Irene of Athens - Champion of Orthodoxy and the Birth of the Welfare State. This program examines the place of Irene of Athens in world history, and in the history of the Church. As the first woman head of state in Europe she saved the world from the scourge of Iconoclasm, defended the Ecumene from…
Irene of Athens – Champion of Orthodoxy and the Birth of the Welfare State. This program examines the place of Irene of Athens in world history, and in the history of the Church. As the first woman head of state in Europe she saved the world from the scourge of Iconoclasm, defended the Ecumene from the barbarians attacking from both the East and the West, while simultaneously waging a war against poverty, and raising a future Emperor of the Roman Empire (Constantine VI).
Be sure to view the following program after viewing “Irene of Athens”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rayqtBCKehk
yeah, well, she had her son killed in order to be a sole empress, but whatever…
May St Irene intercede on our behalf. She is my sisters saint.
Wow thank God we had incredibly brave people in the past to preserve the truth so we could enjoy orthodox today 💜.
Orthodoxy is the true religion of peace and prosperity.
👸❤🌎🙏🙏🙏
Netrianism is what started Islam wasn't even in existence and Mohammad is a myth…
6:55
That's incorrect. At the end of the VIII century, the Empire was pretty small; Africa, Egypt, Siria, and many others provinces were under the control of the Arabs.
She is not a saint i dont care what the church sees this women as but she is not a saint she blinded her son she wanted to merry a catholic king ,i know she loved icons and protected icons aginst the syrian dinasty of Leo the III but that doesnt make her an angel no mother will ever do harm to her son in the name of power.
Thank you for sharing her story, 😀
People blame her for the blinding of her son but they forget that her son himself, Constantine VI, was justly hated through the empire for having his uncle's eyes put out and the tongues of his father's four other half-brothers cut off. His former Armenian supporters revolted after he had blinded their general Alexios Mosele. He crushed this revolt with extreme cruelty in 793. And he didn't care for things seriously as well showing that by marrying one of his mistresses.
How much beautiful was Irene? What do we know about her appearance? Was she blond? Imagine how pretty she must have been with all those imperial costumes full of jewelry… If I was one of her soldiers I would do anything for her! Not only was she pretty from the outside, but she was much more beautiful from the inside with her religious devotion.
I was at first thinking this isn’t about Irene at all, but I realized he was setting the stage for the biggest fight of her life the very dangerous question of religion in the ancient world.
I hadn’t known about Irene until I was going down a Byzantine youtube rabbit hole and I see she deserves her place with all the strong women in a mans world , Olga of Kiev, Elizabeth I, Cleopatra, Empress Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Margaret of Anjou, Wu Tze-tien. It’s really a short but awesome list of strong women in a world where strength in women could get them killed. Fascinating .
The city of Rome was part of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire at the time of Irene. During this time the Pope crowned Charlesmagne as the "Emperor of the Romans" even though Irene was the Emperor. The Pope as a subject of Irene had no authority to crown Charlesmagne. The Pope in one illegal move created the seed that would destroy the Roman world. This would lead to the Great Schism of 1054, the Sack of Constantinople of 1204 and the final collapse of the Roman Empire with the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.
Excellent documentary… thank you for creating.
Thanks for the nice historical video. I want to take the liberty to share my beliefs. I am not trying to be disagreeable or enter into controversy. I really do appreciate the facts that were shared in this video. Blessings.
The Second Commandment
Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
This commandment is condemning images in the sense of veneration; however, it is wise to use religious images for education purposes. Empress Irene disregarded the second commandment of God furthering "the great falling away" which the apostle Paul prophesied of in 2 Thess. chapter 2.
The Apostle John prophesied in Rev. 9 of the judgments that would fall upon the Byzatine empire and apostate church principally because of idolatry. There has seldom been such a unanimity of opinion among the eminent divines concerning the Apocalpse as is found Revelation chapter 9. All those who were moved by the Holy Ghost attributed the symbols therein to the Saracens and the Turks. This scourage was directed at the so called "Orthodox" church.
I know some might differ on this text point, but for the sake of discussion I will make my point. A women holding the position of head of state is repugnant to God. It goes directly against gospel order. Yet I understand the Lord suffers it so on account of the hardness of man's heart. Nevertheless, it is akin to Jesus sending the Father into the world to do His bidding.
In conculsion, let us never forget that the Arabs and Turks were weapons in the hands of God's indignation against an apostate people.
Irene was a smart lady but her reign was mostly a failure. Her biggest problem was that she defunded the military and tried to buy influence by granting massive tax cuts to the aristocracy. This left the empire in a very precarious financial position and a weak military. Her successor Nicephorus I would do a decent job of cleaning up this mess.