VATICAN - Benedict XVI at the General Audience: “Let us pray to God so that he teaches us to see in the Church his presence, his beauty, to see his presence in the world, and that he helps us also to be transparent for his light.”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The Holy Father Benedict XVI spoke of the Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople in the General Audience on April 29. As the Pontiff recalled, Saint Germanus “does not belong to the most characteristic figures of the Eastern Christian world, and yet, his name appears with a certain solemnity in the list of the great defenders of sacred images.”
The Pope then recalled several historical and biographical accounts of Saint Germanus. “During the Patriarchy of Germanus (715-730), the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, suffered a very dangerous siege from the Saracens. On that occasion (717-718), a solemn procession was organized in the city with the showing of the image of the Mother of God, the Theotokos, and a relic of the holy cross, to invoke from on high the defense of the city. In fact, Constantinople was liberated from the siege...Patriarch Germanus, after that event, became convinced that the intervention of God should be considered evident approval of the piety shown by the people toward the holy icons. Of an entirely different opinion, on the other hand, was Emperor Leo III, who precisely that year (717), was enthroned as the indisputable emperor in the capital, in which he would reign until 741. After the liberation of Constantinople and after a series of further victories, the Christian emperor began to show ever more openly the conviction that the consolidation of the empire should begin precisely with a reordering of the manifestations of the faith, with particular reference to the risk of idolatry, which according to his opinion, the people were exposed to due to an excessive devotion to icons. Nothing was gained by Patriarch Germanus' references to the tradition of the Church and the efficacy of certain images, which were unanimously recognized as 'miraculous.'”
On Jan. 7, 730 the Emperor took a position against devotion to images and Germanus, who did not want in any way to yield to the will of the Emperor, found himself obligated to turn in his resignation as patriarch and to condemn himself to exile in a monastery where he died forgotten by everyone. His name came to light again precisely in the Second Council of Nicaea (787), when the Orthodox Fathers decided in favor of icons, recognizing the merits of Germanus.
Patriarch Germanus gave much attention to the liturgical celebrations and “some of his works had a certain echo above all because of certain of his intuitions regarding Mariology. From him, in fact, we have various homilies about Marian themes and some of them have profoundly marked the piety of entire generations of faithful, as much in the East as in the West.” One of his Mariological texts was quoted by Pope Pius XII in the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus (1950), with which he declared the dogma of faith, the assumption of Mary, presenting it as one of the arguments in favor of the permanent faith of the Church in the corporal assumption of Mary into heaven. Germanus was recognized, in the Byzantine tradition, as one of those who has contributed much to keeping alive this conviction, that is, that “the beauty of the word, of the language and the beauty of the building and the music should coincide.”
Asking the question: What does this saint have to tell us today, “[being] chronologically and also culturally very far from us”? Pope Benedict XVI highlighted three points. “The first: There is a certain visibility of God in the world, in the Church, which we should learn to perceive. God has created man in his image, but this image has been covered in so much filth from sin that consequently God is almost not seen anymore in it. Thus the Son of God became true man, perfect image of God: In Christ we can thus contemplate the face of God and learn to ourselves be true men, true images of God. Christ invites us to imitate him, to come to be similar to him, so that in each man the face of God, the image of God, again shines through...The second [lesson] is the beauty and dignity of the liturgy. To celebrate the liturgy in the awareness of the presence of God, with this dignity and beauty that allows one to see a bit of his splendor, is the task of every Christian formed in his faith. The third [lesson] is to love the Church. Precisely concerning the Church, we men are inclined to see above all its sins, the negative; but with the help of faith, which makes us capable of seeing authentically, we can also, today and always, rediscover in her the divine beauty.” The Holy Father then concluded his catechesis with this exhortation: “Let us pray to God so that he teaches us to see in the Church his presence, his beauty, to see his presence in the world, and that he helps us also to be transparent for his light.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 30/4/2009)