The Seven Ecumenical Councils

Where the Church, gathered, named the truth against every distortion, from Nicaea to Nicaea.

The Seven Ecumenical Councils, held between 325 and 787, are the gatherings at which the whole Church defined the apostolic faith against the errors of their day: from the First Council of Nicaea, which confessed the Son "of one essence with the Father," to the Second Council of Nicaea, which restored the veneration of icons. The Orthodox Church receives all seven.

The Seven Ecumenical Councils are the great gatherings, between the fourth and eighth centuries, at which the whole Church came together to confess the apostolic faith against the errors that threatened it. They did not invent doctrine; they named what had always been believed, drawing clear words around the mystery so that it could be guarded and handed on.

Each council answered a real crisis. Nicaea (325) confessed the Son as “of one essence with the Father”; Constantinople (381) completed the Creed and confessed the Spirit; Ephesus (431) named the Virgin Theotokos, God-bearer; Chalcedon (451) confessed Christ one Person in two natures; the fifth and sixth councils clarified His two wills and natures further; and the seventh, Nicaea II (787), confessed the veneration of the holy icons.

The councils are received not as a distant authority but as the living voice of the Church, the same faith spoken in the words each age needed. To hold the faith of the Seven Councils is to hold what has been believed, in the words of St Vincent, “everywhere, always, and by all.”

Questions about the Seven Councils

What were the Seven Ecumenical Councils?

Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431), Chalcedon (451), Constantinople II (553), Constantinople III (680 to 681), and Nicaea II (787).

Did the councils invent new doctrine?

No. They named what the Church had always believed, putting clear words around it when it was disputed.

Why do the councils matter today?

The Creed, the confession of Christ as God and man, and the veneration of icons all come from them, and the Church still prays in their words.

More questions about the Orthodox Church, answered ›

“Hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.”

St Vincent of Lérins, Commonitory (public domain)

In Orthros

Orthros keeps the Seven Ecumenical Councils, free and whole, what each gathered to confess, with its place in the story of the Church, each with its source shown.