This year there occurs the twelfth centenary of the Second Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (787). Putting an end to the wellknown controversy about the cult of sacred images, this Council defined that, according to the teaching of the holy Fathers and the universal tradition of the Church, there could be exposed for the veneration of the faithful, together with the Cross, also images of the Mother of God, of the angels and of the saints, in churches and houses and at the roadside.(84) This custom has been maintained in the whole of the East and also in the West. Images of the Virgin have a place of honor in churches and houses. (Papal Encyclical, Redemptoris Mater, 25 March 1987).