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Theodora I (815–67) was the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Theophilos. When Theophilos died in 842, she became regent (temporary ruler) for her son Michael, who was still an infant. Empress Theodora governed Byzantium for thirteen years (until she was deposed by her brother Bardas in 855), and her reign changed Eastern Orthodoxy forever. Her husband Theophilos had been an iconoclast, but Theodora was an iconophile and one of her very first acts as empress was to assemble a synod of Orthodox bishops to reaffirm the use of icons in Christian worship and personal devotion. This declaration signaled the final end of the Iconoclastic Controversy. In the Orthodox Church calendar this event, known as the “Triumph of Orthodoxy,” is celebrated every year on the first Sunday in Lent (or “Great Lent” as it is called in the Orthodox tradition). The following reading is excerpted from the concluding report of Empress Theodora’s synod. It describes how the “winter” of iconoclastic rule ended, calls for the annual celebration of the iconophile victory, and declares iconoclasm to be “anathema” (damned) forevermore.

Excerpt from the “Synodikon of Orthodoxy” (843):

We have received from the Church of God, that upon this day we owe yearly thanksgiving to God along with an exposition of the dogmas of piety and the overturning of the impieties of evil … For indeed, there came upon us a winter, not an ordinary one, but one of truly great evil, brimming over with harshness; but there blossomed forth the first season, the spring of God’s grace, in which we have come together to give thanks for the harvest of good things … For verily, those enemies [iconoclasts] who reproached the Lord and utterly dishonored His holy worship in the holy icons, were both arrogant and high‐minded in impieties, and were cast down by the God of marvels, and He leveled to the ground their insolent apostasy … [God] has delivered us unworthy ones [iconophiles] from adversity, redeeming us from those who afflicted us, and establishing the free proclamation of piety, the steadfastness of the worship of icons … To them who persist in the heresy of denying icons … Anathema.

John Sanidopoulos, “The Synodikon of Orthodoxy,” February 21, 2010, https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/02/synodicon‐of‐orthodoxy.html.

The weakening Byzantine Empire eventually felt compelled to ask the Catholic West for military assistance. That assistance came in the form of the Crusades which, at first, seemed to help. However, the armies of the Fourth Crusade (1204), rather than fighting against the Islamic forces in the region, attacked the Byzantine Empire itself, ransacking the city of Constantinople, raping Orthodox women, and stripping the churches of their treasures. Later, a Latin‐dominated puppet government was set up in the region with the intention of forcing the Orthodox Church to accept the supreme religious authority of the Pope. The Orthodox leadership never fully complied, and the Orthodox Church developed a deep and abiding suspicion of the Catholic Church that still impacts Catholic–Orthodox relations today. Pope John Paul II expressed “pain and disgust” regarding the 1204 attack and formally apologized to the Ecumenical Patriarch in 2004, asking for forgiveness.

Greek rule and Orthodox faith were restored in the region in the mid‐1200s, but there was a constant threat of attack from the Islamic Ottoman Turks. By the early 1400s, the situation was once again desperate and once again Byzantium turned to the West for help. In a repetition of the past, the Catholic West said that submission to the Pope was the cost of assistance. With no other option at hand, the Byzantine religious leaders duly submitted to union with Rome at the Council of Florence in 1439. Despite that submission, no real aid was forthcoming, and Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, effectively ending the Byzantine Empire. Most Orthodox believers denounced the Council of Florence and repudiated any union with the Roman Catholic Church. The authority and prestige of the Patriarch of Constantinople sustained serious damage because of its complicity (even if it was essentially forced) in negotiating the union with Rome. Orthodoxy was clearly at a low ebb.

If there was a bright spot in the Orthodox history of this period, it was in the area of theology and spirituality, where the writings of Symeon the New Theologian (942–1022) and Gregory Palamas (1296–1359) helped to shape a new “interior” expression of Orthodox faith and piety. Turning away from the abstract, philosophical, and scholastic theology of his contemporaries, Symeon stressed the inner experience of God, how humans search for and find the presence of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Palamas similarly stressed the importance of the interior life, focusing especially on contemplation (including use of the Jesus Prayer) as a means of stilling the mind so that the light of God’s presence could be experienced by Orthodox believers.