In 1857, St. Louis, Missouri, was a bustling city where people from both the North and South mingled and prospered. But beneath the bright surface was an undercurrent of tension and unrest that was to erupt into the greatest crisis in the history of the United States.

Patriarch, Monk and Empress - A Byzantine Debate over Icons

The roots of the Byzantine debate over icons can be traced back to the Christian Church’s very inception.  Indeed, an underlying current of iconoclasm manifested itself repeatedly over the centuries but did not erupt into a large-scale controversy until the eighth century.