled by the assaults of evil spirits. I see

rents in the seamless robe of Christ, which impious men have sought to part asunder, and His body

cut into pieces, that is, the word of God and the ancient tradition of the Church. Therefore I

have judged it unreasonable to keep silence and to hold my tongue, bearing in mind the Scripture

warning:--“If thou withdrawest thyself, my soul shall not delight in thee,” (Heb.

10.38) and “If thou seest the sword coming and dost not warn thy brother, I shall require

his blood at thy hand.” (cf. Ez. 33.8) Fear, then, compelled me to speak; the truth was

stronger than the majesty of kings. “I bore testimony to Thee before kings,” I heard

the royal David saying, “and I was not ashamed.” (Ps. 119.46) No, I was the more

incited to speak. The King’s command is all powerful over his subjects. For few men have

hitherto been found who, whilst recognising the power of the earthly king to come from above,

have resisted his unlawful demands.

In the first place, grasping as a kind of pillar, or foundation, the teaching of the Church,

which is our salvation, I have opened out its meaning, giving, as it were, the reins to a well

caparisoned charger. For I look upon it as a great calamity that the Church, adorned with her

great privileges and the holiest examples of saints in the past, should go back to the first

rudiments, and fear where there is no fear. It is disastrous to suppose that the Church does not

know God as He is, that she degenerates into idolatry, for if she declines from perfection in a

single iota, it is as an enduring mark on a comely face, destroying by its unsightliness the

beauty of the whole. A small thing is not small when it leads to something great, nor indeed is

it a thing of no matter to give up the ancient tradition of the Church held by our forefathers,

whose conduct we should observe, and whose faith we should imitate.

In the first place, then, before speaking to you, I beseech Almighty God, to whom all things

lie open, who knows my small capacity and my genuine intention, to bless the words of my mouth,

and to enable me to bridle my mind and direct it to Him, to walk in His presence straightly, not

declining to a plausible right hand, nor knowing the left. Then I ask all God’s people, the

chosen ones of His royal priesthood, with the holy shepherd of Christ’s orthodox flock, who

represents in his own person Christ’s priesthood, to receive my treatise with kindness.

They must not dwell on my unworthiness, nor seek for eloquence, for I am only too conscious of my

shortcomings. They must consider the though