Fr. Augustine Sokolovski
On February 5, the Church commemorates the Fathers of the Sixth Ecumenical Council. The Ecumenical Council is a gathering of the episcopate of the Roman Empire and some bishops from outside its borders. The Roman Empire called itself “the universe,” or “ecumene” in Greek, hence the name.
In 337, Emperor Constantine the Great was baptized on his deathbed. Orthodox Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. As a result, other states, primarily the Persian Empire, began to view Christians among their subjects with suspicion, suspecting them of disloyalty and subjecting them to persecution. Over time, beginning in the 5th century, Persian Christians literally took advantage of the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils of the Roman Empire and rejected their decisions. They formally proclaimed themselves “Nestorians,” and the persecution of them by the authorities ceased. This allowed them to develop and spread their mission far to the East, an example of which is the Chinese “Nestorian Stele.” A kind of “division of labor” took place. The Church within the Roman Empire formulated dogmas, while other Churches engaged in practice, grew, and preached.
The celebration of the memory of the Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils is a characteristic feature of Orthodoxy. This is a very archaic remembrance, in which it is not the personal memory of the holy participants in the church event that is celebrated, but the event itself, as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, Who inspired the Church to make dogmatic decisions.
The Sixth Ecumenical Council was held in Constantinople in 680–681 and proclaimed that Jesus Christ was true God and true Man, possessing true human action and human will. In Him, human action and human will received redemption and divine sanctification.
The Sixth Ecumenical Council coincided with the era of the rapid spread of Islam. The Fathers of the Council said nothing about this. A page in the history of Christianity was closing, the era of the Church Fathers, who were convinced that soon the whole world would believe and become entirely Christian, was coming to an end.