Today the Church commemorates the Triumph of Orthodoxy.
“Triumph” is a Latin word for a special parade or procession, the highest honor Roman society could award to a victorious, conquering general. He would be honored in a procession together with all his officers and soldiers, carrying the treasures they had taken from conquered people, and leading the conquered king to be offered as a human sacrifice.
By the eighth century, there had not been a Triumph for generations. But the empress decreed a Triumph – not for a human general, but for the icons, which had been vindicated by the Seventh Ecumenical Council and now returned to be carried through the city in a victorious procession.
And instead of sacrificing conquered kings to the demon gods of old Rome, that Triumph procession ended with anathemas against heresies and a clear statement of the Faith of the apostles – especially the salvation of humankind through the incarnation of God the Word, through flesh and wood and nails, and the resurrection of the dead. Instead of teaching only a “spiritual” immaterial God, the Church worships God Made Flesh, and honors Christ and his saints using material images.
Here is a video that conveys what a “Triumph” meant to Romans:
