A liturgical service for the recanting of their heresies by those “who come back to the Orthodox (orthodoxon) and true faith” was composed in the ninth century by St. Methodios, the Patriarch of Constantinople. During his time, a perfect peace settled over the Church of Christ, after the reign of tumultuous heresies, over which Orthodoxy finally triumphed. An anonymous hagiographer, himself St. Methodios’ contemporary, cites the restless labors of the latter, by which he struggled “to abolish heresy from his flock as a plague and to implant a firm and Orthodox faith (orthodoxon pistin) in every soul.” [¹⁹] It is thus quite natural that the feast of the triumph of Orthodoxy over heresy, which was introduced into the Church in 842 through the initiative of St. Methodios the Patriarch, was called the “Feast of Orthodoxy,” “heorte tes orthodoxias,” which has been celebrated annually, even to the present day, on the First Sunday of Great Lent: The Sunday of Orthodoxy.