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1 C o n t e n t s : • Sergei Hackel: 'Not Damned Hereticks': Ephraim Pagitib
and the Christian East • Alexander Nadson: Spiritual Writings of St Cyril
World Council of Churches, 10 Eaton Gate, London S.W.I. of Turau • Constantinos D. Kaiokyris: Byzantine Iconography and 'Liturgical'
WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, 150 route de Ferney, Time • George Galavaris: The Stars of the Virgin • R o b e r t Murray, Sj:
GENEVA 20 (Switzerland). Syriac Studies Today • Stevan K. Pavlowitch: The
V l u m a I I P«* o b ' e m of the Macedonian Church • Robert Clement,

HOLTWELL PRESS LTD., ALFRID STREET, OXFORD

I V O I U I T i e I ■ S J . T h e L J f e o f t h e Married Eastern Clergy • K.T.Ware:
N u m b e r 4 I The Orthodox Church in Alaska • Also: Pope and
WINTER 1967-681 Patriarch • News • Reviews

«fc
 CONTENTS
EDITORIAL 335

ARTICLES
NOT DAMNED HERETICKS: EPHRAIM PAGITT AND THE CHRISTIAN
EAST IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY by SERGEI HACKEL 337
347
SPIRITUAL WRITINGS OF ST CYRIL OF TURAU by ALEXANDER NADSEN

BYZANTINE ICONOGRAPHY AND 'LITURGICAL' TIME by KONSTANTINOS

D. KALOKYRIS
359

THE STARS OF THE VIRGIN: A N EKPHRASIS OF AN IKON OF THE

MOTHER OF GOD by GEORGE GALAVARIS 364

SYRIAC STUDIES TODAY by ROBERT MURRAY, SJ 370

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN YUGOSLAVIA: THE PROBLEM OF THE

MACEDONIAN CHURCH by STEVAN K. PAVLOWITCH 374

THE LIFE OF THE MARRIED EASTERN CLERGY by ROBERT CLEMENT, SJ 387

ORTHODOXY IN ALASKA: THE CENTENARY OF THE SALE TO AMERICA

by KALLISTOS TIMOTHY WARE 395

PAGE
NEWS AND COMMENT
PAGE The Journey of the Oecumenical
Patriarch 1967 419
The Christians of South-East
Turkey by XAVIER JACOB, AA 399 Greece 421
Note on a New Office of St Peter 402 USSR 428
Byzantine Libraries, I I : Patri­ Near East 429
archal Library of Alexandria 403 432
Around the World ,
A New Orthodox Encyclopedia
by KALLISTOS TIMOTHY W A R E 404 OBITUARIES
The Ecumenical Directory 406 Patriarch Christopher of Alex­
andria 435
New Ruling on Theological
Schools in Rumania 413 Archbishop Philip Nabaa 436
Fifth International Conference Archbishop Peter Chami 436
on Patristic Studies by A. H.
ARMSTRONG 415 APPOINTMENTS
416 Bishop Theodosius (Lazor) 437
Pope and Patriarch in Istanbul
333
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW

BOOK REVIEWS PAGE

FAITH AND UNITY
PAGE Milos Velimirovic: Studies in CONTENTS FOR SEPTEMBER 1967 INCLUDE
The Jerusalem Bible by J. V O L - Eastern Chant, vol. i by BOJAN
THE ECUMENICAL IMPORTANCE O F UNIVERSITIES
CKAERT, SI 438 BUJIC 447
A SOUTHERN BAPTIST AT SAN FRANCISCO James Wm McClendon
The Jerusalem Bible Lectionary H. P. l'Orange and P . J. Nord-
for Sundays and Holy Days by FIVE YEARS O F ECUMENISM IN DUBUQUE, IOWA Thomas O'Meara, OP
hagen: Mosaics: from anti­
E. J. B. FRY 439 quity to the early middle ages JOINT THEOLOGICAL STUDIES IN WINDSOR, ONTARIO L. Kennedy, CSB
A.-J. Festugiere, OP: Les Moines by E. J. B. FRY 448
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eval History, volume IV. The THE GHANA SCHEME FOR THE UNIFICATION O F THE MINISTRY J. H . P o r t e r
Byzantine Empire by GEORGE Franz Hummer: Orthodoxie
ANGLICANS AND PRESBYTERIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA R o b e r t Orr
EVERY, SSM 441 und Zweites Vatikanum; Karl
Barth: Ad Limina Apostolo- NEWS : BOOK REVIEWS
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Europe by SUSAN MURRAY 444 SJ 452
Albert Lampart: Ein Martyrer T. C. Akeley: Christian Initia­
der Union mit Rom: Joseph I tion in Spain by GEORGE
(1681-1696),
Chaldder
SJ
Le Dimanche
Patriarch der
by ROBERT MURRAY,

by J. D. CRICHTON
445
446
A.
EVERY, SSM

L. Tibawi: American In­

terests in Syria 1800-1901 by
E. EVERY
453

453
cciNeiLiuM
Igumen Chariton of Valamo:
The International Review of Theology
Books received 454
The Art of Prayer by SERGEI September 1967 • CHURCH HISTORY
HACKEL 446 Notes on Contributors 455
Edited by Roger Aubert
The Roman Background of Early Christianity • The Barbaric Invasions
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the Renaissance • The Byzantine Church and the Muslim World after
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25 Ashley Place, London, S.W.I
334
 Editorial
WHILE WE ARE going through the press we hear with deep regret of the
death of that great man, the Melkite Patriarch Maximos IV Saigh, who
was one of the heroes of Vatican II, and who generously became the patron
of the infant ECR. An obituary will appear in the next number.
This has been an extraordinary summer for the Eastern Churches, a
time of tragedy and also of wonderful new beginnings. The period started
with the Greek coup d'etat, whose chief result on the credit side seems to
be in the field of church reform. It went on to the Arab-Israel war, as
tragic for the Christians as for their Moslem brethren. To the terrible
toll of dead and wounded and refugees, poverty, destruction of property,
the occupation of their homelands (which at the time of writing threatens
to become permanent) must be added the disruption of institutions and
above all of the educational network. Jerusalem has been the centre of
aspiration and education for the Arab Christian world, as well as a
holy city for the Moslems. Its new insulation from that world is a tragedy.
This remains true even though it is also a holy city for the believing Jews.
In July began what might be called 'the year of Patriarch Athenagoras',.
with the visit of Pope Paul to Constantinople: a wholly unprecedented and
admirable action on the part of the pope, far from the old triumphalism..
The autumn was marked by two events: the first Roman synod, at a
time when the Church of England is also moving towards synodal govern­
ment: in this the East alone has any experience and indeed a centuries-
long experience. The second event of the autumn was the admirable:
ecumenical journey of Patriarch Athenagoras. This journey must be seen
as a whole, but its high light and the greatest historical break-through
was undoubtedly the visit to Rome.
The editor was very happy to have been in Rome during the synod and
the patriarch's visit and to have had the opportunity of meeting him at
Lambeth. Fr Kallistos, who was made an archimandrite shortly before,
also had opportunities of meeting him. Another of our associate editors,,
Brother George Every, is undergoing a serious operation (Nov.)
E.J.B.F.

