Church and politics in Jerusalem: new evidence on the election of Patriarch Cyril II (1845)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper follows the career of Cyril II as Patriarch of Jerusalem from his controversial election to the patriarchal throne (1845) until his deposition (1872) and death (1877) in the wider historical, ecclesiastical and political context, in a critical period for the Patriarchate of Jerusalem in particular and for the unity of the Orthodox Patriarchates in general. It examines the major events that marked his patriarchate, focusing on questions concerning his election (and subsequent deposition) by the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre; his response to the pressures of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the leaders of the Greek Community in Constantinople and Russia with relation to the schism with the Bulgarian Church; the demands of the Arab-speaking Orthodox flock in Palestine; the election of the abbot of the Monastery of St Catherine in Sinai; the Patriarchal estate property in Russia and Romania; and the claims by other Christian denominations of rights over the Holy Land. The paper closes with an assessment of Cyril II's legacy in the decades and centuries that followed, to the present day.