Patriarch Of Alexandria Research Articles

UKRAINIAN AUTOCEPHALY IN NATIONAL AND GLOCAL CONTEXTS

The article focuses on the development of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) after receiving a Tomоs of Autocephaly. In particular, it briefly describes the structure of the Orthodox environment in Ukraine and distinguishes its key representatives as well as takes account of change in the configuration of the Orthodox map of the country after the formation of the ОCU. Special attention is paid to the institutional development and social activities of the ОCU, which include the formation of its religious network, the transition of parishes from the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP) to the jurisdiction of the ОCU, and the establishment of the ОCU administrative and organizational structures. Interfaith dialogue between the ОCU and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) indicates that both churches are ready to jointly revive the Kyiv church tradition. The article also addresses the dynamics of confessional preferences of Ukrainians in the changing religious landscape of the country.
 The author argues that Ukrainian autocephaly is important for strengthening the humanitarian security of the state, leveling pro-Russian imperial messages in the national information space, as well as for comprehending the structural subordination of the UOC (MP) to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
 The establishment of the OCU is analyzed in the article not only as a significant achievement in the post-Soviet and post-socialist space in the context of leaving the orbit of the Moscow Patriarchate, but also as an impetus for renegotiating relations in Ecumenical Orthodoxy.
 Autocephaly enabled the ОCU to become a subject of international church policy, to conduct a direct dialogue with other Orthodox churches, and to apply for participation in representative religious organizations. Recognition of the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine by the Church of Greece, the Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa and the Church of Cyprus significantly contributed to the ОCU's progress.
 The leitmotif of this article is ​​the destructive role of the ROC in Ecumenical Orthodoxy at large and their interference with the recognition of the ОCU by the other orthodox churches in particular. The author concludes that the future prospects of the ОCU will depend on the elaboration and implementation of its own development strategy.

Idiorrhythmic Inquest: Sylvester, Patriarch of Alexandria, Jeremiah II, Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Mission to Restore Communal Monasticism on Mount Athos in the 1570s

Over the second half of the sixteenth century a new form of monasticism, idiorrhythmia (“living according to one’s own devices”), seemed to be spreading across the Orthodox monasteries of the Eastern Mediterranean. The communal regime practiced for centur

Yoḥannǝs IV and the Patriarchate of Alexandria: Obtaining Four Coptic Bishops while Ceding Nothing on Jerusalem Issue (1876–1882)

This article connects two events that occurred in 1881: the arrival of four Coptic bishops in Ethiopia and the attempt by the Copts to remodel the Dayr al-Sulṭān monastery in Jerusalem. First, connecting these two events contradicts the idea that the Copts agreed to appoint four bishops without any compensation—on the contrary they sought a compensation in Jerusalem. Second, it sheds light on Yoḥannǝs’s diplomatic policy, which enabled him to thwart the Coptic ambitions in Jerusalem and to kill two birds with one stone: he obtained four Coptic bishops, while preserving the rights of the Ethiopians in Jerusalem, and this without any compensation to be given in exchange to the Copts or anyone else. This article shows that behind a friendship demonstrated at the time by Ethiopians and Copts were hidden elements of deep discord. It therefore suggests the need, in the future, to rethink the place to be given to the 1881 agreement in the history of relations between Copts and Ethiopians and its influence on subsequent events.

Sharpening the Identities of African Churches in Eastern Christianity: A Comparison of Entanglements between Religion and Ethnicity

Although at first sight Eastern Christianity is not associated with Africa, the African continent has shaped the establishment and development of three of the four main Eastern Christian traditions. Through a sociological lens, we examine the identity of the above African churches, focusing on the socio-historical entanglements of their religious and ethnic features. Firstly, we study the identity of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Eritrean Orthodox Church belonging to Oriental Orthodoxy. We focus on these African churches—and their diasporas in Western countries—as indigenous Christian paths in Africa. Secondly, we examine the identity of Africans and African-Americans within Eastern Orthodoxy. We consider both to have some inculturation issues within the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the development of an African-American component within Orthodoxy in the USA. Thirdly, we analyze the recent establishment and identity formation of African churches belonging to Eastern-rite Catholic Churches. In short, we aim to elaborate an overview of the multiple identities of African churches and one ecclesial community in Eastern Christianity, and to compare diverse sociological entanglements between religious and ethnic traits within them. A fruitful but neglected research subject, these churches’ identities appear to be reciprocally shaped by their own Eastern Christian tradition and ethnic heritage.

