IRENE

IRENE. In Greek the “divine peace” understood as an appellation of Christ, served as the name for at least one famous church constructed in Constantinople (q.v.) in the 5th c. (Two other churches dedicated to the divine “power” [dynamis] and “wisdom” [hagia sophia] are also understood as names of Christ.) Irene comes to serve, like sophia, as the feminine personal name of a number of saints on the Orthodox calendar including the Empress Irene, who convoked and presided over the Seventh Ecumenical Council (q.v.) (Nicaea II, A.D. 787).