The Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milano is celebrating the 17th Centenary of the Nicene Council.
From December 19, 2024 to June 17, 2025 visitors can admire the exhibition “Jubilee 2025 – XVII Centenary of the Council of Nicaea” curated by Mons. Marco Navoni and Mons. Francesco Braschi in rooms 2 and 3 of the Pinacoteca.
The Holy Year, every twenty-five years, solemnly commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, the Son of God who became man for the salvation of humanity.
In the first centuries of the Christian era, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth was one of the most debated theological questions: it was asked whether He, as the Son of God, was God like the Father, or whether he was inferior to the Father, and therefore a creature like the others, although the most excellent. He was a priest of the Church of Alexandria at the beginning of the 4th century, named Arius, who systematically denied the divinity of Christ with the intent of safeguarding the idea of the uniqueness of God: this doctrine, from the name of its author, took the name of Arianism.
To solve the issue and quell the controversies that were dividing Christianity, the Emperor Constantine the Great, exactly 1700 years ago, in 325 convened the first Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, Asia Minor (now Turkey) according to tradition, 318 bishops took part. The Council condemned Arius’ doctrine as heretical, declaring that for the Christian faith Jesus Christ is the Son of God, equal to the Father in divinity. Furthermore, the Fathers of Nicaea fixed the date of the Easter feast, the main Christian holiday, by fixing it on the first Sunday after the full moon following the spring equinox, putting an end to the calendar differences between the Christian Churches
Note that this is a celebration of the actual Nicene Creed, which I acknowledge, and which cannot, under any circumstances, be considered heretical. What most people erroneously believe to be the Nicene Creed is actually the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which was not formulated for another 56 years.