1. A great man has died: the Melkite Patriarch Maximos IV Saigh

335
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
NOTES: From the beginning of 1968 we shall have our own subscription
secretary, Mrs R. Hyde, who has undertaken this job for us. Her address
will be found on the forms and on the back cover. The Holywell Press
helped us over our first two years by acting as subscription agents as well
as doing the printing and dispatching. This is not work that they normally
undertake, and we are grateful to Mr Whitford, the former manager, who
himself did the work in the first year, as well as designing, together with
the editor, the lay-out of ECR; and also to Mrs Sewell, who has added this
work to all the rest for the last year.
We must again thank some anonymous donors in the United States
whose generosity has made the continued existence of ECR possible.
Thanks are also due to readers who have added a second subscription to
be used for someone of our choice. We should particularly like to be able
to send copies to interested people and libraries in East European countries
who cannot send currency abroad. So this form of giving will be put to
good use.
We are endeavouring to hold our subscription to £1 for one more year,
but will have to adjust our price by 1969.
By some strangely undetected error, the editorial address has been
omitted in the last two issues.
Our treasurer, Miss Armstrong, is expected back from Australia
about February 1968. At much the same time the acting treasurer, Mr
Mann, is leaving London. We are grateful to him for his work over the
considerable time of the treasurer's absence.
* * * * *
News has just been received that Archbishop George Hakim of Galilee
has been elected by the Melkite synod to succeed Patriarch Maximos IV.
He has taken the name of Maximos V in honour of his predecessor.
A generous gift has just arrived from the Congregation for the Oriental
Church in Rome. This will help towards next year's expenses, and we are
very grateful.
This number was held up so that I could be present in Rome during
the events of October and report them (a busman's holiday), and has
been further delayed by a prolonged attack of 'flu during November and
December. We are sorry to be late again. E.J.B.F.
336
Not Damned Hereticks:
Ephraim Pagitt and the Christian East in the
Early Seventeenth Century
SERGEI HACKEL
EPHRAIM PAGITT (71575-1647), rector of the Anglican parish church of St
Edmund the King'in Lombard Street, London, appears to have combined
a genuine yearning for Christian unity with pronounced zeal for the de­
nunciation of heretics. His Heresiography: or, a description of the Here-
tickes and Sectaries of these latter times (London, 1645) is a wide-ranging
and systematic survey of Britain's non-Anglican Christians. Few of them
meet with his approval.1 As he pointed out in a sermon of 1645, 'the plague
is of all diseases most infectious to the body; heresie is as infectious to the
soule'.2 'Sweet Iesus!' he exclaims elsewhere, 'What should not a man doe?
yea, what should he not suffer, to quench the fire of contention in the
Christian world! '3 His task as minister is to combat heresy. At the same
time, however, and for several reasons, he is anxious to uphold the ortho­
doxy of the Christian East. NOT DAMNED HERETICKS is the running
head to a page of his A Relation of Christians in the World on which he
says, 'Farre be it from us ever to thinke of these Christians to be cast away
and reiected from being of the household of Faith.' 4 Of Eastern Christians
in general (and referring to Copts, Jacobites and Armenians as well as to
Greeks and Russians) he writes, 'As these Christians are Orthodoxe in the
mayne; so for their holy lives and conversations they have to be admired,
and may be exemplary to others.' 5 'These Churches not ruinating anie
fundamental! Article of saving truth set down in our ancient Creeds, and
being united unto the true Catholicke head Christ Iesus our Lord by living
faith, may be esteemed as true members of the Catholicke Church, and to
be in a State of Salvation notwithstanding that they may have some
tollerable errors and superstitions.' 6
His support for the Christian East stems partly from a desire to use all
available ammunition against Rome, partly from ignorance. As to the first,
I'Truly it grieveth me very much to relate their blasphemous and devlish opinions', he writes of
one sect (p. 119).
2E.P. (i.e. E. Pagitt), The Mysticall Wolfe, set forth in a sermon, London, 1645, p. 29.
SEphraim Pagitt, A Relation of Christians in the World, London, 1639, p. 77. (A Relation is
essentially an abridged version of Christianographie, 1635.)
4A Relation . . . , p. 44.
5A Relation . . . , p. 49.
BEphraim Pagitt, Christianographie, London, 1636 (the second edition), pp. 180-1.
337
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
there were continental precedents (Melanchthon, for instance)/ The second
was not altogether his fault, since he had no personal experience of the
Christian East and (for all his wide reading) the written sources available
to him were often misleading. Even the apparently Orthodox sources were
not always as orthodox as they claimed to be. Thus, Pagitt makes consider­
able use of the published writings of Cyril Lukaris, patriarch of Con­
stantinople, with whom he also opened a correspondence. No doubt he had
Lukaris's Confession in the English and Latin translation of 1629.8 But he
had excellent Greek and (as can be seen from his references) this was by no
means the limit of his knowledge of Lukaris's work, the authority of which
he saw no reason to doubt. On the contrary, as his letter to Lukaris of May
1638 testifies, Pagitt was anxious to spring to his defence against 'all sus­
picion of fraud'. And yet, of course, it was just at this time that Lukaris was
at his most Protestant. On the strength of his own correspondence with
Lukaris, George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, concluded - as Pagitt
did not - that 'as for the Patriarke himselfe, I do not doubt that in opinion
of religion hee is, as wee terme him, a pure Calvinist; and so the Jesuits in
these parts brand him . . .'° Nor were the Jesuits alone in this respect.
Lukaris's Confession (recently described as 'a Calvinist symbolical book
written under Orthodox influence, rather than an Orthodox book written
under Protestant influence'10) was to be condemned by six local Councils
of the Orthodox Church before the end of the century in which it was
published.
Ephraim Pagitt published Christianographie, or the Description of the
multitude and sundry sorts of Christians in the World not subject to the
Pope in October 1635. Possibly in order to add weight to future editions of
the work (and there were to be several) he decided to supplement his
bookish knowledge of the Christian East by writing direct to its leading
representatives, Cyril Lukaris among them. He composed a circular letter
and a number of individual letters (to the Maronite patriarch and to the
Christians of Ethiopia as well as to the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alex­
andria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Moscow), most of which contain the same
questionnaire on such questions as papal infallibility, purgatory, the trans­
act. E. Benz, Wittenberg und Byzanz, Marburg, 1949.
^Confession of Faith, of the Most Reverend Father in God Cyril, Patriarch of Constantinople.
"Written at Constantinople, 1629, London, 1629. (This also is the translation reprinted by William
Rust in A vindication of the Reformed Religion, from the Reflections of a Romanist, Aberdeen,
1671, appendix to the preface: 'I thought to have set down the entire Confession in the Greek
language; but the printer finding a defect of typs, the beginning of each Article . . . is set down
in Greek. And a faithful translation in the English language is subjoyned, this translation was
Printed at London diverse years since.')
DLetter of 20 November 1622, addressed to Sir Thomas Roe, The Negotiations of Sir Thomas
Roe, in his Embassy to the Ottoman Porte, from the year 1621 to 1628 inclusive . . . . London,
1740, p. 102. Cf. Cyril Lukaris's letter to Antoine Leger (who may have taken part in the compo­
sition of the Confession): 'I hold in abomination the errors of the Papists', and the superstitions
of the Greeks; I approve and embrace the doctrine of the most excellent teacher John Calvin and
of all who agree with him.' Quoted in Timothy Ware, Eustratios Argenti . . . , p. 10.
10J. N. Karmiris, quoted by Timothy Ware, Eustratios ■ Argenti, A Study of the Greek Church
under Turkish Rule, Oxford, 1964, p. 8.
338
NOT DAMNED HERETICKS
lation and authority of scripture. It may have been desire for the right
kind of answer, rather than tact, that caused him to reduce the question­
naire which he addressed to the Maronite patriarch to three questions only
(communion in two kinds, married clergy, the use of the vernacular).11 The
majority of the letters are written in both Latin and Greek. In addition,
three are in English and one (to the Maronite patriarch) in Syriac. The
manuscripts are preserved in the British Museum at Harley 825, together
with Pagitt's manuscript Latin translation of his Christianographie (Harley
823 and 824).
The letters of Ephraim Pagitt are of some interest to historians of Chris­
tian East-West contacts, though it appears that none of them has been
published before. The three letters in English are given here. In addition,
an unpublished portrait miniature of Cyril Lukaris is reproduced as plate
10, and a note on the portrait is appended.
I
The circular letter to the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, An­
tioch and Jerusalem, 'as also to all the most reuerend Archbishops and
Bishops and others of the holie Catholike & Apostolike Church of Christ
in the East', BM Harley 825, f. 1. Undated, but not earlier than 1638, since
Elias Petley's Greek translation of the Book of Common Prayer is to
accompany the letter [Petley's translation, Leitourgia Brettanike Egoun
Biblos Demosion Euchon . . ., was published in London in 1638]: nor
later than May of that year, since Pagitt makes a retrospective reference
to this letter in his letter to Cyril Lukaris, dated 22 May. Since the
New Year began on 25 March, we could say that the letter was written
about April or May 1638.
'To the holie and blessed Fathers the Lords Patriarches Cyrill of Con­
stantinople, Gerasimus of Alexandria, Athanasius of Antiochia, Theo-
phanes of Herusalem, As also to all the most reverend Archbishops and
Bishops and others of the holie Catholike & Apostolike Church of Christ
in the East, who as elect vessells beare the most sweet name of our Lord
Jesus Christ before the Gentiles and Tyrants in our said Lord Jesus Christ
all our Reuerence.
'Whereas holie fathers, our Churche received the Christian faith from
you, as to wch not only our Creeds, and the Greeke words Church, Bishop,
Priest, Deacon, Baptisme, Eucharist, Christian and other names of holie
things in use among us so testifie: but also the Communion of Rites viz
11'An sub utraque specie communicatis? An sacerdotibus vestris uxores habere liceat? An sacra
lingua vernacula aut ignota peragatis?' BM, Harley 825, f. 30. Of the Maronites Pagitt wrote
(Christianographie . . . , 1635, p. 36): 'Their patriarch hath lately communion with the Pope as
before, but with some reservation.' He consoled himself with the thought that the Maronites
were a small body: 'Boterus writeth that the(y) are the least [i.e. smallest] Christian Nation of
the East'
339
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
the time of keeping of Easter, Marriage of Priests, not fasting on Sater-
dayes wth many other customes wch for many hundreds of years the Brit-
tanns inviolably observed wth you untill they were subdued by the Pope
and had their religion adulterated by him.
'Now againe since that by the mercifull providence of God wee are de­
livered from the Tyrannie of the Bishop of Roome, & have disclaimed his
Superstitious enormities and embraced the true faith & forsaking him the
fictitious head, have returned to the true head of the Church the great
sheapheard of our soules, Our blessed Lord and sauiour Jesus Christ and to
have againe the same Communione of faith wth you For this cause the
Prelates of Rome condemne vs as you also, and others not subiect to their
Jurisdiction for heretices or at least for Schismatikes.
'In defence therefore of your Churche & others I have lately written a book
stiled Christianographie, in wch you may see not only the Church of Rome
to be Heterodoxe, and ours, and yours, and others, Orthodoxe but also
that the Catholike Church of God is not impaled within the Diocese of
the Roman Bishop but dispersed over the face of the whole world, and that
there are great companies of holie Christians in the world, who received the
faith from the holie Apostles and others who acknowledge not the authori­
s e of the Roman Pope, some of them having never hard so much as of his
name.
'This booke wth our English service, newlie translated into Greeke: I
commend to your beatitudes with a learned treatise also written in the
defence of your Church by the most reverend Father in God William our
Lord Archbishop of Canterburie primate and Metropolitan of all England.
'As for our Liturgie you shall see that wee receaved the substance of
greatest part thereof from you: And I most humblie entreat your Beati­
tudes to declare vnto vs if you can finde anything added to it or in it, that
may hinder or keepe you from an holie Communion with our Church.
Moreover holie Fathers sith that wee do agree in the fundamental! points
of Christian religion and that wee do also renounce the novelties and
impieties of the Roman Church, lett vs keepe the vnitie of the spirit in
the bond of peace.
'And thus ceasing to troble you wth more words I most humbly supplycate
our Lord Jesus Christ that both you and wee may retaine no other founda­
tion of faith, beside that wch is laide vnmoveable the corner stone our Lord
Jesus Christ. Neither that wee nor you may hearken to the voice of any
strange shepheard, but that wee rest upon the Doctrines of our Great Shep-
heard Jesus Christ to whome with the Eternall father and quickning spirit
all praise glorie and power for ever and ever Amen. •■
Fare you well most holy fathers wth your venerable Clergie and longe may
you provide and take care of the great flocke committed to your charge:
340
NOT DAMNED HERETICKS
And pardon my boldnes receaving mee also into your fatherly care, prayers
and Communion.
'Your beatitudes most humbly devoted
Ephraim Pagitt Parson of St. Edmonds
the Kinge. London.'
II
The questionnaire addressed to the patriarch of Moscow, BM Harley 825,
f. 28. Pagitt addresses him by his baptismal, rather than by his monastic
name (Theodore, rather than Philaret). One might have thought that the
news of Philaret's death (1633) had not reached Pagitt by the time he
composed the letter. Curiously enough, Pagitt mentions the death of his
addressee in the text of the book which he is sending him: 'the late Patri­
arch Theodore was father to Michael the now Emperor of Moscovia' (and
the sentence appeared already in the 1635 edition of Christianographie,
p. 25). Since in this letter also he mentions Petley's translation, he must
have written it something like three years after he knew of Philaret's death.
Perhaps he simply did not know his successor's name. In the (similar)
letter to the patriarch of Alexandria Pagitt made the necessary changes
when he learned of the retirement in 1636 of Gerasimos (Spartaliotis), to
whom he had originally addressed that letter. On the copy, at least, he
substituted the name of his successor, Mitrophanis (Kritopoulos).
'To the most reuerend Father in God and right honourable Theodore
Archbishop of Moscho and all Russia and Oecumenicall Patriarch.
'Most reuerend and illustrious Prelate, I heartily wish for the continuance
of your Graces health to the wellfare of the great Flocke committed to
your Holinesse charge. The renouone of your high and mighty Emperour
Michael, whose territories are farre and wide extended ouer many coun­
tries, kingdoms and dominions in the North and Easterne parte of the
world, is come unto us; and wee are glad to heare that as God hath sett
him upon the throne of soe great and pouerfull an Empire, so hee hath
indued him with heauenly guifts meete for soe high and eminent a place.
'But most of all wee reioyce for the truths sake wch we heare is in you, and
wch shall be with us for euer: for that wee also heare that you still retaine
the same faith that you receiued from St Andrew the Apostle the brother
of St Peter: and that you hould those things wch were concluded by 318
Bishopps in the first Nicene Counsell under Constantine the great, and
wch were preached to you by Basil the great and St Chrisostome, soe
firmely, soe holy and soe sinceerely, that it was neuer lawfull for any of
your countrymen to digresse from them in the least manner, as neither
from the Gospell of Christ.
341
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
'Whereas the Papists account your Church and all other Churches not
subiect unto them hereticall or at least schismaticall; I haue written a
booke in defence of your Church and others: in wch I prooue your Russe
church to be Orthodox and much more pure then the Romane Church:
wch booke with the English Liturgie translated into Greeke I heere send
to your holinesse desiring learned iudgement; and especially in those things
wch I haue written of your Church: And I most humbly intreat your Lord-
shipp to uouchsafe mee an answeare to these few points following.
1 whether you beleiue the Romane Bishop or Pope to be head of the
whole Catholicke Church of God.
2 whether the Bishop of Romes iudgement be infallible and that hee
cannot erre wth other Bishopps.
3 whether euery soule upon necessity of saluation ought to be subiect to
the Pope.
4 whether you administer the Sacrament of the Lords supper in both
kinds.
5 whether with the Romanists you detained from Laitie the wine, wch is
the Simbole of Christs bloud.
6 whether you hould extreame unction to be a Sacrament.
7 whether you use salt and spittle in Baptisme as the Papists doe.
8 whether you haue the holy scriptures in your owne tongue.
9 whether you doe forbid the reading of the scriptures to the Laitie as the
Romanists doe.
10 whether you doe beleiue the holy scriptures to containe in it all things
needfull to saluation.
11 whether you doe beleiue the Popish Purgatory in wch soules are
purged by fire after this life.
12 whether you pray for the deliuerance of soules in Purgatory.
13 whether you offer for soules in Purgatory.
14 whether your holinesse granteth or selleth pardons for soules in Pur­
gatory.
15 whether you sell Sacraments or Masses.
16 whether your Preists be married.
17 whether you hold it lawfull for married Priests to administer the
Sacraments.
18 whether you haue your Liturgie in your owne tongue.
19 whether you haue any grauen images in your Churches.
20 whether you make any image of Almighty God.
21 whether you giue any more honour to your pictures than to Bibles
churches and other holy things.
22 whether your holiness allowe whores and receiueth money of them as
the Church of Rome doth.
23 whether doe your Preists receiue the Sacrament of the Lords Supper
alone wthout their Deacons or any other Communicants as the Papists doe.
342
NOT DAMNED HERETICKS
24 whether doe your Preists shaue their beardes after the Romish
manner.
'I understand that as yet your Church hath neuer receiued these nouelties
and impieties of the Romane church, but retaineth wth us those things
wch are containd in holy scripture and in the Apostles Creeds: I most
humbly therefore intreat your Beatitude to uouchsafe an answeare wth
your first conueniency.
'To conclude, we hauing one God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one
faith, one Baptisme, one hope of a blessed Resurrection, let us keepe the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: wch Allmighty God grant for his
Son Jesus Christs sake, to whom wth the Father and the Holy Ghost be
allways glory and honour, for euer and euer Amen.
'your Excellencies most addicted and
humble oratour Ephraim Pagitt.
Parson of the parish church of St
Edmonds London in England.'
III
The letter to Cyril Lukaris, patriarch of Constantinople, dated 22 May
1638, BM Harley 825, ff. 40-1. It is doubtful if Lukaris ever received the
letter, since he was deposed within a month and murdered on 27 June.
Pagitt's prayer that 'The Lo: Jesus Christ . . . after the troubles of this
present life, receive your Holinesse into euerlasting happinesse' was more
timely than he would have wished. The letter reflects the controversy
aroused by the publication of Lukaris's Confession. Pagitt seems to refer to
the kind of manuscript Confession now preserved in the Bodleian at MS
Bodley 12. On MS Bodley 12, see the Appendix, below.
'To the most Reuerend & Oecumenicall Patriarch, Cyrill Lo: Archbishop
of Constantinople, otherwise stiled new Rome, his most Holy & Honoble
Lo: In our Lord & Sauiour Jesus Christ greating.
'Most Reuerend & right Honoble. Lo: Oecumenical Patriarch, wee haue
gladley received wth respect and reuerence the Catholick Confession of
your Christian faith: wch not onely beautified with the grace of the Attick
dialect, & enriched with addition of questions; but also confirmed wth the
authoritie of the sacred Scriptures, the Father of lights hath set up as a
lampe to give light to all the Churche of Greece. But the Prelates of the
Church of Rome wth all violence opposing this Confession of yours, though
written with your Holinesses hand, haue rejected it as fained & ridiculous.
Wch gaue occasion to Cornelius Haga Ld. Embassadoure to the united
Provinces, & Liege at the Court in Turkie to send your manuscript into
these parts, & long agoe to wipe away this uniust calumnie of hypocrisie.
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 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
Wth whome Sr Thomas Roe consenting, a man of great renowne & credit
(& one who aboue all others is most addicted to your Holinesse) being
Agent for his Ma ties Highnesse of great Brittane at youre Court, hath
confirmed the same amongst us alsoe. And now that this Confession of
yours, seconded with soe great witnesses & ratified wth such strong testi­
monies, hath remoued all suspicion of fraud on our parts; yet not with­
standing, the Romish priests, as aboue sayd, utterly disliking it, haue re­
ported that it is your Holinesses owne Confession, & not acknowledged or
receiued by the Churche of Greece in generall. Whrfore I humblie beseech
your Holinesse, with respectiue reuerence, to vouchsafe me, though un­
worthy of soe great a favour, an answer, for Confirmation of this your
faith, subscribed with your Holinesses hand, & wth the hands of your
brother-Bishops.
'And whereas the Church of Rome aforesayd wth her clergie haue ex­
communicated all the churches in the world not subject to their jurisdic­
tion to be hereticall, at least schismaticall: I louing the truth, & willing
to doe a pious work according to my poore abilitie, haue lately in a little
booke called Christianographie vindicated and acquitted your Church at
Constantinople & all other Churches thus insolently condemned by the
Pope of Rome. Wch booke I desiring to gratify all such as are well wishers
of the truth amongst us, did first compose in our natiue language: But
since that it might alsoe profitt our neighbouring churches, & all others
whome it may concerne, I haue of late wth all requisite diligence & faith-
fullnesse translated into the Latine tongue. In wch, each one that read it
may behold, that the Catholick Church of God is not impaled within the
territories of the Roman Hierarchy, or subiect to the Popes dominions;
but by the mercifull providence of God is enlarged & dispersed ouer the
face of the earth; euen there, where the Pope of Rome neuer had any power
or soe much as his name heard of. This booke, with our English Liturgy
newly translated into Greeke, as alsoe a learned treatise in defence of your
Church written by the most Reuerend father in God and Honoble Lo:
William Lo: Archbishop of Canterburie, Primate & Metropolitane of all
England I haue beene carefull to transmitt to your Holinesse.
'Therfore I doe entreat your Grace with all humilitie & respect as is meete,
to accept of this letter & labour of mine wth a fatherly affection: & accord­
ing to your Holinesses discerning wisdome to judge favourablie of this my
endeauer of truth and pietie: as alsoe to account mee in the number of
those whome your holinesse vouchsaeth to make worthie of your Loue;
& to impart this booke to your brother Bishops that they also may reade it
wth you. The Lo: Jesus Christ the onely Sauiour of mankind, in whome
alone wee Hue and haue our confidence, preserve your Holinesse: grant
you all things that are most requisite & necessarie for your soule & bodye:
& after the troubles of this present life, receive your Holinesse into euer-
lasting happinesse. In the meane
344
NOT DAMNED HERETICKS
while I commend my selfe to your holy prayers wch are most effectuall
with the Almighty; desiring your Holinesse that he may allwayes enioy
them, whoe is in all things a
'Most Religious obseruer of Your
Holinesse Ephraim Pagitt.
Parson (though most unworthy)
<r\ 4. J ^ T J 4.T. IIH J of St Edmonds the King London'
Dated at London the 22d day b
of May Anno Domini 1638'
APPENDIX
AN UNPUBLISHED PORTRAIT OF CYRIL LUKARIS, MS BODLEY 12
The portrait miniature of Cyril Lukaris, reproduced here as plate 10,
has apparently not been published before, though a competent engraving
of it was made by M. V. dr Gucht in the early 18th century and used as a
frontispiece to Thomas Smith, Collectanea de Cyrillo Lucario, Patriarcha
Constantinopolitano . . . , Londoni, 1707. The engraver did not indicate the
source of his engraving.
The miniature, 13.4 X 11.1 cm., is framed in a red band, lettered in gold.
It depicts the Patriarch in a dignified pose, his pastoral staff (white, out­
lined in red) in one hand, and the book of the Gospels (seen in reverse
perspective) in the other. The prussian blue of his veil, the dark blue of his
collar and the purple of his mandyas (with its red and white potamai) stand
out effectively against the light blue background. A touch of gold at the
Patriarch's neck serves to indicate a buckle. The Patriarch's flesh-coloured
face is carefully modelled (the nose is particularly successful) and his beard
of delicate, separate strands of white hair is subtly delineated. His lips are
slightly parted and this, together with the alert expression in his eyes,
contributes to the liveliness of the image.
The miniature is almost certainly a contemporary one, painted probably
to dignify the manuscript copies, in Greek and Latin, of Lukaris's Confes­
sion for which it now serves as a frontispiece. The parchment which bears
the portrait is now - and possibly always was - of the same format as the
appended pages of text. The Confession appears to bear Lukaris's auto­
graph signature, dated January 1631, and is possibly one of the copies to
which he refers in a letter of 15 April (O.S.) 1632 to Professor Diodoti of
Geneva:
'Here in Constantinople many copies of my Confession have been
written and many of my friends have implored me to authenticate them
with my own hand, which I did not refuse them' ('. . . e molti amici da
me rechiedevano che con la mano propria gli authenticasse, il che non
gli negai.')1
lPublished (in the original Italian, with a French translation) by J. Aymon, Monumens Authen-
tiques de la Religion des Grecs et de la Faussete de plusieurs Confessions de Foi des Chretiens
orientaux . . . A La Haye, 1708, p. 31.
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 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
Miniature and text are bound together in a contemporary binding of
white parchment, bearing the royal arms of England. Possibly the arms indi­
cate that the manuscript was at one time in the possession of Charles I. If
Falconer Madan's conjecture to this effect2 were accepted, the binding
would be of some assistance in determining the date at which manuscript
and miniature were brought together, if, after all, they were not a unit
from the outset.
The manuscript was eventually purchased at a public auction in London
by Dr Thomas Smith (1638-1710), fellow and one time vice-president of
Magdalen College, Oxford, and one of the most celebrated bibliophiles of
his age. It was he who had the miniature engraved for one of his books on
Lukaris, the Collectanea referred to above. On 2 November 1708, in the
year following its publication, and a year and a half before his death,
Smith presented the manuscript to the Bodleian.
The miniature, of which parts may be in gouache, and parts in tempera,
is now at MS Bod ley 12, f. 2V.
Beyond reasonable doubt a contemporary, and certainly an accomplished
work, it is a valuable addition to our limited corpus of Lukaris portraits.
2Falconer Madan, A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at
Oxford Oxford, 1905, vol. v, pp. 308-9.
346
Spiritual Writings of St Cyril of Turau
ALEXANDER NADSON
ST CYRIL OF Turau* is chiefly known for his sermons which earned him the
name of a second Chrysostom among the Eastern Slavs. They were not,
however, his only literary works; not even his best. Apart from the ser­
mons, the saintly bishop of Turau left us some writings on monastic life
as well as many prayers and a few canons. It may be noted that, while in
recent times his sermons have attracted the attention of the scholars, in
the past it was his spiritual writings, and first of all his prayers, that
enjoyed the greater popularity. In his native Byelorussia in the 16th-17th
centuries the prayers of St Cyril were printed in several editions while his
sermons continued to spread in manuscript form.
St Cyril lived in the middle of the 12th century (c. 1130-82). Little is
known about him, because his only written life, contained in the so-called
Prologue (Lectionary) and composed probably at the end of the 13th or
beginning of the 14th century, is very short and lacking in detail.1 He was
born in Turau and was the son of rich parents. The ancient city of Turau
in south-eastern Byelorussia was at that time an important ecclesiastical
and cultural centre. It was one of the earliest Byelorussian episcopal sees.
The vicinity of the powerful State of Kiev for a long time prevented Turau
from attaining political importance, but in the middle of the 12th century
it became the capital of an independent principality, comprising practically
the whole of southern Byelorussia. Thus the life of the saint coincides with
the 'golden age' in the history of his native city.
Cyril received an excellent education, probably having Greek teachers.
As a young man he decided to dedicate his life to God and entered a mon­
astery. There, according to his biographer, 'he strove most of all to please
God, tiring out his body with fasts and psalmody and making himself a
pure dwelling of the Holy Spirit'. His way of life, piety and, no doubt,
learning soon attracted the attention of others, who began to come to him
for spiritual advice or instruction. As a spiritual director Cyril 'became
useful to many, teaching [the people] and instructing monks to be humble,
and to obey the abbot as God himself, and to listen to him in everything.
For a monk who does not obey, as he vowed to do, cannot be saved.' After
a time, however, his personal inclination towards a solitary life prevailed.
Cyril became a recluse, shutting himself off completely in a small cell.
There 'he remained for some time, praying and fasting still more and com-
* [Usually known in England as Turov, from the Russian version of this Byelorussian place-
name.]
iFor a more detailed life of St Cyril and the text of the Prologue see: A. Nadson, 'The Writings
of St. Cyril of Turau', The Journal of Byelorussian Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, London 1965, pp. 4-15.
347

EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
menting much on the sacred scriptures'. It was most probably at that time
that he wrote his prayers.
Cyril's search for solitude produced the opposite effect. His fame spread,
and when the bishop of Turau died, the prince and the people asked the
metropolitan to appoint Cyril to the vacant see. This occurred about 1169.
As bishop, Cyril left the memory of a good and zealous pastor of the
flock entrusted to him. Between his pastoral duties he found time to take
part in affairs which concerned the whole of the metropolitan province of
Kiev to which his see belonged. His famous sermons were also composed
during this period.
St Cyril of Turau is considered the greatest 'byzantinist' among the early
East Slavonic writers. On the whole there was a strong Byzantine in­
fluence among the East Slavs of that period. This was only to be expected.
The East Slavs received the Christian faith at the end of the 10th century
from Byzantium, and for a long time almost all their metropolitans and
the majority of their bishops were Greeks. They had no literature of their
own before the advent of Christianity, and the first written works that
reached them, apart from the sacred scriptures and liturgical texts, were
the writings of the Greek fathers and ecclesiastical authors. They came, it
is true, not directly from Greece, but from Bulgaria in the already existing
Slavonic translations. Thus it is not surprising that the first East Slavonic
writers strove to imitate their Byzantine models. St Cyril differed from
the majority in that he was a keen disciple, but never a slavish imitator.
Possessing a remarkable literary talent, he tried, with considerable suc­
cess, to adapt what he learnt to the needs of his native language. Thus his
works, apart from their religious interest, are part of the Byelorussian liter­
ary heritage and he is certainly the greatest early Byelorussian writer and
the first poet. This does not prevent his works from being very Byzantine
in spirit and does not free his style from the common vices of that time,
such as an excessive use of allegory.
The memory of St Cyril is celebrated on 28 April.
II
The ascetic works of St Cyril of Turau consist of two writings on the
monastic life.2 The first is called 'The Parable of the Carefree King'.3 It
seems to be one of Cyril's early works and is characterized by a certain
'youthful' enthusiasm and one-sidedness, untempered by moderation which
is the result of long experience. Reading it, one sometimes has an impres­
sion that for the author the only really Christian life is the life of the
2There are two more ascetic writings attributed by some scholars to St Cyril. They will not be
considered here. On the question of the authenticity of St Cyril's works on the monastic life see
L. Goetz, 'Die Echtheit der Monchreden des Kirill von Turov', Archiv fur Slavische Philologie,
vol. 27, Berlin 1905, pp. 181-95; also I. P. Yeremin, 'Literaturnoye Nasledyte Kirilla Turovskogo'
in Trudy Otdyela Drevnyerusskoy literatury AN. SSSR, Vol. 9, Moscow-Leningrad 1955, pp. 344-9.
3This work is also known as 'The letter to the Abbot Basil of Kiev about a layman and a monk'.
The name of the Abbot Basil was, however, probably inserted by a later copyist. See Goetz,
op. cit., pp. 190-1.
348
ST CYRIL O F TURAU
monastery. He even applies to the monks the words of Christ's prayer:
'Holy Father, I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given
me' (John 17:9). It begins thus:
'In a city there was a very kind king, good and merciful, and thoughtful of the
well being of his subjects. In one thing he was not wise; being unafraid of any
disturbances, he neglected to provide for proper armed forces. He did not think
that anybody would rebel against him. This king had many counsellors and a
daughter of marriageable age. Among the counsellors there was a good and honest
one who was very concerned at the king's lack of foresight. He tried to find a
propitious moment to talk to the king about the necessity of being prepared for
the fight. Once in the middle of the night there was suddenly a great commotion
in the city. The king said to his counsellors: Let us go out and see if we can find
the ringleader, for I am in great fear. They went and walked around but could
find no cause of the commotion. While all the other counsellors were sad and
apprehensive, the good counsellor took the king and his daughter and led them
to a great mountain where there were many weapons. They noticed a light shining
from a small aperture. Looking through it they saw a cave dwelling, and there was
a man, living in utter poverty, clothed in rags. By his side sat his wife, singing
a sweet song. On the solid rock before him stood somebody tall and beautiful,
giving him food and wine. And when the man accepted the chalice, he was joy­
fully crowned with praises. Having seen all this, the king called his friends and
said to them: Look at this marvel, friends, and see how this poor and hidden life
is more joyful than our mighty state, and the inner [virtues] shine more brightly
than the outer things.'
Then comes the explanation of the parable:
'The city . . . is the human body. . . . The king is reason that governs the body.
. . . The great commotion in the city means an unexpected misfortune that befalls
man: an illness, or flood, or an injury, or injustice suffered from the secular
authorities. . . . The mountain is a monastery and there are spiritual weapons:
fasting, prayers, tears, continence, purity, charity, humility, patience, diligence. . . .
The man living in utter poverty is the whole monastic order. . . . His wife that
sits beside him is the constant thought of death. . . . The beautiful man that stands
before him is Christ himself. . . . He feeds him and gives him wine; that is, he
gives to all the faithful his pure Body for the remission of sins and his most
precious Blood for eternal life.'
Finally there follows the praise of monastic life.
The whole work is a good example of Cyril's allegorical style. The
parable itself is probably inspired by one of the apologues from the Story
of Barlaam and Joasaph. This famous work, attributed to St John of
Damascus, enjoyed a great popularity throughout the middle ages both in
the East and in the West and was known very early among the East Slavs.4
Cyril's second work on the monastic life is called 'A Discourse on the
Monastic State from the Old and the New Testament, insofar as the Monk
Bears theTmage of the First and Performs the Works of the Second'. The
title itself is sufficient explanation of the method used by the author. Al-
4For comparison here is the apologue of the king and the good counsellor from the life of
Barlaam and Joasaph:
'Once upon a time there was a king who governed his kingdom well, and dealt kindly with
his subjects, only failing in this point: that he was not rich in the knowledge of God but held
fast to the errors of idolatry. Now he had a counsellor, who was a good man and endued with
righteousness towards God. . . . This man sought a convenient season to draw his sovereign
B 349
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
though the allegory makes certain passages somewhat difficult to under­
stand, the whole discourse bears the signs of mature and balanced thought.
It is therefore from this work that the study of Cyril's ascetic teaching
should begin.
Thus, according to this discourse, the monk offers himself as a sacri­
fice to God, just as the lambs of the Old Testament. He must therefore be
pure and without any blemish: 'According to the image of the Old Testa­
ment, you offered yourself as a sacrifice to God, just as the lambs which
were sacrificed in the desert: be not therefore scabrous, nor lame, nor
blind, nor injured, for such, because of their blemishes, are thrown away
as food for dogs and birds.' It goes without saying that all these blemishes
are spiritual: scab means sins; lameness, attachment to worldly goods;
and blindness, useless selfish living.
Every sacrifice, being free, must be complete:
'According to the Old Testament every free offering, large or small, must be
given from a pure heart. Let there be no false hesitations in your thoughts. You
are like a candle: you possess your own will only as far as the church doors, and
afterwards pay no regard to what they do with you. You are like a garment:
know yourself till somebody takes you in his hand, and then pay no attention
even if they tear you to shreds. In the same way your will is your own until you
enter the monastery. After the monastic vows make yourself completely obedient,
hiding nothing in your heart, that your soul may not die, like Ananias when he
heard Peter saying: Why did you seek to tempt the Holy Spirit? You lied not
to men but to God (Acts 5: 3, 4). Be not indifferent to your promise lest you see
fulfilled in you the words of Scripture saying: It had been better not to have
known truth than, having known it, to turn back from it (2 Pet. 2: 21).'5
The motives inspiring human actions are of great importance:
'God said to Moses: Lead out of Egypt my people Israel that they may go and
inherit the land which I promised to Abraham. The people, hearing this from
Aaron, made haste on the way: some, because they rejoiced in God's promise;
others, because they could not bear the hard labour of Pharaoh; others, again,
towards that which was good. One night the king said to him, Come now, let us go forth and
walk about the city, perhaps we shall see something to edify us. Now while they were walking
about the city, they saw a ray of light shining through an aperture. Fixing their eyes thereon,
they descried an underground cavernous chamber, in the forefront of which there was a man,
plunged in poverty, and clad in rags and tatters. Beside him stood his wife, mixing wine. When
the man took the cup in his hands, she sang a clear sweet melody, and delighted him with her
dancing and flatteries. . . . The king said to his chief counsellor: Friend, how marvellous a
thing it is that our life, though bright with so much honour and luxury, has never pleased Us
so well as this poor and miserable life rejoices these fools; and the life which appears to us
cruel and abominable is to them sweet and alluring. . . .' When in the end the king asked who
these people were, the counsellor answered that they were ' all . . . who prefer the eternal to the
temporal' (St John Damascene, Barlaam and Joasaph, transl. by G. R. Woodward and H.
Mattingly, London 1953, pp. 229-32).
The first to draw attention to the similarity between Cyril's parable and the above apologue
was M. I. Sukhomlinov in 1858 (cf. 2nd ed. of his work 'O sochinyenyakh Kirilla Turovskago' in
Sbornik Otd. Russkago Yazuika i Slovesnosty AN, vol. 85, St Petersburg 1908, pp. 327-30). The
Ukrainian scholar Franko thinks on the other hand that Cyril obtained the idea for his parable
not from the story of Barlaam and Joasaph, but from some Jewish source ("Of. his article 'Pritcha
pro sliptsa i khromtsa' in Stat'y po Slavyanovyedyenyu, edited by V. I. Lamansky, part ii, St
Petersburg 1906, pp. 137-9).
5The language of Cyril is very scriptural: often, however, he does not give exact quotations,
but uses biblical phrases to express his thoughts, changing and adapting them to obtain the
necessary meaning.
350
ST CYRIL OF TURAU
because they had no strength to make bricks and build the city; and others still,
because they were unable to endure the cruelty of the overseers.'6
In a similar manner the monk must be sure of the reason which made
him follow Christ:
'And you, brother, if you wish to follow Christ who leads you to heaven, keep
in mind why you escape from the spiritual Egypt which is this world: whether
you desire the promised kingdom; or you do not want to do the sinful works of
the devil; or perhaps you dislike the earthly cares from which there is no profit
but only death of the soul; or perhaps you are burdened by a wife and children.'7
All these motives for entering the monastic life are good and valid, but
the most important of them is simply the wish to follow Christ: 'You, O
monk, meditate on the commandments and on the life of the only Christ -
how from his birth till death on the cross he suffered insults, slander, con­
tempt and injuries for your sake - and make yourself ready to bear suffer­
ings. . . . Remember that in the tonsure of your head you bear the image of
Christ's crown of thorns.' In another passage Cyril returns to this idea, at
the same time bringing into relief the social character of the monastic
vocation: 'By imitating the sufferings of Christ try to become the son of
God, so that not only you yourself may be saved, but that you may help
those who have fallen among spiritual robbers.'
The most perfect followers of Christ were the martyrs, and therefore
the monastic life must be a continuation of martyrdom: 'Fight a good
battle in patience, suffer all inconvenience bravely, imitating thus the
martyrs who shed their blood for Christ.' 8
Since the monk offers himself as a sacrifice to God, the monastic profes­
sion has a sacred, almost sacramental value. Cyril thus reminds the monk:
'Remember the words you heard during your profession: Here Christ is present
invisibly. Keep then in mind to whom you made the promise.9 Consider: were
OThe Exodus of the Jews from Egypt as an image of embracing the monastic life - the exodus
from the world - is not unknown to the eastern spiritual writers, as is shown by the following
passage from The Ladder of Heavenly Ascent by John Climacus (d. 649): 'If we want to get
away from Egypt and escape from Pharaoh, we must have a Moses, a mediator before God, who,
standing between action and contemplation, lifts up his arms, so that we, led by him, may
cross the sea of sins and put to flight the Amalek of our passions' (Migne, P.G., vol. 88, 635).
7 Apparently it was not unusual for a man to leave his wife and children in order to embrace
the monastic life. St Theodore the Studite (759-826) writes in one of his discourses: 'And you
too . . . have not some of you abandoned parents, others brothers, others their wives and
children, others houses, others fields, while the rest - that which is most difficult of all - have
abandoned their wills?' (Migne, P.G., vol. 99, 673).
8St Athanasius tells of St Antony that during the last great persecution of Christians in
311 he wanted to suffer martyrdom and for that reason even left the desert and came to
Alexandria. When his desire was not granted, 'he went back to his cell; and there he was daily
martyr to his conscience, ever fighting the battles of the faith' (St Athanasius, Life of St Antony,
transl. R. T. Meyer, London 1950, p. 60). Thus the idea of the monastic life as the continuation
of martyrdom is an old one,
SThere is a similar passage about the monastic profession in St Theodosius of Kiev (d. 1074):
'Let us remember our entry. . . . Did we not then, standing before the Holy Door, give the
word of our promise before visible and invisible witnesses, as if on the day of judgement, calling
upon God himself, saying: Here Christ is present invisibly? Consider to whom you made your
promise! Nobody forced you to do this' (cf. I. A. Yevseyev, 'Prepodobny Foedosy Pyechersky i
yego Pouchenya', in: Ponomarev, Pamyatniki drevnerusskoy tserkovnoouchityelnoy literatury,
part 1, St Petersburg 1894, pp. 36-7).
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 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
you not surrounded by the fire of the fear of God more than mount Sinai? And
were not the tables of your heart engraved by God more deeply than the Tables
of the Law with the words of your vows? See that you do not break them with
your bad faith.'10
To follow Christ is not easy: man, left alone, may lose his way, like the
Jews in the desert, when Moses left them alone for a short time and went
himself to talk with God:
'Moses, having ordered all to remain in purity, went up the mountain upon
which God himself had descended, having encompassed the mountain with fire. . . .
And what happened in the meantime? All the miracles that they had witnessed
did not save the weak-willed people from perdition: they came and forced Aaron
to give them a god; and when their will was done, they sat down to eat and to
drink until they were struck by fire and many of them perished because of the
wrath of God. And all of them would have perished, had not Moses stood before
him in humility, that he might turn away his wrath and destroy them not, before
the ark of the Covenant was made' (cf. Exodus 32; also Ps. 105: 23-4).
The monk must not remain alone lest a similar fate befalls him, but must
find a spiritual leader - his Moses - whom he should obey completely:
'Brother, try to find a man who has the spirit of Christ in him, adorned with
virtues, commanding general respect, and who with his whole life loves Christ
more than anything else, is obedient to the superior, bears no malice to the other
brethren and who also knows the Sacred Scriptures, by the help of which he can
direct to God those who seek heaven. To such a person give yourself up, even like
Caleb to Joshua, having cut off your will,11 so that you may be a spotless vessel,
which preserves everything good that has been poured into it. Thus you become
a pure dwelling of the Holy Spirit, according to the word of God: I and the
Father will come and make our dwelling in you (John 14: 23).'12
Cyril knew well all the aspects of monastic life, including the less edify­
ing ones. He warns his disciples against the danger of falling into the
company of monks 'who love their body and like changing their garments
and, under the pretext of a feast, make banquets with much drinking, hold
rowdy gatherings till late hours, and try to have their own will against those
in authority'. A similar warning is found also in 'The Parable of the Care-
lOFor St Theodore the Studite the monastic profession was a second baptism: 'We washed
away the guilt of the sin of our painful birth first of all in the baptism of water and the Spirit;
and then again, by God's great love for men, in the second baptism of penance and renunciation
of the world' (Great Catechism, sermon 92; cf. N. Grossu, Prepodob?iy Feodor Studit i yego
vremya, Kiev 1905, p. 83).
UThe idea of 'cutting off of one's will' (or breaking one's will) is found in St Theodore the
Studite: see, for example, his Little Catechism, sermon 128 (Migne, P.G., vol. 99, 673, 674).
l2St Basil the Great (330-79) describes the choice of a spiritual director thus:
'With great care and circumspection try to find a man who would be for you a sure guide
in this way of life, and who knows how to direct those who walk towards God. He must be a
person adorned with virtues, and who by his own works has given proof of love of God and
who also knows the Sacred Scriptures. He must love retirement and hate riches, be stranger to
all quarrels, quiet, dear to God, lover of poverty, peaceful, forgetful of injuries and giving great
edification to those around him. He must not be vain, nor proud; he must be unmoved by flat­
teries, of firm character and put God above all. If you ever find such a man,'give yourself up to him
completely; repress and eliminate in yourself every trace of free will, that you may become a pure
vessel, preserving all the good things deposited in you for your greater praise and glory' (Jnstit.
Ascet., Migne, P.G., vol. 31, 631-2).
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ST CYRIL OF TURAU
free King'. He also tells monks to be on their guard against the special
kind of monastic pride which comes from belonging to a famous monas­
tery : 'The tree is praised not for its height but for its fruit. In the same
way it is not the monastery that makes the monks famous, but monks the
monastery.'
In the 'Parable' there are several passages in which Cyril gives us his
idea of the more practical sides of monastic life.
First of all, monastic life is the unceasing praise of God. Thus in the
parable the light shining out of the cave means the offering of divine praise,
the unceasing singing of Alleluia. For it is said: 'At night lift up your
hands to the holy and praise the Lord' (Ps. 133); and also in another place:
T rose at midnight to praise thee' (Ps. 118 : 62).
In the monastery life is arranged 'according to the apostolic tradition:
nobody has his own will, but everything is in common.13 All are under one
superior, linked to him with spiritual tendons, like members of one body
to its head.'
The monk lives in poverty:
'Every beautiful garment and bodily adornment is foreign to the abbot and to
the whole monastic order. For Christ says that those who are clothed in soft
garments are in the houses of kings (Mt. 11: 8). Monks on the other hand must
be clothed with purity, girded with righteousness, and adorned with humility.'
The memory of death is the constant companion of the monk. It is his
wife who
'sings a sweet song: the voice of rejoicing and salvation in the dwellings of the
just (Ps. 117: 15). For the just will live for ever and their reward is from the
Lord (Wis. 5: 16). Death for the just is peace (Wis. 3: 3). Riches fade away - set
not your heart upon them (Ps. 65: 11).'
On the whole the monastic life is constant effort: 'There are some who,,
. . . having made their vows, wish to be sanctified without trying to over­
come their weaknesses and, while they read the Scriptures, they think
that they may be saved without any effort on their part. We forget what
Paul said: No one is crowned without effort. Those who sleep cannot win
and the idle cannot be saved.' A little further on Cyril enjoins the monks
thus:
'And so, O monks, having received such promises, fight the good battle..
. . . Imitate the efforts of the saints and try to outdo one another in tears, in
vigils, in prayers, in serving. . . . Let us lift up the wings of our minds and fly away
from deadly sin. Let us take food from the sacred books and say together with
David: How sweet are thy words to my palate: more than honey to my mouth
(Ps. 118: 103).'
Surprisingly enough, Cyril considers the monastic life to be easy, mean­
ing no doubt that the monk, having made the vow of obedience, is free
from earthly cares: 'Forget the things of earthly life and receive easy
bread, like manna, from the cellarer's hand for your nourishment.'
i3Here probably Cyril makes allusion to Acts 4:32.
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 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
Having given repeated warnings against the sin of pride, Cyril, on the
other hand, considers it natural that monks, faithful to their vows, should
be treated by others with the respect due to men of God:
'Those inner virtues in the lives of holy monks shine more brightly than worldly
power, and for this reason the mighty of this world bend their heads before them
and give them the respect due to those who have pleased God.'
Such are the main thoughts of St Cyril on monastic life. About one
hundred years before, the great Ukrainian saint, Theodosius, was making
short discourses on various virtues and certain points of order to his monks
at the monastery of the Caves in Kiev. Some of those discourses have come
down to us and they are touching in their simplicity and the truly evan­
gelical spirit that permeates them. They, as well as their author, made a
lasting impression on the monasticism among the East Slavs. In St Cyril
we see something different: his are no longer short discourses on separate
subjects, but an attempt to write a systematic treatise on monastic
asceticism.
The ascetic writings of St Cyril of Turau bear witness to the deep spiri­
tuality of their author. They have not lost their value even today, although
the modern mind may find Cyril's whole approach a little too severe. The
main idea that runs through all his ascetic works is an insistence on com­
plete obedience, the 'cutting off' of one's own will. It can also be said that
Cyril appeals to the fear of God rather than to the love of God. In this,
however, he was only following Byzantine tradition, as the comparison of
his works with those of Byzantine spiritual writers shows. In particular
Cyril owed much to St Theodore the Studite, whose rule was followed by
the monasteries among the East Slavs at that time. The rule, written by
this great reformer of Byzantine monastic institutions at the beginning of
the 9th century for his monastery of Studios in Constantinople, was noted
for its strictness and insistence on complete obedience. St Theodore, on
the other hand, always protested that he was only following the teachings
of St Basil the Great, whom he held in great veneration. His second favour­
ite spiritual writer was St John of Sinai, also called Climacus. The book of
this saint, The Ladder of Heavenly Ascent, has been the most widely read
spiritual work among the East Slavs from the end of the 11th century till
the present day. It is therefore hardly surprising that the works of these
great spiritual teachers of the East had, directly or indirectly, a profound
influence on St Cyril.
St Cyril himself made no claim to originality, as he admitted in all
humility: 'This I said from the books and not from myself. If somebody
explains matters differently, we shall not quarrel with them. . . . We are
uncouth servants and what we need most of all is your fatherly prayers in
Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory together with the Father and the
Holy Spirit now and always and for ever and ever. Amen.'
354
ST CYRIL O F TURAU
In spite of these humble protestations, however, the ascetic works of
St Cyril, especially his Discourse on the Monastic State, are of sufficient
interest to ensure the author a place among the Eastern spiritual writers.
Ill
In no other works is the private spirituality of St Cyril more evident than
in his prayers, which are certainly the finest things he ever wrote. Among
them the group of daily prayers deserve special attention. There are thirty
of them in all, four or more for each day of the week. They were meant to
be recited by monks privately in their cells between the church offices. In
spite of their private character, the prayers follow the liturgical dedications
of the days of the week, as observed in the Byzantine rite. Thus on Mon­
day St Cyril would begin the day with the prayer to the angels, on Tuesday
to St John the Baptist, on Thursday to the apostles and St Nicholas, on
Saturday to all the saints. The prayers for Wednesday were dedicated
specially to the Mother of God, while on Friday they commemorated the
Passion of our Lord.
All the prayers are penitential in character. The leading idea that runs
through them all is that of human nature, standing in all its sinful naked­