Alexandria and Antioch in the First ʿAbbāsid Century

ABSTRACT By using several contemporaneous compilations now embedded in the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, and by putting these in conversation with parallel texts produced in Syriac, this article explores the revitalisation of the contacts between the Severan patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch in the context of the late Marwānid and ʿAbbāsid periods. It argues that, while the commitment to communion was a shared inheritance of the late Roman period, the same commitment was renewed and refashioned in a quite different context, wherein the shifting distribution of power within the caliphate had placed the Alexandrian patriarchs in a position of distinct disadvantage and discomfort, far removed from the centres of patronage and of power.

Tensions of Church T(t)radition and the African Traditional Cultures in the African Orthodox Church of Kenya: Justifying Contextualization

"Abstract The African Orthodox Church of Kenya was formed as an African Instituted Church in 1929, with considerable cultural and liberative connotations, before officially joining the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa in 1956. The journey of being faithful to the rich and ancient Eastern Orthodox tradition, history, and heritage as well as grappling with the local cultures is been an ongoing tension for this church. The tension is better appreciated from the eye view of non-Kenyan Orthodox and young theologians in comparison with that of the locals. Some contextualization practices within this church were ecclesiastically sanctioned, while others have never been reviewed, even though both are practiced with no distinction. This Orthodox Church in Kenya continues to be regarded as one of the staunchest and first growing Orthodox Church in Africa, influencing many upcoming African dioceses and the theologians they form in the main Patriarchal seminary based in Nairobi. This paper seeks to document this tension and struggle of the church and local community traditions and cultures, and with it seek to justify some of the contextualization that is realized and practiced in this church at present. Keywords: African Orthodox Church of Kenya, contextualization, tradition, culture, mission"

“They Wandered in the Deserts and Mountains, and Caves and Holes in the Ground”

This contribution examines how models of exile were adopted and adapted in non-Chalcedonian communities following the establishment of a parallel Severan episcopal hierarchy under Archbishop Peter IV of Alexandria (576–577) and the consolidation of the Severan non-Chalcedonian church under his successor Damian (578–c. 607). Peter's predecessor Theodosius spent most of his long episcopacy (536–566) exiled in Constantinople, where he died, and Peter himself contended with three rivals to the patriarchate of Alexandria. Drawing on literary, documentary, and archaeological sources, I explore how the memory of non-Chalcedonian heroes was mobilized partly in order to validate the uncomfortable truth that members of the new network of bishops did not always live in their capitals, but in local monasteries, just as Peter and Damian did not live in Alexandria, but in the Enaton, nine miles to the west.After a brief survey of the role of exile in the Alexandrian Church, I concentrate on the literary representation of the appropriate places for exile in monastic literature, in particular the identification of the “deserts” and “mountains,” “caves” and “holes” of the wandering Hebrews (Heb 11.38) with the monastic landscape of Egypt in the late sixth and early seventh centuries. At this time, monastic habitation of natural caves, gallery quarries, and rock-cut tombs on the desert escarpment above the Nile Valley flood plain flourished. Finally, I survey the archaeological evidence of one region where bishops appointed by Damian settled, and how they put their models of exile into practice.

