Church without Borders: A Successful Project of the Hesychast Patriarchs of the 14th Century

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to trace the principal directions of the policy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the second half of the 14th century. At that time, the Ecumenical see was occupied by prelates from the Hesychast movement. Armed with a strong juridical and diplomatic tradition, the Hesychast patriarchs focused their efforts on the expansion of the Byzantine Church well beyond the increasingly narrow borders of the secular Byzantine State, with an eye toward gathering the Orthodox world around the Great Church of Constantinople. On the one hand, they moved in the direction of the South Slavsic dioceses, in order to recover what they considered fell, by law, under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical see. On the other hand, they devoted themselves to gaining jurisdiction over the Churches in Russia, Wallachia and Moldavia, which were under an autocratic secular power independent of the Byzantine State. The other major goal was to appeal to orthodox princes in order to ensure the financial patronage of the entire Orthodox Church, starting with the Athonite monasteries.