ness before God, and having no hope of salvation except the infinite Divine
mercy. As if recognizing the fact that the ungrateful cannot feel sorrow for
their own sins, Cyril would usually begin his prayer with the contempla­
tion of God's greatness and goodness:
'Glory be to thee, O Christ my God, that thou didst make me worthy to see the
day of thy glorious resurrection in which thou didst free the souls of the just
bound in hell. I, too, O Lord, desire the same freedom: release me, who am bound
with the chains of sin, so that the light of thy grace may shine on my darkened
soul. For I know thy immense bounty and thy ineffable love of men: thou didst
bring me from non-existence into being and didst adorn me with the likeness of thy
image, having elevated me above all earthly creatures with the gift of speech and
reason. Knowing all the days of my life, thou hast shown thy care for me from
my youth till the present day, so that I may be saved and become companion of
the most wondrous order of thy angels' (Sunday morning).
Here is another example :
'What shall I give to thee, O Lord lesus Christ, Son of God, for all the good
things thou hast done to mankind? What reward shall I offer for thy mercy?
Neither heaven nor earth can give thee a gift worthy of thee: for thou thyself
didst deign to come down to save sinners. Thou didst take flesh, being without
body, and, being rich, of thy free will didst become poor' (Friday, after Canonical
Hours).
After the realization of God's goodness, the iniquity and miserable state
of a sinner stand out in all their appalling immensity:
'But I, wretched one, with all my mind strove after bodily pleasures, and threw
myself into the noisome slime of sins, making myself a stranger to thy grace.
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Being thy son through birth in the spiritual font, I made myself a slave of sin.
Therefore I sigh from the depth of my heart and, lying helpless in the affliction of
my soul, I grow sick when I remember the day of judgement. What shall I do then,
what shall I say for my sins, and what answer will await me from the ludge?
Where shall I hide the multitude of my iniquities? For I have no one who will
help me or save me. What shall I do, O Lord, my Lord! Whom must I approach
that my soul may be saved?' (Sunday morning).
There is deep sadness in the following pathetic, but highly lyrical, des­
cription of the sinner's plight:
'I deviated from the path of righteousness which leads to life and strayed into
the wilderness of pleasures, sinking into the mire of my transgressions. I was hurt
by the thorns of my evil deeds. The enemy, seeing my soul thus ailing, tries to
drown me in still greater evils' (Wednesday evening).
But there is no cause for despair: God is merciful, he does not desire
the death of a sinner, and he never rejects a man who comes to him with
a contrite heart. The sinner therefore takes refuge in him. He even affirms,
with a justifiable pride, that although his sins are without number, of two
he is innocent: he has never raised his hands to a strange god and never
despaired of God's mercy:
'Let me not perish in the end, O Jesus - the most sweet name - thou who didst
make me from the dust of the earth and grant me life! Look down on my humility:
although my sins are without number, yet I have not raised my hands to a strange
god, nor did I despair, remembering the image of thy mercy which thou didst
show towards sinners. I think of David: he, being king, fell into the abyss of
passions and committed murder, but having repented before thee, he became
worthy again of thy mercy' (Sunday morning).
Thus the memory of the saints of the Old Testament, who had their sins
forgiven through repentance, gives heart to the sinner. At times Cyril
breaks forth into a passionate hymn in praise of penance which opens the
gate of Divine mercy:
'To whom shall I fly asking for salvation, except to thee, my Maker? I know
thy longsuffering and thy love of men without malice. Who will confess thy won­
ders from eternity and who will worthily praise thy loving kindness? For thou
rejoicest not in the death of a sinner, and for that reason from the beginning thou
hast shown us examples of repentance: thou didst show mercy on the people of
Israel who repented after having angered thee in the desert; thou didst spare the
people of Nineveh; thou didst make free Manasses and bring back to life Hezekiah.
And what is greater than repentance, which is so pleasing to thy Spirit? For all
human justice before thee is like a cobweb easily torn to pieces. Who can boast
before thee that he is pure of heart and without sin? The self-righteous Pharisee
was condemned for boasting. And I, miserable one, surrounded by the multitude
of my evil d e e d s - w h a t shall I do? Into what abyss shall I, throw myself?
O strength of tears, O sweet repentance! Because of it didst thou sanctify David
and make him prophet, justify the publican, make clean the sinful woman, and
come out to meet the prodigal son, making him partaker of the Divine banquet'
(Friday morning).
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ST CYRIL OF TURAU
The great consolation for a sinner is the fact that he is not alone but has
powerful friends and protectors: angels, saints and, above all, the Mother
of God. It is to her, 'in whose power is all salvation', that Cyril sings special
praises:
'Hope of all the corners of the earth, O Most Holy Virgin Mother of God, great
wonder of angels, discourse of the prophets, praise of the apostles, strong sup­
port of martyrs, bright crown of the hierarchs, mighty strength of our princes,
precious ornament of the churches, holy hope of monks, unconquerable might of
the ascetics, solid bulwark of the faithful, swift relief of the afflicted, easy guide
for those who have erred, speedy help for the needy, consolation of the despised,
protector of widows and orphans, quiet joy of mothers, wisdom of the young,
peaceful harbour of sailors, easy way of travellers, blessed rest of labourers, un­
bounded treasure of the poor, guardian and defender of the persecuted, joy of
the sorrowful, reconciliation to God of sinners, sure protection of Christians, and
manifest salvation of the world. . . . Being always protected by thee, I salute thee
with the words of the angel: Hail, Virgin Mother of God, full of grace, earthly
paradise, throne of fire, spiritual church, spacious palace, dwelling of infinite God,
bright candle, helper quicker than lightning, star ever shining, chalice containing
the wine of salvation, font washing away sins, man's upraising, table on which
is the Bread of Life, Mother of Christ our God: implore him that, by thy prayers,
he may save me from eternal pain, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen'
(Wednesday morning).
And he addresses St Peter thus:
'Holy Peter, thou who sittest on the first throne, solid rock of faith, unshake­
able foundation of the Church, shepherd of the rational flock of Christ, gatekeeper
of the heavenly kingdom, fisher in the depths that surpass all understanding! I
pray to thee, O holy one: vouchsafe that the Divine net may enclose me, and draw
me out of the sinful abyss. I know that thou didst receive from God the power
to bind and to loose: release me, I pray thee, from the chains of sin that bind
me. Bring back to life my wretched soul, thou who didst raise Tabitha from the
dead. Thou didst raise the lame man from his bed at the Beautiful Gate: set my
feet on the path of righteousness. With thy shadow thou didst chase away in­
firmities : may the shadow of thy goodness fall upon me, healing my spiritual and
bodily afflictions. Thou canst do all, O holy one, by the power of Christ, for whose
sake thou didst abandon all and, having loved him, didst follow in his footsteps
and for his Holy Name didst bear the chains. Pray now to him for me, a miserable
sinner, that by thy prayers I may be preserved from all evil' (Thursday morning).
Thus there is nothing desolate in Cyril's prayers, despite their peniten­
tial character. On the contrary, they are full of that Christian optimism
which has its origin in an unshakeable belief in God's infinite mercy and
his love for men. The deep sadness for sins committed is therefore inter­
mingled with a quiet spiritual joy, and it is this joy that makes the author
burst forth in a hymn of praise to God, as in the following short but beauti­
ful prayer, intended to be said on Saturday evening before going to sleep:
'Make me worthy, O Lord, to see the morning and the sun and be preserved,
with thy help, from sin; and grant that I may praise thy unbounded greatness.
Thou hast made all this beautiful world for the service of us sinners: make me
also worthy of these thy gifts. I pray to thee, O merciful Lord, grant that one day
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I may see the unextinguishable, endless, incorruptible light of thy face. And now,
with thy help, rejoicing in thy mercy, I cry to thee: Glory to thee, O consubstan-
tial, undivided, lifegiving and glorious Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now
and for ever and ever. Amen.'
If the value of a prayer is judged by its power to move a man's heart and
raise his thoughts towards God, then it must be said that the prayers of St
Cyril have these qualities in the highest degree. They are remarkable for
the intensity and sincerity of their religious feeling. Moreover their lyrical
beauty indicates in their author a poet of no mean talent.
These lofty qualities of Cyril's prayers have been recognized by all who
have become acquainted with them. Even Golubinski, generally sparing in
his praise, admits that 'as regards the prayers of Cyril of Turau, they
represent exceedingly good oratorical works which in all justice must be
given a place beside the best prayers by Greek authors'.14 Another scholar,
Bishop Makary, who made a special study of St Cyril as a writer, is still
more generous in his appreciation: 'For their style and contents the canon
and the prayers should be placed among the best works of this kind exist­
ing in the Orthodox Church.'16 In Byelorussia the prayers of St Cyril were
so popular that at the end of the 16th century they were included in several
printed editions of the selected prayers of the Greek Fathers.16
Although the prayers of St Cyril are (as we have said) penitential in char­
acter, the stress is laid everywhere on the idea of God's infinite mercy and
his love for men, which shines like a light of hope before the sinner and
saves him from falling into despair. Indeed, Cyril may rightly be named
'the singer of Divine mercy'.
In spite of the fact that Cyril occupied an important position in the
Church of his time and left behind such a rich spiritual heritage, he re­
mained all his life a true recluse. In all his activities he knew how to efface
himself to such an extent that it is possible only with great difficulty to
reconstruct the main outlines of his life. It seems that with his whole life,
no less than with his works, he wanted to say: 'Not to us, O Lord, not to
us, but to thy name be given the glory' (Ps. 113: 9).17
WE. E. Golubinsky, lstorya Russkoy Tserkvi, vol. 1, part 1, Moscow 1901, p. 841.
l5Makary, Sv. Kirill ep. T. Turovsky kak pisatyel, in: Istoricheskiya Chteniya po Yazyku i
Slovyesnosti Imp. Akad. Nauk, St Petersburg 1857, p. 165.
lBThey were printed in a book called Molitvy Povsyednyevnyya (Daily Prayers), which was
published in several editions in Vilna between 1596 and 1635. A copy of the book, published in
1601 in Vilna, is now in the Bodleian Library.
17The translation of the ascetic texts was made from the most recent edition by Yeremin, op.
cit., in Trudy . . . vol. 12, 1956, pp. 348-61. The original texts of Cyril's prayers, from which the
translations were made, are published in: Evgeny, Tvorenya Ottsa Nashego Kirilla ep. Turovskago,
Kiev 1880; also, partially, in Makary, Istorya Russkoy Tserkvi, vol. 3, St Petersburg 1857, pp.
96, 149, 310-61.
358
Byzantine Iconography and 'Liturgical' Time
A communication read at the Xlllth International Congress of Byzantine Studies
Oxford, 5-10 September, 1966
KONSTANINOS D . KALOKYRIS
IT HAS BEEN shown, especially in recent liturgical studies, that time in
worship is not considered under the concept of the natural flow of events,
that is, of the past, the present, and the future: in worship the past and
the future are regarded as directly present. To speak in such terms is to
invoke the notion of so-called 'liturgical' or 'condensed' {concentre) time,
about which G. Pidoux 1 wrote a few years ago. That is to say, 'normally in
worship, time ceases to exist in the form of past, present, and future, and
is changed into a mystical life-experience in which, while eternity is lived
in the present, the things of the past and of the future and even the eschato-
logical things - that is, prehistory and the main stages of the redemptive
work of Christ, as well as the salutary gifts extending to the last days which
flowed from h i m - a r e condensed and experienced mystically as something
living and present before our eyes.'2 Thus in worship 'every temporal sign
of the Lord's saving work is re-lived through the surmounting of the con­
cept of time'. 3 The individual events of religious history are not to be
understood as mere occurrences in the past, but as happening mystically
and as events active even today. This means that the worshipper does not
merely commemorate, but lives, and himself actually partakes in, the life of
the Saviour and of his saints. The believer partakes in the life of the Lord
because the Sacrifice of the Cross and the whole mystery of the divine
economy is recapitulated and liturgically re-enacted through the Holy
Liturgy.4 The believer receives communion in the Body and the Blood of
Christ not merely in remembrance of him who was sacrificed once for all,
but as an act of 'participation in Christ himself (fxlde&v avrov rod XpioTov)
who is each day sacrificed, being 'cut into pieces and distributed'
(/xeAi£o/u,«'ou /ecu SMfiepi^o/jievov) and given 'as food for the faithful' (els
l'A propos de la notion Biblique du Temps', in Revue de theologie et de philosophie, Lausanne,
1952, pp. 120 f. cf. in this connection the more detailed study of Savvas Agourides, Xpovos Kal
AlamoT-qs ('EoxaroXoyia Kal MvoriKoiraBeia) iv rfj BeoXoyiKrj HioaoKaXlq. 'Iwdvvov rov 0eoX6yov (Time and
Eternity - Eschatology and Mysticism - in the Theological Teaching of John the Theologian),
Salonika, 1959, pp. 37 f. See also Evangelos D. Theodorou, The Instructive Value of the Triodion,
pp. 82-86.
2E. Theodorou, ibid. p. 83.
3Mark Siotes, 'Ioropla Kal'' ATTOKOXVIJJIS Kara, rrjv imarryxrfiv rijs Kaivrjs Aiad^KTjs (History and Reve­
lation according to the Science of the New Testament), Salonika, 1958, pp. 79 f.
4John Karmiris, To. AoyjxariKa. KOX SV^OXIKO. Mvryj,eta rfjs 'OpSo&ogov Ka$oXiKijs 'EKKXrjalas (The
Dogmatic and Symbolic Monuments of the Orthodox Catholic Church), vol. i, Athens, 1952.
pp. 242 f.
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 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
Ppuimv morrots). The believer lives, as a present reality, the whole history of
the Church, which is continued in man and in the world.
Byzantine iconography reflects this meaning of time as it is understood
in Orthodox worship, thus making still closer the relationship between
iconography and worship. In iconography time in the mathematical sense
is abolished; the sacred persons and events are represented in such wise
that they are made contemporary (ovyxpovi&ixeva) and appear as belonging
to the eternal present, or, to put it in another way, to eternity - introduced
and lived in the present and in every moment of time.
We already know from the history of iconography that a religious event,
taking place within limited spatial conditions (such as the Annunciation of
the Theotokos, the Salutation of Elizabeth by the Theotokos, the Last
Supper, etc.) is represented in Byzantine art as if it had taken place out­
side these limitations. Moreover, in Byzantine art those elements which
could determine strictly and in detail the time in which one of these events
took place are reduced, sometimes even entirely lacking. The reason for
this is that Orthodox art, being a medium of Orthodox worship, is con­
cerned to demonstrate visibly that the spiritual significance of the histori­
cal event represented has raised it above any determined time or space,
that it has escaped the limitations of the space and time of its happening,
and has acquired infinite extension and duration. That is to say, one such
event, which occurred in some particular space and time, has received the
power, through the active grace of God, to be continued today, tomorrow
and for ever. Byzantine iconography was directed towards worship, which,
as we have said, is not limited to the static remembrance of sacred persons
or events, but rather underlines their living and active presence; and it
rendered its sacred subjects in a similar way. Our iconography raised re­
ligious persons and events to one continuous present by releasing them
from unnecessary iconographic elements, which would have characterized
and emphasized only their past significance. Thus the believer is not pre­
vented from feeling that the events depicted could take place even today,
and that consequently the history of the Passion and the other events in
the life of the Saviour, the achievements of his saints, and so on, constitute
fundamental subjects not only of the past but also for the present. In wor­
ship the Church, as we well know, when speaking of such events in her
prayers or hymns, uses expressions in the present tense, or the adverb
orjiiepov ('today').5 The Birth of the Lord, his Passion, his Resurrection, and
the like, are dramatized as events which take place 'today'.6 Thus, Christ
5Fr. Heiler, Urkirche und Ostkirche, Munich, 1937, p. 363. cf. also Evang. Theodorou, The
Instructive Value of the Triodion, p. 85, and by the same author, To 'Op668otj6vAeiTovpyi,KdvKi]pvyp.a
(The Orthodox Liturgical Sermon), Athens, 1960, p. 14.
6As examples of the use of oyfiepov in worship, we may take the hymns, Urj/ieppv TIKTEL r/'JlapBevos
TOV TTOirjTriV TOV TTO.VTOS ('Today the Virgin gives birth to the Creator of all S . .'), sung at the
Nativity; 2-qp.epov Kpep-drai em ivXov ('Today he hangs on the wood . . .'), sung on Good Friday;
Zrjuepov 6 "AS-qs arevuiv fioS, ('Today Hades bemoaning cries . . .'), at the Descent into Hades;
ErjjMepov acnrt)pia rco Koafup yiyovev o.oa>p.ev T<£ avaoravri CK rdfou ('Today salvation has come to the
world; let us sing'unto him who rose from the grave . . .'), at the Resurrection; etc.
360
BYZANTINE ICONOGRAPHY AND 'LITURGICAL' TIME
who is x^es Kal orj/Aepov 6 avros /cat els TOVS alwms ('the same yesterday, today,
and for ever')7 - as being outside the categories of space and time - comes
even today to us through worship, just as he came to his contemporaries.8
This particular conception of the surmounting of the limits of time in
worship helps us to understand many representations in Byzantine icono­
graphy. Sacred persons in mosaics, such as, for example, those of Ravenna,
of St Sophia in Constantinople,9 and many at Daphni (e.g. in the dome),
are depicted in the gold atmosphere of the undetermined background, and
thus appear released from elements which would limit them in time and
space. In this way they may belong to any one period in the past, in the
future, and therefore also in the present. In other words, they may be
looked on as contemporaries, establishing a personal relationship with each
beholder - with us today and with others tomorrow. In the 11th century
this is particularly apparent in the mosaics of Nea Moni (Chios), in Osios
Loukas near Levadia, in Daphni (Greece), and later in St Mark's, Venice.
The Crucified Christ of Daphni, for example, is projected upon the gold
atmosphere of the mosaic without any particular signs indicating the
spatial or temporal limitations of the scene, and so becomes timeless - an
eternal symbol of the supreme Sacrifice. The characteristic elements of
space and time which accompanied the event, especially in later periods
(such as, for example, the scene of the city of Jerusalem behind the Cross,
the representation of the thieves crucified with our Lord, the soldier giving
vinegar and the other soldier piercing the side of Jesus with a lance, the
incident of the dividing of the garments, etc.) are missing here, or rather
are only indicated in a rudimentary form for the sake of historical clarity
and to render more complete the idea which the representation expresses.
Elements which may be included in the representation are a small hill-like
elevation with the skull of Adam, that is, Golgotha, and also the Theotokos
and St John standing by the Cross. In worship Christ is crucified today10
in a mystical manner: and therefore the persons of the Theotokos and the
beloved disciple, who suffer with him even today, may stand beside him
in an ikon of the Crucifixion. Also below the Cross may be depicted the
skull washed by the blood of the Saviour, since it is his blood which
cleanses from sin the descendants of Adam who believe in Christ and who
receive from him the gift of immortality. Considered from this point of
view, the representation of the Crucifixion at the Monastery of Daphni is
unsurpassed in its simplicity. The kenosis or self-emptying of the Lord upon
the Cross for our salvation is presented by worship as enacted today and
thus as overcoming the limits of time; iconography represents it here in a
similar overcoming of time, that is, as an event contemporary with us.
^Hebrews 13:8.
8J. Tycialc, Jahreskranz der Giite Gottes, Das Jahr der Kirche, Mainz, 1953, p. 14. cf. Evang.
Theodorou, The Instructive Val-ie of the Triodion, p. 84.
!>See the mosaic of the Christ enthroned between Constantine Monomachos and Zoe; and of
the Theotokos enthroned between John II Comnenos and Irene.
WTyciak, op. cit., p, 14 f.
361
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
BYZANTINE ICONOGRAPHY AND 'LITURGICAL' TIME
What we said above may be applied to a multitude of other representa­ notion is found expressed in worship when, at the appropriate liturgical
tions: for example, to the representation of the Theotokos, holding the moment, the phrase is used, ^ A i W Kal hia^pi&ra, 6 dfiv6s rod @eov ('The
Child and depicted in isolation upon the all-gold quarter-sphere of the Lamb of God is cut into pieces and distributed . . .'). This example indi­
niche in the sanctuary of many Byzantine churches. In the famous basilica cate^ not only that Byzantine iconography places the divine events in the
of Torcello we have one such excellent instance from the 12th century. continual present', agreeing here as elsewhere with worship, but also that
Standing erect, full-length and alone, the Mother of God holding the Christ- this art, shown thereby to be a purely liturgical art, leads the believer to
Child is placed daringly, as has been said,11 in the middle of the spacious a correct understanding of worship and to the right interpretation of its
niche, that is, without the usual escort of the archangels on either side of content.
her. As she appears with the divine Child in her arms in the gold air of
the mosaic, the Theotokos gives the impression that she is projected into In conclusion, then, we may say that a close correspondence exists in
the infinite, that the artist has overcome the limitations of time and has this matter between Orthodox worship and Byzantine iconography In
set forth the Incarnation-in-time of the timeless Logos - for it is this In­ worship all limitations of the past, the present, and the future are removed
carnation that is expressed by the figure in the niche of the Theotokos and the divine events are regarded as being ordered in eternity, which
holding the Child - as the unique Event shaping the eternal becoming of through them is lived in the present. The same idea is expressed character­
history. From the infinite heaven, the Theotokos is here, in a sense, per­ istically in iconography: through the elements of its form it likewise raises
forming the well-known gesture of presenting the newly-born royal child to the sacred persons and events to the continual present.
the multitudes of citizens standing below and eagerly waiting. But as the
representation appears morphologically beyond time, the joyous procla­
mation to the people which is understood to accompany the presentation
of the Child-'For unto us is born this day a Saviour' (Luke 2:11), 'Unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given' (Isaiah 9:6)- gives one the feel­
ing that it is directed to us ourselves who gaze at the ikon today, as well
as to those who have gazed upon it in the past, and to those who will gaze
upon it in the future. Thus the 'condensed time of worship is here made
clearly evident in Byzantine art.
The representation of the Last Supper is similar, for example, in the
church of St Mark at Venice, among other places. The mosaic representa­
tion here depicts upon the gold background only the table of the Supper
and the disciples eating with the Lord, and thus does not confine the be­
holder liturgically to the particular time in the past when the scene of the
Last Supper took place; but rather it leads him to the 'Table that nourishes
the soul' (t/jvxoTp6c/)ov Tp&irelav), the Table of the Holy Eucharist, which
supports, renews, and deifies,12 today and tomorrow and always, those who
worthily partake of it.
Related to this particular liturgical meaning of time is also the wall-
painting representing Christ upon the paten (MeAicr/xo's-) in the niche of the
sanctuary. In these representations Christ is not described as 6 rvdek
('he who was sacrificed') but as 6 dvo^evos ('he who is being sacrificed'),13 that
is, he who is continuously offered as sacrifice for us. Precisely the same
HGrabar, La peinture byzantine, p. 119; and see the coloured illustration on p. 121.
12Those who communicate worthily Bzovvrat, TJOIKUSS rij pxOi£a TOU @eov ('are morally deified by
participation in God'), as noted by John Karmiris, Zvvotpis rfjs Soy^ari/o}? SiSaoKaXtas rfjs 'Op8o&6£ov
KaBoXiKTjs 'Ei<Kkqoias (Synopsis of the Dogmatic Teaching of the Orthodox Catholic Church),
Athens, 1957, p. 57; also by the same author, Abriss der dogmatischen Lehre der Orthodoxen
katholischen Kirche (from the series: Die Kirchen der Welt, b. I), Stuttgart, 1959, pp. 68, 107 f.
13C. Kalokyris, The Byzantine Wall-paintings of Crete, pp.. 98, 126; also illust. lii, fig. 2(@vopevos
in the church of Kritsa).
362 363
 THE STARS OF THE VIRGIN