Restoration of the Margirgis Church and Roman Tower in Cairo

The Church of St George is located in the Margirgis area of Old Cairo, and belongs to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa. It is an unreinforced masonry rotunda with a 27 m base diameter, 13 m dome diameter, 11 m dome and drum height, and total height 22 m, built at the beginning of the twentieth century upon the ruins of a previous church. The rotunda is based upon a three-storey Roman tower (Eastern Roman Empire), circular in plan, built around the first century AD. The tower, with 27 m external diameter, consists of two rings of thick Roman masonry walls (opus caementicium) interconnected with radial walls. The intervention concept is based on the principle that the Roman tower is a significant historic monument, including the several additions and modifications it has sustained during its 2000 year lifetime, and should not undergo strengthening but only repair, while the Church of St George is considered a recent monument which, because of its structural inadequacies, should be strengthened.

Un canon inédit de Nicétas Stéthatos en l'honneur de saint Théodore Stoudite

Codex no. 184 from the Library of the Patriarchate of Alexandria constitutes the only known witness of an acolouthia for St Theodore the Studite (759-826). This article includes a critical edition of the above mentioned acolouthia. At the same time, the issue of St Theodore's veneration is briefly examined as well its relevant hymnographical tradition focusing especially on the original authorship of the Canon included in the acolouthia. We attribute this Canon to the prominent Byzantine theologian, Niketas Stethatos, based on a significant personal piece of information relating to its work that he includes in St Symeon's the New Theologian Vita, as well as to the presence of rare words and expressions that are also found in both this Canon under publication and in other works of Niketas Stethatos.

Russia and the Patriarchate of Alexandria in the 1840s-1870s (based on documents from St Petersburg archives)

Russia and the Patriarchate of Alexandria in the 1840s-1870s (based on documents from St Petersburg archives)

Citas de San Cirilo de Alejandría en la obra de Pedro de Calínico magnum opus ʽContra Damianum᾽

El tema de este trabajo es la controversia entre Pedro de Calínico, Patriarca de Antioquía (581-591) y Damián, Patriarca de Alejandría (581-591). El objetivo principal de este artículo es doble: primero, presentar una breve descripción de la disputa del siglo VI sobre la doctrina de la Trinidad entre Pedro de Calínico y Damián de Alejandría, que a su vez, llevó al cisma entre Antioquía y Alejandría durante 30 años; segundo, identificar, reunir y reproducir las numerosas citas (ca. cuarenta y siete pasajes), en su contexto siriaco, de varias obras trascendentales de San Cirilo de Alejandría, contenidas en la magnum opus ‘Contra Damianum’ de Pedro de Calínico.

German

The article presents a new interpretation of a published Byzantine papyrus letter from the Collection of the Austrian National Library. Its first editor argued that it offered a precious testimony to the religious upheavals in Alexandria on the eve of its conquest by the Arabs. This article shows that the papyrus was found in the Fayum and does not necessarily come from Alexandria, and that the text should be dated to the late sixth or early seventh century, not in the 630s or early 640s. It is also proven that it is neither related to the monophysitic controversy nor to a group of monks or the Patriarch of Alexandria, as the first editor had suggested. At the end of the article a reconstruction of the content of the letter is attempted as well as of the facts to which it refers on the basis of the secure data now presented.Late Byzantine Alexandria; Monophysitism; Ecclesiastical disputes; Patriarch of Alexandria; Arab conquest of Egypt

Wschodnie patriarchaty wobec sporu dotyczącego tytułu „patriarcha ekumeniczny”

