318 Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council

The 318 Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council were the bishops gathered at Nicaea in Bithynia in the year 325, who confessed the divinity of the Son and composed the Creed. The council was convened by the emperor Constantine the Great, in the twentieth year of his reign.

Among the notable figures of the council were Alexander of Constantinople, Alexander of Alexandria, the great Athanasius, Eustathius of Antioch, Macarius of Jerusalem, Paphnutius, Spyridon and Nicholas. The council condemned Arius and Arianism. It formulated the first terms of right dogma, especially those concerning the second Person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, consubstantial with God the Father. It composed the first seven articles of the Creed. Its canons forbid the ordination of those who mutilated themselves voluntarily and of recent converts, condemn the custom of clerics living with unmarried women, establish the metropolitan system of the provinces, recognise the ancient custom of Alexandria over the churches of Egypt, Libya and Pentapolis, and set the way the "Cathari" (the Melitian schism) were to be received back.

The Church dedicates to them the sixth Sunday after Pascha, forty-⁠two days after Holy Pascha (the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council).