First Ecumenical Council: Nicaea I (325)
In order to provide some background material for the Orientale Lumen Conferences in 2010, with the help of Father Michael Hayduk, I prepared a summary of the first Seven Ecumenical Councils that I post here.
SITE: Nicaea (in N.W. Asia Minor)
YEAR: A.D. 325
POPE: St. Sylvester I, 314 - 335
EMPEROR: Constantine I, The Great, Western Roman Emperor 306-337; Sole Emperor 324 - 337
ACTION: Called by the emperor and ratified by the Pope, this council condemned the heresy of Arius (priest of Alexandria, d. 336) by defining the CONSUBSTANTIALITY of God the Son with God the Father. The Son is of the “same substance,” homo-ousion, as the Father (St. Athanasius); not merely a “like substance,” homoi-ousion (as with the semi-Arians); nor is He (as Arius taught) some sort of super-creature.
NOTE: St. Athanasius, Doctor of the Church (d. 373), Bishop of Alexandria, was present as deacon and peritus at Nicaea; exiled five times and excommunicated by the Arians. St. Ephrem, Doctor of the Church (d. 373), deacon, was also present at Nicaea as peritus.
HERESIARCH: ARIUS.
The Council of Nicaea lasted two months and twelve days. Three hundred and eighteen bishops were present. Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, assisted as legate of Pope Sylvester. The Emperor Constantine was also present. To this council we owe The Creed (Symbolum) of Nicaea, defining against Arius the true Divinity of the Son of God (homoousios), and the fixing of the date for keeping Easter (against the Quartodecimans).