The struggle for primacy in the Universal Church was first started between Rome and Alexandria, but in the middle of 5th Century it was Constantinople that became the most important rival of Rome. The increasing position of the Constantinopolitan bishop was caused by the fact that at the turn of the 4th century the city became capital of the Empire. So, it was the emperor’s interest to give to the bishop of their capital the same rights as those of the bishops of the Old Rome. The growing importance and authority of Constantinopolitan bishops reflected the needs and natural evolution, so it was easily accepted in the Eastern part of the Empire. It was confirmed by the decisions of the two ecumenical councils and by imperial legislation. Hence, the bishops of Constantinople became the most impor­tant ones in the East. They rejected papal aspirations to control the whole Church. Popes opposed the growing authority of their rivals in Constantinople. They started to act as St. Peter’s successors and tried to obtain independence from secu­lar authorities. Despite their efforts, the importance of bishops of Constantinople was still increasing. The argument concerning the title of „ecumenical patriarch” was a part of that struggle. Its beginning dates back to the year 483 when pope Felix protested against addressing Accacius, the bishop of Constantinople „ecu­menical”. The argument became even more fierce during the pontificates of Pelagius II and Gregory the Great. They both fought against the title used by the patriarchs of Constantinople – John IV the Faster and Cyriacus. Gregory translated the controversial title as „universalis” or „solus” and tried to mount an alliance to fight it. He appealed to Eutychios, the patriarch of Alexandria and to the patriarch of Antioch – Anastasios. The predecessor of the latter, patriarch also named Gregory, just like the pope, did not take part in the argument, but he was in a way cause the cause of it, as the title had been used in the documents from just his trial that were sent to Rome. For Gregory using the title in relation just to the patriarchs of Constantinople sounded diminish­ing for other bishops. According to the pope, using the title by the patriarchs of Constantinople implied that they would subject other patriarchs and consequently would demand power over the whole Church. Gregory counted that due to that, other patriarchs, particularly those of Antioch and of Alexandria would support him in the argument. He kept writing to both Eulogius and Anastasius. He relied on them the more that he knew both personally and with Eulogius he was even befriended. To his disappointment, both patriarchs kindly refused their support. The problems they had were more important than the question of someone’s title. They felt they might need support from the Byzantine emperor as well as from the patriarch of Constantinople in the struggle with heretics on their own territory and absolutely did not feel threatened by the growing position of the fellow-bishop. Besides, it seems they quite did not understand what the whole problem was about. Consequently, the lack of support from eastern patriarchs and the negative opinion of emperor Maurice resulted in Gregory’s defeat in the argument.

La “historia de Pelagia” en la vida de Juan el Limosnero de Leoncio de Neápolis

In one of his hagiographic works, Leontius of Neapolis narratesseveral episodes in the life of John the Almsgiver, patriarch of Alexandria from 610 to617 approximately, who was contemporary of him. Usually, John is the protagonist ofthe narrations, which involve either moralizing anecdotes or the working of miracles.However, in chapter 50, the saint becomes the narrator of a story he has read. In this story,a woman known as Porphyria, who will later change her name to Pelagia, abandons herwork as a prostitute and takes the habit thanks to the intervention of a monk. Our aimis, on the one hand, to examine the affinity of this episode with a passage of the Homily67 of St. John Chrysostom and the narration of Pelagia's conversion. On the other hand,we seek to consider its functionality in this work of Leontius.

Ο ρουμάνος ηγεμόνας Μιχαήλ ο Γενναίος (1593-1601) και οι Έλληνες

The present work constitutes a detailed study of the relations between the Romanian Prince Michael the Brave (1593-1601) and the Greek world of his time. From our research it follows that Michael was the son of a Greek by the name of Yannis the Epirot, a person of great influence in the Ottoman Court, where he was holding the dignity of representative for the Romanian Lands. From a young age Michael had close links to the Cantacuzin family that helped him come to power, and to which he consequently proved faithful over time. In line with his anti-Ottoman policy, the prince proved hostile to the Greek elements subordinated to the Sultan’s power, but would offer, by his often humble means, his support for several Greek rebel leaders, plotting against the Turkish rule (Dionysios Rallis Palaeologos, Metropolitan of Târnovo, Athanasios, Archbishop of Ohrid, Dionysios Bishop of Larisa and Trikala). Benefiting from Michael’s help were also those Greek prelates that fought against the attempted union of the orthodox to the Romanian Church, e. g. Nikephoros Daskalos. Moreover, the Romanian ruler chose to send Greek emissaries for several of his own diplomatic missions (to Poland and Russia). The need for a temporary truce with the Turks to reinforce his armies that had been weakened by wars, pushed him to resort to the mediation of some high orthodox hierarchs fully vassal to the Porte, such as Meletios Pigas, patriarch of Alexandria. Also, in the ranks of the Romanian Prince’s army the presence of Greek mercenaries has been confirmed, though of lesser importance than the one of other subjugated Balkan peoples (Serbians, Bulgarians, Albanians). Michael’s victories against the Turks resounded loudly in the conscience of the subjugated Greeks and led to the composition of two literate poems (by Stavrinos and Palamedes) and of several folk songs extolling the supposed liberator from the Ottoman yoke. In relation to these, in the present paper we have analysed the reasons behind Michael’s adoption by the Greeks as a real national hero and studied the prince’s image, as depicted in the two literary works.

