The Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy is celebrated on the first Sunday of Great Lent. It is the celebration of the victory of the iconodules over the iconoclasts by the decision of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Therefore, the service is to commemorate the restoration of icons for use in services and private devotional life of Christians.

Services often include the clergy or the faithful triumphantly processing around the church, holding icons of their patron or parish saints. In areas where multiple jurisdictions exist (such as the United States), Pan-Orthodox Vespers are also usually celebrated in the evening.

Icon of theTriumph of Orthodoxy

An icon celebrating the restoration of Holy Images at the end of Iconoclasm.

The overthrow of Iconoclasm in AD 843 was seen as a triumph for the orthodox branch of the Christian church. This icon portrays the annual Festival of Orthodoxy celebrated on the first Sunday in Lent. It was painted in egg tempera on gold leaf on a wooden panel covered with gesso and linen.

The icon of the Virgin Mary Hodegetria appears at the centre of the top register on a stand draped with red and gold cloth. This, the most famous icon of Constantinople, was believed to have been painted by the Evangelist St Luke, and thus to be an actual life portrait of the Virgin.

The regent Empress Theodora and her young son, the emperor Michael III (reigned AD 842-67) appear on the left, wearing jeweled crowns and robes. On the right is the Patriarch Methodios (in office from 843-7) together with three monks.

The lower register depicts eleven saints and bishops, some of whom triumphantly display icons. All were active iconophiles, such as the female figure on the far left, identified as St Theodosia of Constantinople who, at the outbreak of Iconoclasm, reputedly tried to save the famous icon of Christ placed over the Chalke (Bronze) Gate of the Imperial Palace.