on other parts as well, or decorate the entire surface of the costume.5 The
crosses on the shoulders recall the omophorion of the bishop and the
several crosses bring to mind the polystravrion. But the question of a
The Stars of the Virgin relation between the costume of the Virgin and the priestly vestments, and
the larger implications that such a relation may have, cannot be followed
An ekphrasis of an ikon of the Mother of God up here. Here we must limit ourselves to the three crosses of the
maforion.
A communication read at the XMth International Congress of Byzantine Studies
Oxford, 5-10 September, 1966

GEORGE GALAVARIS

A T THE BEGINNING of this century Munoz drew attention to ekphraseis

other than those dealing with works of architecture, and underlined their
importance for the student of Byzantine iconography.1 Nevertheless these
literary pieces have not as yet been fully investigated. The present paper
aims at clarifying the meaning of the three stars which often adorn the
maforion of the Virgin and it serves as an illustration of the unexplored
wealth of ekphraseis.
As early as the 5th century there appears a cross on the part of the
maforion that falls over Mary's forehead.2 Later, but still within the
early Christian period, there appear two other crosses each adorning the
part of the maforion falling over the shoulders.3 By the middle Byzan­
tine period the three crosses on the maforion have become a common
element in representations of Mary in various compositions and media,
including coins and seals, and continue to appear throughout the Byzantine
period.4 The cross is formed either of straight lines, or of four dots, or of
four lozenges. At times it appears as a glorified, luminous cross, when rays
are added.
However, not every representation contains the three crosses; and in a
few examples the crosses are not limited to the maforion but are placed Figure 1
It is known that the cross on the forehead is associated with the custom
1A. Munoz, 'Alcune fonti letterarie per la storia dell' arte bizantina', Nuovo bolletino di that the early Christians had of displaying this symbol on their forehead.6
archeologia Christiana, 10 (1904), 221; id., 'Descrizioni di opere d'arte in una poeta bizantino del
secolo xiv, Manuel Philes', Repertorium fiir Kunstwissenschaft, 27 (1904), 390; id., 'Le 'EK<f>paoeis For this reason the cross appears not only on the maforion of the
nella letteratura bizantina e i loro rapporti con l'arte figurata', Recueil d'etudes didiees a la Mother of God, but on that of the saints also. And whereas the one cross
memoire de N. P. Kondakov, Seminarium Kondakovianum, Prague 1926, 139-142. For a general
discussion of this literary genre see G. Downey, 'Ekphrasis', in Reallexikon fiir Antike und '. would be a Christian testimony, a source of Christ's light and a talisman,
Christentum, iv, pp. 121-144 the three crosses would allude to the Trinity. Their persistent appearance
2see an example in N. P. Kondakov, Ikonografijia Bogomateri, St Petersburg 1914, 1915, i, fig. on the forehead and the shoulders may have something to do with the
90, pi. iii. For the maforion, see in general C. Cecchelli, Mater Christi, Rome 1946-1954, i,
p. 108 practice of crossing oneself whereby Christians touch the three crosses
3Kondakov, op. cit., i, p. 256, fig. 159 with their fingers, thus declaring their faith in the Trinity and drawing
4see examples in E. Diez, O. Demus, Byzantine Mosaics in Greece, Cambridge, Mass. 1931, strength from the cross.
fig. 13; V. Lazarev, Istorija Vizantiskoj Zhivopisi, Moscow 1948, fig. 178; G. and M. Soteriou,
Icones du Mont Sinai, Athens 1956, 1958, i, figs. 24, 192; D. Talbot Rice, The Art of Byzantium, 5see, for example, the Virgin Orans in the church of St Maria in Porto near Ravenna,
London 1959, pi. xxxviii; K. Weitzmann, 'Mount Sinai's Holy Treasures', The National Geographic reproduced in Kondakov, op. cit., ii, fig. 19; another example in Talbot Rice, op. cit., fig. 142
Magazine, January 1964, fig. on p. 126 BKondakov, op. cit., i, p. 164
364 c 365 v,
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
During the middle Byzantine period there appear examples with three
stars in place of the three crosses.7 These stars are not variations of the
crosses, as can be proved by comparisons and by the existence of examples
which have combined both traditions, the cross and the star.8 We can
assume that these three stars - which, judging from extant examples, seern
to be more popular in the late and post-Byzantine periods9 and which
present numerous variations - continue to carry the Trinitarian symbolism
and that in fact they can be explained as a decorative development of the
cross (Fig. 1). Yet this assumption needs investigation, particularly in view
of Byzantine symbolism and the emphasis that was placed upon the hidden
meaning of scenes or objects.10
Recently the stars have been interpreted as symbols of Mary's perpetual
virginity before, during, and after the conception and birth of Christ.11 This
interpretation cannot be substantiated, although in Byzantine canticles
the virginity of the Mother of God is described in terms of the luminous,
and she is exalted in astral symbolism as the star that heralds the sun.33
Without entering here into a detailed discussion of astral symbolism,
we must state that these three stars should not be connected with the
'Messianic' star which appears in representations of New Testament
scenes, nor should they be related to the twelve stars that the Woman
of the Apocalypse wears as a crown on her head and which were favoured
by western iconography.13
The answer to the problem is given by a 15th-century ekphrasis of
John Eugenikos published more than a century ago by Boissonade.14 The
text, in which one recognizes borrowings from the celebrated Ikons of
Philostratus, is long, describing an ikon of the Virgin and Child. Its
iconographic type can be established by the following extracts:
It seems that [the Mother of God] has just ceased giving her sweet kisses; she
has just stopped kissing each part of the Child's face with ineffable joy (hence
this glory and brightness that is cast over her). With a divine exaltation, mar­
vellously mingling grace with modesty, she speaks these words to the Divine
Child
Continuing with his description the author states:
Her hands are truly alive and the fingers move; one is in supplication, the
beautiful feet riding on the palm; her left hand is near the elbow of the Child
gently supporting his side, showing her affection and maternal love. Extending
his golden, his sweet right hand, and gazing towards the Virgin, the Child gives
the blessing. . . .JE
'see ibid., ii, figs. 26, 44 (cf. C. R. Morey, Medieval Art, New York 1942, fig. on p. 164), 205;
Soteriou, op. cit., i, fig. 222 and passim
SLazarev, op. cit., ii, fig. 231
9
V. Lasarefif, O. Demus, Early Russian Icons, UNESCO 1958, pis. xi, xxviii, xxx; Catalogue,
Ikonenmuseum Recklinghausen, 1965, nos. 93, 99, 105, 133
lOcf. G. Mathew, Byzantine Aesthetics, London 1963, pp. 38-47
HL. Ouspensky, V. Lossky, The Meaning of Icons, Boston 1956, p. 83 ..',
12S. Eustratiades, Theotokarion, Paris 1930, passim
13cf. Cecchelli, op. cit., iv, pp. 46-61
MJ. E. Boissonade ed., Anecdota Nova, Paris 1844, pp. 335-340
IBibid., pp. 336, 337
366
THE STARS OF THE VIRGIN
The Hodegetria type conforms to this description but a Virgin Glyko-
philousa seems a more plausible choice. An ikon of our Lady of the Don,
formerly in the cathedral of the Annunciation at Moscow, dating from the
end of the 14th century and attributed by some scholars to Theophanes
the Greek, is the closest pictorial parallel we could find, although it does
not correspond in all details (Fig. 2).ie
The ekphrasis continues bv describing the costume of the Virgin and
Child:
The Pantanassa Mother wears over her head, as was customary among Syrian
women of her time, a light purple chiton whose colour merges into the blue
of the iris. . . . The hem of the robe, the various golden tassels and the like,
wherever they are, are tokens of delicacy and grace and sure signs that the Divine
Bride sprang from a royal root. Nevertheless the three shining stars appearing on
the forehead and the shoulders should not be considered as having a secondary
significance. They are symbols of the Grace of the luminous Trinity which as soon
as it dwelt in her caused the One to be revealed from her.17
In other words, not only are the stars symbols of the Grace of the luminous
Trinity but they should remind us of the role of Mary in the revelation of
the One.
One wonders, however, whether such a specific interpretation of the
stars was commonly accepted. Did the faithful who saw the stars or the
painters who painted them understand this meaning, or was it a learned
but personal interpretation of a single individual of the 15th century? We
need additional evidence to give even a partial answer to this question,
which in fact belongs to the wider problem of popular piety in Byzantium.
A 14th- or 15th-century Russian ikon, known to me from a drawing
published by Kondakov18 and reproduced here, provides us with pictorial
evidence (Fig. 3). Where we are accustomed to seeing the three stars we
discover instead three angels. This example confirms that Eugenikos'
interpretation was current at his time or even earlier. But it would be an
exaggeration to suggest that everyone was aware of the meaning of the
stars. Some masters must have deviated from this tradition, if they knew
it. Others must have been familiar with a different pictorial tradition
associating Mary with the Trinity represented in the form of the Three
Angels and making no reference to the stars. Such is the case, for instance,
of a 13th-century ikon, now in Venice, which has been published by
Chatzidakis.19 Here the Three Angels appear in the upper left-hand corner.
Whether this meaning was attached to the stars after they had been
developed from the cross or whether it was the theological concept that
inspired the appearance of these stars we cannot prove. The second
MSee pl. 11. The illustration is reproduced from K. Onash, Icones, Geneva 1961, pi. 86, where
bibliography on the ikon can also be found
li'Boissonade, pp. 338, 339
18N. P. Kondakov, Ikonografijia Bogomateri, St Petersburg 1911, p. 52, fig. 43
MM. Chatzidakis, Icones de Saint-Georges des grecs et de la collection de Vinstitut hellenique
de Venise, Venice 1962, pl. 3. For other pictorial parallels see Onash, op. cit., pis. 83, 85
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
possibility seems to us more plausible. The cross could adorn the mantle
of any Christian but the Grace of the luminous Trinity had dwelt in Mary
in a unique fashion. The need, therefore, arose for a symbol which would
clarify the special position of Mary in relation to the Trinity and would
include the concept of light and the luminous. The star, being the symbol
l'nc. 43. lIpopHci, IIKOIIW B. M. «ApaBiflcKoft» (nan <0, Bceiitxaa JIaTH»)
ii3i> CiflcKaro HORS.
Figure 3
of the Trinity since early Christian times, was the obvious choice.20 The
time of its appearance, the middle Byzantine period, is certainly a time
when the cult of Mary had been greatly developed.21
The ekphrasis does not end with the symbols of the Grace of the
Trinity. Eugenikos sees the Trinity in the fingers of the -blessing Child
20For the symbolism of the star in general see H. Leclercq, 'Astros', in D.A.C.L., i, cols.
3005-3033
21cf. G. Galavaris, 'A Question of Mariolatry in Byzantium', The New Review, iv, 4 (1964), 42-56
368
THE STARS OF THE VIRGIN
and proposes a most elaborate symbolism, which he pursues in the
costume of the Child. According to his interpretation the ornaments and
colour manifest the celestial, cosmic aspects of the Creator. Here are
Eugenikos' exact words:
The Child wears a double chiton [this is the literal translation of the Greek
text, but more likely the author means that Christ wears a chiton and an
himation over it]. The inner part covering the breast has the colour of a blue
flower that quietly changes into white because the Child came from heaven; He is
divine and the Creator of heaven. I think this is also the meaning of adorning it
with rays of golden threads which belong to his robe as the stars belong to the
sky. The outer garment also gives the clue: it is adorned in every part with golden
rays like those of the sun. This too is beautiful and not without wisdom, because
the One Word, Jesus Christ, is adorned, as it is written, with two natures, the
divine and the human; (or better said) his pre-existing divine nature was adorned
with the human which he assumed later, having mingled them exceedingly but
without confusion. 23
22Boissonade, pp. 337, 338
369