The Greek Orthodox Church and Africa: Missions between the Light of Universalism and the Shadow of Nationalism

The present article considers the socio-political conditions and the character of the Greek Orthodox Church's missionary activities, taking Nigeria as a case par excellence of the hopes and tensions inherent in the project. As such, the analysis touches only lightly upon the subject of Eastern Orthodox presence in Africa in general, as that would have meant an extended study of the relationship between the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the various Greek immigrant communities, and the multiplicity of local Christianities. The latter are discussed from the point of view of the Church hierarchy in Greece as well as in Nigeria. For this reason, the article is meant as an introduction to the issue and should be complemented with ethnographic material from Nigeria.

Hills of Contemplation and Signifying Circles: Spenser and Guy Le Fèvre de la Boderie

SOME DECADES AGO, in a study that over the years has provoked both admiration and objection, Robert Ellrodt argued that Spenser probably read Ficino's Sopra VAmove in the 1588 edition of a translation by the French Neoplatonic poet Guy Le Fevre de la Boderie, first published in 1578 as Discours de I'honneste amour sur le Banquet de Platon. ' For Ellrodt, one of the benefits to be had from sorting out which Renaissance Platonists (I would add semi-Platonists or quasi-Platonists) lie behind Spenser's poetry is the help that such work might provide in determining the degree to which Spenser felt a tension between Christianity and Platonism and to what extent they merged in his mind, logically or not. Certainly Le Fevre, one of the most syncretic poets of the Renaissance, if one of the most obsessed and self-repetitive, felt no such tension. In the 1578 edition of Discours, for example, his dedicatory letter to de (sister of Henri III) reports that Ficino thought Plato had prophesied the coming of Christ, bringer of Sapience and Love.2 After all, MARIE is an anagram of AIMER, and there are clear parallels between Plato's love and the kisses in Solomon's Song of Songs-no wonder that Marguerite de Valois is an anagram of Gise le Verite d'Amour (lies [dwells?] the truth of Love). The flattery is overdone, Spenser might have thought, but flattering queens is what poets do, even if part of this French poet's name, anagrammatized at the end of the epistle, is L'Un Guide Orfee. Orpheus did not flatter queens, after all, although that omission might seem a mistake if we remember his death at the hands of angry women.In this essay I will suggest that there were political as well as literary reasons for English poets to have known Le Fevre, at least by name, and that his poetry, particularly his long cosmological poem La Galliade (1578), is worth remembering, even worth reading, by those who study Spenser. After describing the poem I will take as an example of Spenserian moments that gain further resonance when set next to this French poem the scene (Lx) in which St. George is guided by the hermit Contemplation up a hill, one that the narrator compares to Sinai, Olivet, and Parnassus and from which, with a further ascent, the knight can see the New Jerusalem.3 James E. Phillips cites this passage from The Faerie Queene at the start of his helpful essay on Spenser's religious syncretism.4 To give this hill and a not dissimilar one in La Galliade a fuller context, I will also offer a small mountain range of ones that Spenser and his contemporaries might have known.Le Fevre was himself as syncretic a poet as Spenser was likely to find, a devout and meticulously orthodox Catholic with a liking for divine circles, ecstatic ascents, anagrams, and number symbolism whose mind for all its theological orthodoxy hovered somewhere between Platonism and Renaissance occultism. His range of languages was impressive. In Paris he published translations ofjeronimo Munoz on the supernova of 1572 (1574), of Francesco Giorgio on L'Hatmonie du monde (1579), of Ficino's Trois livres de la vie (Three Books on Life, 1582), and, in Antwerp, of a tract on baptism by Severus, patriarch of Alexandria (in fact of Antioch). Near Eastern languages fascinated him, as did Italian Neoplatonism and the cosmic circles that were for him even more alive with the sound of music than they were for his French contemporaries.My focus here is on La Galliade, but Le Fevre wrote other books worth remembering. L'Encyclie des Secrets de l'Eternite (1571) merges biblical poetry and divine kisses with macro- and micro-cosmography, celebrations ofDavid with Orphic odes. The picture of Le Fevre that prefaces it, giving his age as thirty, is encircled by Greek words praying-in an anagram of his full name-May Holy David bud forth as One Orphically, while below the image a Hebrew poem claims that, like a merged soul, spirit, and body, this poet merges three in one: Virgil, Orpheus, the upstanding Greek (with a pun on Or-Pe in Hebrew, light of the mouth), and David, the leader and singer (Fig. …

