An iconoule (Greek eikono-doulos "One who serves images"; also Iconodulist or Iconophile) is someone who espouses iconodulism, i.e. who supports or is in favor of religious images or icons and their veneration, and is in opposition to an Iconoclast, someone against the use of religious images. The term is usually used in relation to the controversy in the Byzantine Empire; the most famous Iconodules of that time being Theodore the Studite and John of Damascus.