Syriac Studies Today
ROBERT MURRAY, SJ
(This brief survey is offered to those readers of the ECR who have little specialized
knowledge of this field but appreciate its importance for the study of the Eastern
Churches.)
SYRIAC, THE ARAMAIC DIALECT of Edessa (Urfa) in northern Mesopotamia
which became the Semitic lingua franca of Christians in the Near East,
stands beside Greek and Latin as the third major classical language by
means of which our knowledge of early Christianity has been handed
down. (Further, the role of the Arabs in preserving and transmitting much
of our Hellenic patrimony to the medieval West was only made possible
by the Syriac versions through which Syrian Christians communicated the
treasures of Greek culture to their conquerors.) As the original liturgical
language of both East and West Syrian rites, Syriac remains normative
today (even if the vernacular is used in public) for Syrian-rite Christians
from the Lebanon to Kerala. The Syriac versions of the Bible are indis­
pensable witnesses for textual scholars to take into account, while the
Syriac ascetical literature reveals that, though nothing seems able to
dislodge the notion that monasticism began in Egypt, a parallel and
independent movement began rather earlier in the Syrian Churches.
Patristic studies have enjoyed an extraordinary expansion since World
War II, and the Syriac field is no exception. The quantity of scholarly
publications which have appeared is recorded in the indispensable biblio­
graphical handbook, Patrologia Syriaca, by I. Ortiz de Urbina, SJ (ed. 2,
Rome, 1965); the speed of advance is reflected by the fact that a new and
greatly enlarged edition was necessary after only seven years. Many im­
portant patristic and liturgical texts have been published either for the
first time or in the first reliable version. The chief media for such
publication are the two great collections, Corpus Scriptorum Christiano-
rum Orientalium (CSCO), published in Louvain under the general editor­
ship of Canon R. Draguet, and Patrologia Orientalis (PO), published in
Paris under the editorship of F. Graffin, SJ, a worthy successor to his
uncle, Mgr R. Graffin, who founded both the splendid but never continued
Patrologia Syriaca (3 volumes, 1894-1926) and PO itself. Both CSCO and
PO cover all the classical oriental languages of Christian antiquity (Syriac,
Armenian, Georgian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Arabic), the editions being always
accompanied by translations in Latin, French, German or English. The
Syriac series in CSCO has grown from vol.64 in 1949 to vol.'118-19 in 1967.
Publication of texts, especially those of smaller compass, is also assisted
by periodicals devoted to Christian oriental studies; the most important
370
SYRIAC STUDIES TODAY
for Syriac studies are the annual Oriens Christianus (Wiesbaden) and
the quarterlies Le Museon (Louvain), L'Orient Syrien (Vernon, France),
and Orientalia Christiana Periodica (OCP), published by the Pontifical
Oriental Institute in Rome, together with the series of monographs,
Orientalia Christiana Analecta; both contain a proportion of Syriac
studies.
A detailed survey of recent and current work would be impossible here;
examples will be given under five headings.
(1) The fundamental work of examining and describing manuscripts
continues. The great European collections (British Museum, Vatican,
Berlin, Paris), which owed so much to the single source of the Syrian
monastery in Scete (Egypt), were catalogued long since, but new surveys
were needed of other collections and of what remains in the Near East;
the repeated tragedies that have befallen the Nestorians and Chaldaeans
in Turkey and Mesopotamia have taken their toll of manuscripts also.
The surviving material in Turkey, Iraq and Iran has recently been
examined by W. F. Macomber, SJ, who has discovered important un­
recorded liturgical manuscripts; Professor A. Voobus (Maywood, Illinois)
has also investigated this area. (Both scholars appear again below.) J. T.
demons has just published a list of Syriac manuscripts in the USA and
Canada {OCP, 1966), and the main collection there, at Harvard, is being
examined in detail by Professor M. H. Goshen-Gottstein. Among other
surveys the outstanding one belongs in the next section.
(2) Text of the Syriac Bible. Texts of both OT and NT have long been
easily available, produced cheaply by local church authorities, missionaries
or Bible societies, but no critical edition of the 'Peshitta' or Vulgate Syriac
Bible has ever been produced. This lack is being remedied by the Peshitta
Institute at Leiden under Professor De Boer and W. Baars; the first stage
of this huge undertaking was completed with the publication of the List
of O.T. Peshitta Manuscripts (Leiden, 1961). Critical editions of some
individual books have appeared (Wisdom, 1959; Song of Songs, Tobit, 4
Esdras, 1966); see the review by M. Albert in L'Orient Syrien XII (1967),
pp. 389-92 for a progress report on the whole undertaking.
The NT will be covered likewise. The history of the Syriac NT text has
been a problem since the 'Old Syriac' was published early in this century.
The account given by F. C. Burkitt, which dominated scholars' minds for
half a century, is now being generally questioned, through the researches
of A. Voobus and others. Studies on the Diatessaron of Tatian, the
harmonized life of Jesus which was the first Syriac Gospel text, have
multiplied. A medieval Persian version was published by G. Messina, SJ
(Rome, 1951). In Syriac Diatessaron studies the leading names are those
of Dom Louis Leloir, OSB, editor of Ephrem's commentary on the
Diatessaron, and I. Ortiz de Urbina, SJ, whose edition of all the extant
Syriac quotations has just been published as a volume of the Biblia Poly-
glotta Matritensia.
371
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
(3) Syriac Church Fathers. Space must limit us to a few examples. First,
St Ephrem (c. 306-373). In 1950 students were still mainly dependent on
the execrable and totally unreliable Roman edition of 1732-43, the four
volumes edited by T. J. Lamy (Mechlin, 1882-1902) which were insuffi­
ciently critical and contained much inauthentic matter, a few rare
individual volumes (some more, some less critically edited) and a few
works preserved in Armenian. In 1967, thanks above all to Dom Edmund
Beck, OSB, we have critical texts in the CSCO of practically all Ephrem's
authentic works: the prose commentaries on Genesis and Exodus (edited
by R. M. Tonneau, OP) and a Christological sermon (Dom Beck's newest
publication); over a dozen collections of Ephrem's hymns, to which we
must add a collection preserved in Armenian and published in PO XXX;
Ephrem's commentary on the Diatessaron, the Armenian version (CSCO)
and the recently discovered Syriac (Chester Beatty Monographs, Dublin,
1963), both edited by Dom Louis Leloir, who has also published a beautiful
French translation combining both Syriac and Armenian witnesses, in
Sources Chretiennes (Paris, 1966). Soundly based theological study of
Ephrem is now possible for the first time; this has been led, appropriately,
by Dom E. Beck and Dom L. Leloir, while other contributions have been
made by W. Cramer, OSB (on Ephrem's angelology), }. Teixidor (on his
eschatology) and R. Murray, SJ, as the largest element in a forthcoming
work on the ecclesiological symbolism of the early Syriac Fathers, which
it is hoped to publish next year.
Special attention is being given to Narsai (399-502) and Philoxenus of
Mabbog (c. 450-c. 522), the great consolidators, respectively, of the
opposing tendencies, Nestorian and Monophysite, into which Syrian
Christianity split and hardened. Till recently Narsai's huge literary
achievement was represented in print only by two volumes of homilies
and meditations published (in Syriac only) by A. Mingana in 1905, and by
Dom R. H. Connolly's edition in translation of a few liturgical homilies
(Cambridge, 1909). In Paris P. Gignoux is now editing six more homilies
for PO, and F. McLeod, SJ, at the Rome Oriental Institute, is editing five
more, as well as writing a study of Narsai's soteriology. Several homilies
have been published in French in L'Orient Syrien by P. Gignoux and P.
Kruger, with theological discussions in which T. Jansma of Leiden has
also joined. Narsai's rule for the exegetical school at Nisibis, where he
migrated from Edessa in 457, has been published by A. Voobus {The
Statutes of the School of Nisibis, Stockholm, 1961).
Philoxenus had fared better already before World War II, with dogmatic
treatises published in CSCO (1907) and PO (1920), and ascetical homilies
published by Wallis Budge in 1894; but study of this important theologian
has increased greatly in recent years, important as ceticaL letters having
been published in both CSCO and PO in 1963, while some'of his homilies
are now available in French in Sources Chretiennes.
Important Greek works preserved in Syriac translation are also being
372
SYRIAC STUDIES TODAY
published; the voluminous homilies of the Monophysite father, Severus
of Antioch, continue to appear from time to time in PO, while Syriac
versions of Athanasius have recently appeared in CSCO.
(4) Ascetical Literature, Canon Law, etc. One of the busiest in this field
is Professor A. Voobus, whose History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient
in its first two volumes has appeared in the Subsidia of CSCO (1958 and
1960). He has also published a collection of documents in Syriac and
Arabic of early 'monastic rule' type (Stockholm, 1960), the Statutes of
Nisibis just mentioned, and is preparing other publications in this field.
Under this heading come the works of many fathers such as Philoxenus,
the 7th-century Sahdona or Martyrius (four volumes in CSCO, 1960-65),
while work is proceeding on others of the same period at Gottingen under
Professor R. Strothmann. The influential 4th-century Greek ascetical
writer, Evagrius Ponticus, is preserved more fully in S}^riac versions than
in Greek; his most important work, the Kephalaia Gnostika, was published
in PO XXVIII (1958) by A. Guillaumont, the author also of many important
articles on Syriac ascetical writers. Among scholars of asceticism who
have dealt with the Syriac field ought also to be mentioned I. Ffausherr, SJ.
(5) Liturgy. This is, perhaps, the field of greatest activity and the hardest
to review; witness the packed pages of bibliography in Father Ortiz de
Urbina's Patrologia (pp. 28-30). Work on the eucharistic anaphoras has
been led, first, by the editions of H. W. Codrington and A Raes, SJ
(Anaphorae Syriacae, Rome, 1939-53) and the studies of Dom H. Engberd-
ing, OSB. W. F. Macomber, SJ, has just published the earliest text of the
east Syrian Anaphora of the Holy Apostles (OCP, 1966). In work on the
Syrian divine office, of both eastern and western rites, perhaps the
outstanding name is that of Juan Mateos, SJ, of the Rome Pontifical
Institute. Studies in the liturgical and sacramental fields are fostering the
purification of the oriental rites according to the Holy See's wish to undo
the unhappy corruptions of past centuries. L'Orient Syrien is active in
this direction, while at Rome solid studies are appearing such as P. E.
Gemayel's Avant-Messe Maronite (1965). Though the Syrian Churches
have at present no great scholar-prelate to equal the late Ignatius Rahmani
in the Lebanon or Addai Scher, the archbishop of Seert who was martyred
in 1916, there are distinguished men in the field such as Mgr Khoury-
Sarkis, editor of L'Orient Syrien, and others coming up.
This sketch is likely to have proved indigestible to the layman and
inadequate to the scholar; it should, however, give some idea of the intense
study being maintained by a comparatively small number of scholars. The
Syriac patristic and liturgical field is of such importance for Christian
theology and historical studies that one wishes more would try their hand
at it. Syriac is the easiest of the Semitic languages. At the beginning of this
century England probably led the learned world in Syriac studies, but is
now surpassed by France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and even
Dom Leloir's Luxembourg—the Six! Will England join?
373