Hypatia's Revenge?

Hypatia was a mathematician in 4th-century Alexandria, who was torn to pieces in 415 CE by a mob for her dual identities as a non-Christian (specifically a Neoplatonist) and as a woman scientist. She figures as a heroine and martyr in most of the books on women and science.' The publication of these three books may signal the end of an era in S&TS, during which feminist ideas have been as welcome as Hypatia's presence in front of Cyril, the Patriarch of Alexandria. A superficial glance at these three collections in a catalogue or in a bookshop could suggest that they were 'the same', and/or that they were competitor texts. That would be an oversimplification, however, as their mission statements show that they are designed rather differently. Lederman and Bartsch [hereafter 'L&B'] say they have produced: 'A source book in upper-division undergraduate and graduate level courses that address issues related to women, gender, and the sciences' [5]. Wyer, Cookmeyer, Barbercheck, Ozturk and Wayne [hereafter 'WCBOW'] state that their volume is intended to support 'a multidisciplinary course for university students to introduce them to the new scholarship on women in science and engineering' [xiii].

Los primeros años del episcopado de san Juan Crisóstomo

The autor centres on the last period of the stay at Constantinople of Saint John Chrysostomus, up to the end of his days. The events that marked his episcopal career during his first years as a bishop would lead to serios, numerous and coming from different fronts enmities which would bring as a consequence his two exiles. Under the patronage of both Empress Eudoxia and Teophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, a great conspiration was carried out; his fiercest advesaries could have been his allies and his defenders: Bishops Acatius of Beroea, Antiochus of Ptolemaid, and Leontius of Ancira; Severianus of Gabala; his diaeonus Jhona; Empress Eudoxia and her friends Marsa, Castritia and Eugraphia; and Emperor Arcadius who, as a last resort, confirmed the sentence to exile.

De Vele Levens van Pisentius van Koptos

The Many Lives of Pisentius of Coptos: An Egyptian Saint on the Eve of the Arab Conquest Pisentius (569-632), a Coptic monk from the Theban region, was made bishop of Coptos by Damian, patriarch of Alexandria (578-607) in the period of the first flourishing of the Egyptian monophysite Church. He survived the Persian occupation of Egypt (619-629), which drove him from his see, but did not live to witness the Arab conquest, completed in 642. Apart from being a saint, still commemorated by the Coptic Church, he is foremost remarkable on account of the richness and diversity of the ancient documentation concerning his person. A complex literary tradition recounts his life in the conventional terms of hagiography, whereas the remains of his archives (authentic letters and documents in Coptic) allow us a more realistic view of his duties as a bishop. Several literary compositions in Coptic and Arabic are attributed to Pisentius. The most interesting one among these is certainly apocryphal: a long prophecy concerning the Arab conquest, Muslim oppression and the final restoration of Christian rule. It reflects the concerns and aspirations of later generations of Copts who thus honoured Pisentius' reputation as an author and a visionary.