The Orthodox Church in Yugoslavia:
The Problem of the Macedonian Church*1
STEVAN K. PAVLOWITCH
MACEDONIA HAS ALWAYS been that important geopolitical centre of the
Balkans which neighbouring states, and foreign powers interested in the
peninsula, have vied with one another in trying to control. In modern
times, it was the region that remained longest in Turkish hands, for it was
not liberated until 1912-18. Long before that, however, the neighbouring
Balkan states, who had already won their independence and were aiming
at expelling the Turks from Europe completely, were in fierce rivalry over
Macedonia, where their aspirations met in an area in which Serb, Bulgar
and Greek mingled with one another and where the mass of the backward
Slav population could be turned into either Serbs or Bulgars, depending
on whose influence was the stronger. It was out of this rivalry—at once
nationalistic, cultural and ecclesiastical, as always in the Balkans—that
very slowly a separate Macedonian consciousness began to emerge,
recognized by none of the three contending states who were busy Ser-
bianizing, Bulgarianizing and Hellenizing their outlying Macedonian
territories.
Since the 18th century and for as long as it was Turkish, Macedonia
had been ecclesiastically under the jurisdiction of the patriarchate in
Constantinople. 2 After the first world war, the dioceses in that part of
Macedonia which was included in the newly-formed Yugoslav state were,
in agreement with the oecumenical patriarchate, made part of the restored
Serbian patriarchate and reorganized into three dioceses: Skopye, Ohrid-
Bitoly and Zletovo-Strumitsa. Such was the situation until 1941 when the
Bulgars occupied southern Yugoslavia and expelled the Serbian bishops.
During the war, the Yugoslav communist party chose to play the
Macedonian game. At a session of the Anti-Fascist Council of National
*This article should be the third of a series by Mr Pavlowitch on the Orthodox Church in
Yugoslavia which will appear in ECR. In view of the fact that the Macedonian Church declared
itself autocephalous in July, he has allowed us to publish it first. Ed.
ISince the beginning of the second world war, the three southernmost dioceses have been
practically withdrawn from the direct control of the patriarchate in Belgrade.
SAfter the creation of the Bulgarian exarchate in 1867, Macedonia became the prey of
nationalistic, disguised as ecclesiastical, rivalries between Bulgars and Greeks. It was only at the
turn of the century that the Serbs succeeded in obtaining from the oecumenical patriarchate
the appointment of Serbian bishops to one or two dioceses which they saw as being inhabited
essentially by Serbs.
374
THE MACEDONIAN CHURCH
Liberation held in 1943, it was decided that Yugoslavia should be
re-organized on a federal basis, with Macedonia as one of its component
units. A distinct Macedonian nationality and a Macedonian language
were recognized. The aim was twofold: to obtain the support of the
population of Macedonia for the cause of a communist Yugoslavia, and
to weaken the major national group in Yugoslavia, the Serbs, who, by
reason of their established peasant landholding and their no less well
established nationalism, were not expected to accept readily the commu­
nist revolution, at least in the regions solidly inhabited by them. In the
liberated regions, and especially among the local clergy who had joined
the ranks of the communist partisans or were helping them, a tendency
was encouraged which aimed at setting up a separate Orthodox religious
organization in Yugoslav Macedonia.8
In March 1945, in liberated Skopye, an 'Ecclesiastical and National
Council' (tsrkovno-naroden sobor) of local clergy and laity met and voted
a resolution declaring the right of the Macedonian nation to its own,
independent, national Church and calling for the restoration of the old
archbishopric of Ohrid. The sobor also elected a Committee of Initiative
to implement these demands, which the Committee transmitted to
Metropolitan Yosif in Belgrade in his capacity as both senior bishop
of Macedonia and locum tenens for Patriarch Gavrilo. This was one of
the serious problems with which the episcopate was faced immediately
after the liberation. It was unable to re-establish its control over the
southern dioceses, for the government did not allow the bishops to
return to their sees, while an irregular ad hoc body, the Committee of
Initiative, was in fact taking over control there. Metropolitan Yosif tried
in vain to go and see for himself what was happening in Macedonia, until
the Holy Synod, in September of that year, declared the Skopye resolu­
tion to be arbitrary and contrary to the canons, and appealed to the
clergy of Macedonia to remain in obedience to the legally established
hierarchy.
The resolute stand taken by the synod, together with the patriarch's
return, temporarily took the edge off the Macedonian question. The
Skopye Committee changed its tactics and thereafter switched to
asking for a negotiated settlement which would satisfy the Macedonians
while preserving the canonical unity of the patriarchate. With the death
of Patriarch Gavrilo in 1950, the question was carried a step further:
representatives of the Macedonian Committee were allowed to be present
(though not to vote) at the election of the new primate. The newly elected
Patriarch Vikentiye, hitherto one of the bishops from Macedonia who
had been excluded from their sees, was resolved to settle the differences
3For the events of 1943-58, see, as well as the texts of the official resolutions and statements
published in the organs of the patriarchate and of the Macedonian metropolitanate: Djoko
SlijepCevid, Pitanje Makedonske pravoslavne crkve u Jugoslavia, Munich 1959 (a Serbian, and
anti-communist, interpretation), and Protojerej-stavrofor dr. Slavko Dimevski, Crkovna istorija
na makedonskiot narod, Skopye 1965 (a Macedonian, and pro-communist, interpretation).
375
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
and stated his intention of doing so. Yet nothing was done until 1955
when a compromise solution appeared to be within sight involving the
appointment of native bishops to the Macedonian sees, the use of the
local language in their diocesan administration, and a certain degree of
self-government. This was indeed accepted in principle by the episcopate
at its annual session that year.
Negotiations for the carrying out of this decision went on for some
time, until 1957 when the patriarch himself, pending the election of
new bishops, was entrusted with the administration of the three
Macedonian dioceses. The ecclesiastical appointments made by the
Committee of Initiative were legalized, Macedonian students were allowed
to enter the theological schools, and the following Easter, the patriarch
issued a special pastoral letter to the clergy and faithful of Macedonia
expressing his joy at this resumption of full unity, as well as the hope
that this beginning would be quickly followed by further developments.
In the spring of 1958, he went on a visitation to the Macedonian dioceses
and was well received. It seemed that the situation had ripened to the
point where the episcopate could, at its coming annual session in June,
take the final step of appointing native bishops. This hope, however,
did not materialize, as the candidates put forward did not fulfil the
conditions required for elevation to the episcopate. Soon afterwards,
Patriarch Vikentiye was taken ill and died almost immediately. He had
genuinely striven to work out a solution that would have satisfied the
Macedonians without destroying the unity of the Orthodox Church in
Yugoslavia. He had succeeded in bringing a movement that had originally
been purely separatist to accept canonical unity with the Serbian Ortho­
dox Church. It was indeed unfortunate that, at that particular moment,
no satisfactory candidates for the episcopate were put forward by the
Macedonians and that the patriarch should have died before agreement
could be reached on better qualified candidates.
* * * Ohrid-Bitoly and Zletovo-Strumitsa have set themselves apart and
The opportunity had been missed, for in the same year renewed
Bulgarian claims to Yugoslav Macedonia led the Yugoslav leaders to
expedite the settlement of the Macedonian church question, but in a
one-sided manner. A few weeks after the death of Patriarch Vikentiye,
the Macedonian Committee of Initiative decided to summon a new sobor.
The Union of Associations of Orthodox Clergy was set to work and
called a conference in September 1958 which passed a resolution blaming
the episcopate for failing to solve the problem. A breach was also made
within the episcopate, for Bishop Dositey, who had been the patriarch's
auxiliary with the titular see of Toplitsa since 1951, was prevailed upon
to abet the Union's policy. After having been received by the secretary
of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Macedonia, he
turned up unexpectedly at the sobor which met at Ohrid in November.
376
THE MACEDONIAN CHURCH
At Ohrid there were gathered 220 delegates of the clergy and laity.
The government's interest was shown by the presence of the secretary
of the Federal Commission for Religious Affairs and of the president
of the Macedonian Commission. The president of the Union of Associa­
tions of Orthodox Clergy was also present. After addresses had been
voted to Marshal Tito and the secretary of the Macedonian communist
Central Committee, the sobor proclaimed the restoration of the
archbishopric of Ohrid, adopted a statute for the Macedonian Orthodox
Church which was nevertheless declared to be, through its patriarch, in
canonical unity with the Serbian Orthodox Church, and elected new
bishops. There were no territorial changes to the existing dioceses, al­
though the designations of two of them were slightly changed because
of the restored archiepiscopal title of Ohrid, which was linked to the
metropolitan see of Skopye.4 Bishop Dositey himself was elected metro­
politan. Archpriest Nikola Traykov (who was to take the monastic name
of Kliment, in memory of St Clement of Ohrid) was elected to the see
of Prespa and Bitoly, and Protosynkellos Naum to the see of Zletovo
and Strumitsa. All three had the necessary canonical qualifications, but
none had been previously proposed to the hierarchy, while one of them—
Bishop Dositey—was not even a Macedonian.5 If the bishops-elect were
qualified, the method by which they were elected was most irregular.
They had not been elected by their peers. Only one bishop was present
at the election, and only as a guest; he was not a diocesan bishop, and
he was bound by his oath of allegiance to a regularly established Church.
Thus, although the link with the patriarchate was retained, the founda­
tions of the Church of Macedonia were laid in circumstances contrary
to the practice and the canons of the Eastern Church.
The Serbian episcopate was also anxious to retain the link, for at its
next annual meeting in June 1959, the Holy Episcopal Council accepted
the new situation by recording that 'at the Ecclesiastical and National
Council held at Ohrid on 4-6 October 1958, the dioceses of Skopye,
constituted themselves an independent Church of Macedonia, which
administers itself according to the statute adopted at that council, and
which henceforth remains in canonical unity with the Serbian Orthodox
Church through its primate, his Holiness the patriarch'. It also recorded
that 'thereby, the statute of the Serbian Orthodox Church ceases to be
applicable to the dioceses and bishops on the territory of the People's
Republic of Macedonia'. Faced with a fait accompli, the episcopate
accepted it without approving it, in order to save the canonical unity
of the Church. In July, Patriarch Gherman accompanied by three Serbian
bishops went to Skopye on a visit to the new metropolitan. Together with
^Consequently the diocese of Ohrid and Bitoly became the diocese of Prespa and Bitoly. There
was no change in the designation of the third diocese, that of Zletovo and Strumitsa.
SBorn in Smederevo, he had always been considered a Serb.
377
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
Metropolitan Dositey and Bishop Nikanor of Bachka, he consecrated the
bishop-elect of Prespa and Bitoly. A few days later, the bishop-elect of
Zletovo and Strumitsa was also consecrated and installed. The new
bishops of the Macedonian dioceses, if they had been irregularly elected,
were nevertheless regularly consecrated. For all practical purposes, the
three dioceses formed an autonomous metropolitanate dependent on the
patriarchate of Serbia, and it was as such that the Serbian Church usually
referred to them in official documents, although the Macedonian metro­
politanate itself preferred the adjective 'independent' (samostoyna), which
has no ecclesiological meaning.
The metropolitanate also adopted many of the trappings of a fully-
constituted Church, in imitation of the Serbian Church." Just as the
Serbian Church is called the Church of St Sava, by the name of its first
archbishop and patron, so the Church of Macedonia is currently called
the Church of St Clement. The Church of Macedonia, in fact, is made
to appear a continuation of both the diocese of St Clement and the
archbishopric of Ohrid.7 Both historical links are far-fetched.8
The Church of Macedonia is governed by a Holy Synod composed of
all the bishops under the presidency of the metropolitan, and the
Macedonian bishops have not attended the sessions of the Holy
Episcopal Council in Belgrade. In its three dioceses, 334 priests
minister to the needs of about 600,000-1,000,000 faithful, with 953
6It has a coat of arms that reproduces the church of St Clement in Ohrid, just as the coat of
arms of the patriarchate reproduces the patriarchal church at Ped. The metropolitan wears a
white kalimmavchion and panakdlimmavchion, like the patriarch. He has adopted the form of
address 'Beatitude' (Blazhenstvo), used by some patriarchs and other primates, rather than the
more usual 'High and Most Reverend' (Visokopreosveshtenstvo) of diocesan metropolitans, His
full title was, until recently, 'archbishop of Ohrid and Skopye, metropolitan of Macedonia',
linking a diocese, that of the capital (Skopye), with a historical, now non-existent see (Ohrid),
and the higher archiepiscopal title with an overall territorial metropolitan title (Macedonia).
This f. llowed the primatial title in both the old kingdom of Serbia ('archbishop of Belgrade,
metropolitan of Serbia') and Yugoslavia ('archbishop of Ped, metropolitan of Belgrade and
Karlovtsi, patriarch of Serbia').
(■Other historical hints are the monastic names of the new bishops (Naum, Kliment, Metodiy,
recalling the apostles who worked in Macedonia and brought Christianity to the Slavs) and the
titular see of the metropolitan's auxiliary (Velika, which is the name usually attributed to St
Clement's see).
8St Clement was a disciple of St Methodius and carried on the task of extending the Slavonic
liturgy and script among the Slavs of the Balkans. At the turn of the 9th and 10th century he
was indeed bishop in the region of Macedonia. The name usually given in sources to his see
is 'Velika', although it is not known where Velika was, nor whether the name referred to a town
or a river. Indeed, we do not know the limits of his diocese nor its see, though Ohrid was
certainlv included in it. for St Clement was often there and died there. Clement (later known
as St Clement of Ohrid) usually described himself as 'bishop of the Slavs' and is venerated by
all the Slavs of the peninsula. As for the archbishopric of Ohrid, it was not the continuation
of St Clement's diocese, but a Byzantine creation of the 11th century. Far from being a national
Church of the Macedonian Slavs, it was, if anything, a Greek Church which aimed at the
hellenization of the Macedonian Slavs, although it was, for practical reasons, autocephalous and
independent of the Church of Constantinople. Starting with the early 14th century, when the
Serbian monarchv began to extend to the south, whole Slav-inhabited dioceses were detached
from Ohrid and attached to the Serbian patriarchate of Ped. Then, starting with the end of that
century, when the Turks gained control of the archbishopric of Ohrid, they started extending
its limits once again to the conquered Serbian lands. When, in the i6th ,'fientury, the Turks
restored the patriarchate of Ped over the fully conquered Serbian lands, the territory of the
Church of Ohrid was once again very much reduced. In the later 18th century, they abolished
both the patriarchate of Ped and the archbishopric of Ohrid—for political reasons—and united
all their Christian subjects in Europe under the one jurisdiction of Constantinople.
378
THE MACEDONIAN CHURCH
9
churches and chapels. Although precise figures for the Macedonian
dioceses are hard to come by, a memorandum dated December 1966, and
addressed to the synod in Belgrade, mentioned 814 'church communities
and monastic administrations', without saying how many of these were
actually regular parishes. In February 1967, in reply to an inquiry by
the present author, the metropolitanate mentioned 'about 400 parishes',
adding that exact figures could not be given because a general re-grouping
of parishes was in process. From the appointments in the official gazette
of the metropolitanate it appears that the parish clergy are in a state of
flux; about half the appointments are temporary, and the same names
often reappear.10
Monastic life is almost at a standstill. There are 54 nuns and monks
in 86 monasteries and monastic dependencies. Macedonia, the cradle of
Christianity among the Balkan Slavs and the meeting place of Serbian
and Greek political and cultural influences in the middle ages, is full of
old monasteries, churches and chapels, many of them now abandoned,
which explains why so many Macedonian ikons turn up on the art market
in western Europe—in spite of protective measures adopted by the
Yugoslav authorities.
The Church of Macedonia has one official periodical, Vesnik, started
in 1958 and now appearing in a two-monthly issue of 1,100-1,200 copies.
It also issues an annual pocket calendar in Macedonian and has published
Macedonian versions of the liturgical Gospels (1952), of the Acts of the
Apostles (1957), and of the standard prayer-book (1965), as well as an
Ecclesiastical History of the Macedonian Nation (1965). Since 1961,
all newly-ordained priests have to take an examination in the Macedonian
language and in Macedonian national and church history, while in
1965-66 the Association of Orthodox Clergy of Macedonia organized a
seminar for priests to teach them the Macedonian literary language.
Where the Church of Macedonia does essentially differ from its
mother Church is in its relationship to the state. Right from the
beginning, it has been closely linked to the communist regime in
Yugoslavia. Characteristically, the statute of the Church of Macedonia
requires the metropolitan, when elected, to take an oath 'to be faithful
and loyal to my country and to the people's authorities', and the oath
^These figures were given in February 1967 on application to the metropolitanate in Skopye.
They correspond to those quoted in the memorandum addressed by the Macedonian synod to
the synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church on 3 December 1966.
lODuring the war the clergy suffered relatively less in Macedonia than in most other regions.
The Bulgarian authorities expelled the bishops, but did not otherwise persecute the clergy,
anxious as they were to win it over to the Bulgarian Church. Mutatis mutandis, the same can be
said of the situation under the new communist regime following the liberation. The ratio of
clergy to faithful is relatively favourable by present-day Yugoslav standards, although it is well
below its pre-war level. Macedonia, however, is a mountainous and rural region, economically still
underdeveloped, with a scattered population, and relatively more clergy are needed, in smaller
parishes, to reach the faithful. It would seem that the Macedonian dioceses are following the
general trend in the poorer dioceses of Yugoslavia, of a regrouping of parishes—and that they are
doing so drastically. At the end of 1966, 64 Macedonians were studying at theological schools,
mainly at Prizren, the nearest seminary. There is no seminary in Macedonia. For the academic
year 1967-8, 12 places were reserved for candidates from the Macedonian dioceses.
379
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW

is administered by the vice-president of the metropolitan ecclesiastical

and national sobor (now an established body under the statute), who is
a layman. On state occasions, on New Year's day, on Labour Day, on
President Tito's birthday, congratulatory addresses, letters and telegrams
are sent to federal or local state and party dignitaries, and all are duly
listed in the journal of the metropolitanate. In their tone and style, these
are real eulogies, not mere formalities. It is a convenient coincidence that
the day of the Holy Prophet Elijah (2 August) is both a traditional
religious festival and the national day of the Socialist Republic of
Macedonia. It is at the same time the anniversary of the rising against
the Turks in 1903 and of the comnumist rising in Macedonia in 1941. As
in the 'good old days' of the Balkan monarchies, the Church celebrates
thanksgiving services on state occasions, and bishops turn up at official
inaugurations and celebrations, almost as they do in Italy.

After eight years of autonomy, new events induced the Church of

Macedonia to take the final plunge to autocephaly. This time, the aim
was purely political and nationalistic, little trouble was taken to vest it
in the garb of ecclesiastical respectability, and government intervention
was blatant. The problem of Yugoslavia's various nationalities was again
causing concern, and so were the Bulgars. In the autumn of 1966, it was
decided to make a formal request for autocephaly. 1967 was, in any case,
a convenient date: it was in 1767 that the Turks had abolished the
archbishopric of Ohrid. There were meetings with government leaders
and officials in Macedonia, and the help of the Union of Associations of
Orthodox Clergy11 was once again enlisted, after which the Macedonian
bishops collectively went to Belgrade and held talks with the members
of the Holy Synod there. 'We have decided to ask the Serbian Orthodox
Church to grant us autocephaly. We have made this decision known to
the Executive Council of Macedonia, which dedicated a whole sitting
to the matter and told us that we were not wrong in asking for auto­
cephaly', Metropolitan Dositey told the Serbian synod. On their return,
the Macedonian bishops sent the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox
Church a formal application for autocephalous status. Right at the
beginning of their memorandum of 3 December 1966, they warned the
Serbian synod that they had already taken the first step to summon a
sobor which, in their opinion, was 'competent to give a valid solution to
this fundamental question for the Macedonian Orthodox Church, and 2. S t P e t e r , 4 t h c e n t u r y m o s a i c f r o m t h e e x c a v a t i o n s u n d e r S t P e t e r ' s i n R o m e
(see Neio Office of St Peter. From ' M o s a i c s ' by H. P. I'Orange and P. J. Ndrdhagen,
to which the whole matter would soon be submitted'. In other words, Methuen. See Reviews)
the request was accompanied by a threat: if the Serbian Church did not
grant autocephaly to the Macedonians, they would declare it unilaterally.
tlln September, the president of the Union met the Macedonian bishops and the vice-president
of the Macedonian Commission for Religious Affairs in Skopye. The Macedonian synod formally
thanked the Union for the 'right attitude' it had taken in the question of the relations between
the two sister Churches, and for its contribution to its settlement.
380
 THE MACEDONIAN CHURCH

In April 1967, Metropolitan Dositey was back in Belgrade, accompanied

by his auxiliary and by the president of the Association of Orthodox
Clergy of Macedonia. He had talks with the president of the Federal
Commission for Religious Affairs and with the head of the government,
the president of the Federal Executive Council, as well as with the
patriarch. The official statement issued by the metropolitanate said that
the aim of the discussions had been 'to bring to a conclusion the process
of formation of the Macedonian Orthodox Church'.
When the Serbian episcopate met in annual session in May 1967, one
of the major items on its agenda was the Macedonian request.12 On
24 May, the Holy Episcopal Council rejected the request from the Holy
Synod of the Church in Macedonia. It argued that the Church in
Macedonia did not possess full qualifications for autocephaly and that
it could not, in fact, afford to be separated from the main body of the
Orthodox Church in Yugoslavia. The main argument against autocephaly,
however, was that the Macedonian episcopate, in its action to obtain
it, had transgressed the canons and their oath. The head of the Macedo­
nian episcopate, Metropolitan Dositey, had broken both his oath as a
bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church, sworn in 1951, to be loyal
and obedient to the authorities of the Church, and his oath as
metropolitan of Macedonia, sworn in 1958, to abide by and safeguard
canonical unity with the Serbian Orthodox Church. The civil authorities
had been constantly involved in a question of internal ecclesiastical
organization, which was contrary to canon law. These laws had originally
been drawn up, the Serbian episcopate stated, for a body politic in which
Christianity was the state religion; they applied even more rigorously
to a state such as Yugoslavia where the constitution declared religion
to be the private business of the citizen, and the Church to be separated
from the state and free to organize its own religious affairs. Any inter­
vention by the state authorities in the question of the Church of
Macedonia was contrary both to the canons of the Church and to the
constitution of the state. In rejecting the request, the Holy Episcopal
Council warned the Macedonians that if they should persist in their
intention to have their autocephaly proclaimed by their local metropolitan
sobor, which contained laymen as well as clerics, and only four (three
diocesan) bishops out of a total membership of 34, they would be setting
themselves up as a schismatic religious organization that had opted out of
the Orthodox communion.
Undaunted, the Macedonians went forward with their plans and duly
summoned the metropolitan sobor, which, met at Ohrid.on 17-19 July.
On 19 July 1967, acting on a resolution from the sobor, the Holy Synod
of the Church of Macedonia proclaimed the autocephaly of the Church
120n the eve of the bishops' meeting, Vesnik, the organ of the metropolitanate in Skopye
(May-June 1967), carried an article on 'Canonical and Historical Foundations for Orthodox
Church Autocephaly', in which it argued that political administrative divisions had always served
as a basis for ecclesiastical administrative divisions.
D 381
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
on the territory of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. The metropolitan
was given the new title of 'archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia', and the
next day he was solemnly installed in the old church of St Clement. A
letter was sent to the patriarch in Belgrade to inform him and to express
the desire for further collaboration between the two sister Churches.
The events at Ohrid were given full press coverage.13 The participation
of the political authorities was patent. Two members of the Macedonian
government were present, as well as the heads of the Federal and the
Macedonian Commissions for Religious Affairs and the mayor of Ohrid.
As soon as the proclamation of autocephaly had been read on 18 July, the
president of the Federal Commission for Religious Affairs announced to
the sobor that President Tito had awarded the cordon of the Order of the
Yugoslav Flag to Metropolitan Dositey. State dignitaries also attended
the installation ceremonies.
The way in which the proclamation was carried out, the speeches and
the newspaper articles, make it clear that this was a purely political act.14
It all sounded very much like a repetition of the events of the 1860s and
1870s when Bulgarian nationalism and Ottoman government policy joined
forces to proclaim a separate Bulgarian Church at a time when, on a
purely religious plane, an agreement was about to be reached between the
Bulgarian bishops and the oecumenical patriarchate. In order to promote
its own aims (to weaken the Church and divide the nationalities), the
Yugoslav government has further accentuated one of the ills of the Eastern
Church against which contemporary Orthodoxy is trying to react—the
nationalist rivalries and quarrels which the holders of the ancient pat­
riarchal sees of the East condemned at the Council of Constantinople in
1872 apropos of the Bulgarian schism. The somewhat artificial link with
St Clement of Ohrid and the ancient archbishopric of Ohrid is intended
to give the impression of historical continuity, to dress up as a 'restoration'
what is in effect an ecclesiastical 'UDF, contrary to the canons of the
Eastern Church, whatever may be its ethnical or political merits.
The patriarchate in Belgrade has remained silent over this major breach
of the canons by the Church of Macedonia. Protests have already been
raised in the Church of Greece. Recent talks between Bulgarian govern­
ment leaders and the patriarch of Bulgaria, reported by The Times
(8 August 1967), hint at the probable negative attitude of the Church of
Bulgaria. Neither 'reactionary' Greece nor 'red' Bulgaria have any wish
to know of a Macedonian nation and, in both cases, political considera­
tions add weight to the ecclesiastical arguments which are sufficient by
iswhereas the earlier session of the Holy Episcopal Council in Belgrade had not even been
mentioned in the papers.
14A characteristic article which appeared in the Skopye daily Nova Makedoniya of 30 July 1967
brushed aside all canonical arguments as irrelevant and hypocritical. 'The proclamation of
autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church is the act of a free and sovereign, national,
state and ecclesiastical organization': it was part of a historical process. The opposition to it,
wrote the author of the article, was shrouded in arguments of canon law, and was directed
against the very idea of a Macedonian nation: as such it was anti-Yugoslav.
382
THE MACEDONIAN CHURCH
themselves to deter other Orthodox Churches from recognizing this fait
accompli.15
The Church of Macedonia may remain unrecognized by the Orthodox
communion; it may even be formally declared schismatic. It nevertheless
exists and the problem has to be faced quite independently of the ups
and downs of Yugoslav politics. Ever since its unification, the Orthodox
Church in Yugoslavia has been both a national and a territorial Church.
It was both the Serbian Orthodox Church extending its jurisdiction over
Orthodox Serbs wherever they lived, and the Orthodox Church of
Yugoslavia. This caused no particular trouble so long as it was assumed
that all the Orthodox in Yugoslavia were Serbs and vice versa}6 With the
development of a Macedonian ethnical feeling, the Orthodox Church was
faced with this problem which it will henceforth have to live with and
which it will eventually have to solve in a more satisfactory way, whatever
the attitude of the government of the day: could one million Orthodox
Yugoslavs, who did not feel themselves to be Serbs, continue to adhere to
a Serbian Church? Surely the ancient patriarchate of Pec is venerable
enough by its history, and wide enough by the territory over which its
jurisdiction has extended at various periods, to be able to encompass all
the Orthodox of Yugoslavia in a united territorial Church.
In recent years the Orthodox Church in Yugoslavia had just been
beginning to recover from the war, to establish tolerable relations with
the regime, and to hold its head above water. It was making its own
contribution to the trend among local Churches of the East towards a
better consciousness of the unity of Orthodoxy. It was drawing closer to
the Roman Catholic Church in an important practical way, in those
mixed regions of Yugoslavia where the rivalry between the Western and
the Eastern tradition had not only embittered relations between Christians,
but had also been a thorn in the flesh of a united Yugoslavia. In its own
unglamorous and silent, but at the same time responsible way, it was
contributing to removing simultaneously the nationalist sting from the
rivalry between Catholics and Orthodox, and the religious sting from the
rivalry between Serbs and Croats in Yugoslavia. The blow that has now
been struck at this Church and, indirectly, at what it was achieving is
indeed a hard one.
♦ * *
Since this article was written, at the beginning of August, the full text
of the resolutions taken at Ohrid has been published as well as the corres­
pondence with the highest authorities of the Church in Belgradj^JTjie
^Constantinople has always stressed the territorial unity of the Orthodox Church in Yugoslavia
to the point of addressing the patriarch of Serbia as 'patriarch of Belgrade and all Yugoslavia'.
IGAlthough there were, and still are, a certain number of Catholic Serbs in Dalmatia. On the
other hand, it would be difficult for a Croat or a Slovene to become a 'Serbian' Orthodox convert;
not that there is any tendency among Croats and Slovenes to do so, or that the Orthodox Church
has ever attempted any proselytism (a small number of Yugoslav Catholics, mainly Slovenes,
have changed their religious allegiance for reasons that are not entirely religious).
383
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
Serbian episcopate has also met in an extraordinary session to deplore the
schismatic action taken by the Church in Macedonia, and further details
have come to light on the arguments exchanged.
No sooner had the Episcopal Council in Belgrade rejected the Mace­
donian request last May, listing among its reasons the slenderness of the
ecclesiastical organization in the south and, in the first instance, the fact
that there were not enough bishops for the proper functioning of an inde­
pendent Church, than the Macedonian synod hurriedly elected a second
titular bishop, Kiril of Tiveriopol. The metropolitan sobor that met from
17 to 19 July could thus boast five bishops out of a total membership now
increased to 44 (of which 15 were lay delegates). Before proceeding to the
proclamation of autocephaly, the sobor started by reorganizing the dio­
ceses. These were increased to five by setting up part of the diocese of
Prespa and Bitoly into a separate diocese of Velika (see at Ohrid) and by
constituting the six Macedonian parishes abroad into a diocese for
America, Canada and Australia (with its see at Skopye!). The synod
thereupon elevated the two auxiliary bishops to the new diocesan sees of
Velika (Metodiy) and America-Canada-Australia (Kiril), and Bishop Kli-
ment of Prespa and Bitoly to the dignity of metropolitan. Only after this
window-dressing was autocephaly proclaimed, although there was still
some confusion as to which body was competent to proclaim it - the synod
(described as 'the highest ecclesiastical and legislative authority') or the
sobor (described as 'the highest governing body'). In fact, the synod sub­
mitted the proposal to the sobor, who endorsed it unanimously, and it was
on the basis of this resolution from the sobor that the synod proclaimed
the autocephaly of the Church in Macedonia.
The arguments used by the Macedonians to justify their action are con­
fused and at times contradictory. They claim their autocephaly at once
on the basis of historical continuity, on the de facto state of affairs since
the war, on indirect recognition by the patriarchate, and on political and
ethnical rights. These are expressed in the speech delivered to the sobor by
Metropolitan Dositey, in the resolution voted by the sobor, in the procla­
mation of autocephaly, and in the letter to Patriarch Gherman.
To start with, the Macedonian bishops claim that they are merely re­
storing an ancient title and an ancient situation. The Macedonian Church
is the successor to the medieval archbishopric of Ohrid, just as the Serbian
Church is the successor to the medieval patriarchate of Pec. The Turks
had no right to abolish the archbishopric of Ohrid in 1767 and the oecu­
menical patriarchate had no right to 'hand over' the Macedonian dioceses
to the restored Serbian patriarchate in 1919. Since 1941, these dioceses
have been outside the jurisdiction of Belgrade. In 1959, by recording the
fact that the three dioceses had 'set themselves apart and constituted
themselves into an independent Church of Macedonia' and that 'thereby
the statute of the Serbian Orthodox Church ceases to be applicable to the
dioceses and bishops' of Macedonia, the Serbian Church had recognized
384
THE MACEDONIAN CHURCH
the 'limited autocephaly' (a non-existent concept in the Eastern Church)
of the Church in Macedonia and had thereby released it from the juris­
diction of the patriarchate. If the Macedonian episcopate had agreed to
maintaining canonical unity with the patriarchate in Belgrade, it was on
the basis of a personal union between the two sister Churches and on the
assumption that the patriarch of Serbia would represent the Church of
Macedonia in the Orthodox Church at large. The patriarchate, however,
had ignored this assumption and chosen to consider the Macedonian
dioceses as no more than an autonomous branch of its jurisdiction. That
is why the Church in Macedonia had been forced to implement fully its
independence and take it upon itself to restore its own autocephaly, 'fol­
lowing the example of other local Orthodox Churches'. This was similar,
the Macedonians claimed, to the restoration of the Russian patriarchate
in 1917. It was all the more normal that the Church of Macedonia should
claim its historical rights since the Macedonians now had their own 'free
national state' in the socialist republic of Macedonia.
On 15 August, the Holy Synod in Belgrade summoned the bishops to
an extraordinary meeting of the Episcopal Council to discuss the Mace­
donian situation, whereupon the Macedonian synod wrote once again on
7 September, this time to the Serbian episcopate as a whole, to counter the
argument that the Church in Macedonia did not qualify for autocephaly.
It now had five diocesan bishops in order to meet the needs of a developing
religious life. The dioceses were now fully organized, with 350 parishes
(this was the first time that an exact figure was given) ministered by 334
priests, and there were 34 graduates of theological schools (out of five
bishops and 334 parish priests!). The present leadership of the Church in
Macedonia was not unworthy of its t a s k - t h e opinion expressed by the
Episcopal Council in Belgrade - for it had reorganized and led the Church
in Macedonia since the war. On several occasions, Macedonian bishops had
concelebrated with the patriarch and Serbian bishops and, once in 1962,
with the patriarch of Moscow-and these Serbian and Russian prelates
would not have concelebrated with 'unworthy' bishops. The secular
authorities had in no way interfered in the decisions taken: it was merely
that the Macedonian bishops wished to maintain harmonious relations
between Church and state, and had consulted the political authorities on
what they were proposing to do.
The Serbian episcopate met in Belgrade on 14-15 September. In their
resolution adopted at the end of the two-day special sitting, the bishops
expressed their regret that the Macedonian hierarchy had broken away
from the Church and set up a schismatic religious organization, arbi­
trarily and contrary to the canons. Consequently, all liturgical and canoni­
cal links with them were to be severed, but not so with the faithful of
Macedonia. On the contrary, everything must be done to try and satisfy
their religious needs. As a first practical step towards this, the theological
schools were to be kept open to students from the Macedonian dioceses.
385
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
The episcopate rejected the historical and political arguments advanced
by the Macedonian synod. The link with Ohrid was spurious: that ancient
archbishopric never had a Macedonian ethnical character and never called
itself Macedonian. Furthermore, the Yugoslav republic of Macedonia was The Life of the Married Eastern Clergy*
not a state, but a federal unit within a state.
The anti-canonical separation of three badly equipped dioceses was in ROBERT CLEMENT, SJ
the interest neither of the Orthodox Church in Yugoslavia as a whole, nor
of the Orthodox in Macedonia. 'What, then, was the real reason for the In the decree Preshyterium ordinis,
anti-canonical separation?' the episcopate asked. 'What would happen to the Second Vatican Council recognized
the Orthodox Church if every ethnic group arbitrarily proclaimed its part the legitimacy of the Eastern tradition
of the Church to be autocephalous?' of ordaining married men to the priest­
In those two questions lies the beginning of the answer to the problem hood:
'Certainly it [the practice of perfect
of the Macedonian Church.
continence] is not required by the
nature of the priesthood, as the prac­
tice of the primitive Church and the
tradition of the Eastern Churches
shows. These have priests who choose
by the gift of grace to keep their
celibacy—as do all the bishops—but
one also finds among them married
priests, whose merit is great. While
recommending ecclesiastical celibacy,
this Holy Council will not allow of
any modification of the different
discipline legitimately in force in the
Eastern Churches; with full affection
it exhorts the married men who have
been ordained priests to persevere in
their holy vocation and in the total
and generous gift of their lives to the
flock confided to them.' (Ch. 3, no.
16)
♦An account of an enquiry carried out
among married priests during the winter of
1965, which appeared in Proche-Orient
•Chretien, 1966, xvi, 4.
Replies received: ninety-seven, divided as
follows:
Six Orthodox: one Armenian, two
Greek, two Russian, one
French of Byzantine
rite.
Ninety-one Catholics: sixty-six Maronites, six­
teen Chaldean, eight By­
zantine rite, one Syriac.
Countries concerned: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan;
some Eastern Catholics
in Istanbul; Athens,
Paris.
Most of the replies received were in Arabic.
The translation (into the French from which
we have turned it into English) was made by
Padel Sidarus.
386
A number of Eastern bishops con­
tinue to have married priests in their
eparchies and consider this a useful
institution. The Maronite patriarch,
Paul-Peter Meushi, wrote on 27 Feb.
1964, that, while regarding virginity as
better in itself, not all could undertake
it. 'They would choose the priesthood
united with marriage.' 'Liberty itself
would decide the choice between celi­
bacy and marriage.' They would not
feel that they belonged to a second
grade of clergy but 'were conscious of
serving better and devoting themselves
to the service of souls. For if the train­
ing of the married clergy sometimes
leaves much to be desired, that is not
to say that it everywhere suffers from
the defects that one finds in some areas.
The difference is due to the varying
levels of culture and spiritual develop­
ment. That is why I agree that the
hierarchy ought to take special care of
this clergy. Thus, in continuing a tradi­
tion that has existed among us from
time immemorial, we should better the
lot of the married clergy, believing that
in those areas disinherited from the
Catholic world, the institution of a
permanent married diaconate, above all,
and then of a married priesthood can
in great part resolve the problems of
the apostolate, which face us with such
acuteness. . . . Married clergy and celi­
bate clergy alike would have no end in
view but Christ's will to save souls:
this salvation which is the lex ultima
et suprema of all priestly apostolate.
'Moreover marriage is a sacrament of
the Church, and a special grace of
sanctification is attached to it. Must
one discredit it in order to exalt another
sacrament: that of Orders? The "si vis"
of Matthew 19:17 echoes down the
ages as a call to a deep personal choice.
387
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW

And should one leave whole areas with­
out priests because one is unwilling to
agree to the marriage of a clergy which,
to speak only for ourselves, has ren­
dered appreciable services in the past
for the salvation of souls, and still does
so today? Should one allow entire
regions to be deprived of the spiritual
food of the word of God and the sacra­
ments of the Church in order to avoid
giving them a married clergy? Should
one leave these regions as a prey to
destructive ideologies so as not to put
them in the charge of married clergy?
This would mean to prefer thousands
of Christians to risk their eternal sal­
vation rather than to have married
priests. And yet the price of souls is
the blood of Christ! Is entrance to
heaven strictly dependent on a celibate
clergy?
'Having safeguarded the principles
we need to be realistic about their
application to a given set of circum­
stances, which often require—at the
risk of seeing the Church left as a mere
remnant of itself, despoiled by the
world and its spirit—this concrete
answer, which is traditional to the
venerable Eastern Churches which are
of apostolic origin. . . .'
The position of the married clergy in
the East
What is the life of the married clergy
in the East? What training are they
given? What role do they play? What
reforms would be desirable?
Only a widespread enquiry would
allow us to answer these questions.
Would it not be best to make one's
enquiries amongst those concerned?
During the winter of 1965 we under­
took this work and sent out a ques­
tionnaire to Catholic and Orthodox
married clergy. The answers came
chiefly from the Lebanon, Syria, Jordan;
from Iraq a professor of the Mosul
seminary, very well informed about the
local clergy, sent some information
about the country's 17 married Catholic
priests. Six Orthodox priests replied: 2
from Constantinople (1 Greek, T Ar­
menian), 1 from Athens, 3 from France
(2 Russians, 1 French of Byzantine rite).
Altogether there were 97 replies divided
as follows: 6 Orthodox (as above); 91
Catholics: 66 Maronites, 16 Chal­
deans, 8 Melkites, 1 of Syriac rite.
It was very difficult to obtain overall
statistics. No figure was available from
the Maronites. It appears that a third
of their diocesan clergy are married,
almost exclusively with village parishes, 4. Paul VI and Athenagoras I in Constantinople (A.P.)
though there are a few in the suburbs
at Beirut and in Tripoli in the Lebanon. , ii
■ X
Here are more complete figures for
Iraq, given with the comparative figures T"E1
for the rest of the clergy:
At the present time there are in
Iraq 227 priests, of whom 88 are "(.=,.; '.-.:■.'■$£ ":
married and 139 celibate. The break­
down is as follows:
i','*!:.rltSlp®:..i

married celibate total

Chaldean Catholics ... 16 92 108 ■-■■$.-
Syrian Catholics 1 38 39
Armenian Catholics ... 0 4 4
Greek Catholics 0 1 1
Total of Catholics 17 135 152
«?'
Nestorians 47 0 47
Jacobites 15 4 19

^^fil
Gregorians 7 0 7
Russian Orthodox ... 2 0 2
71 •% 75
Total of non-Catholics
* ■■""■*■■,■ "A ' S i * - ■'
88 139 227
Grand total:

X&"

5. Pope Paul at Ephesus (A.P.)

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6. The pope and the patriarch in St George's Orthodox Cathedral in Constantinople, together with members of the two hierarchies [Photo Giordani
 THE MARRIED EASTERN CLERGY
The Catholic married clergy are
divided as follows: 11 priests married
and ordained as Catholics (10 Chal­
deans, 1 Syrian); 6 priests ordained
with the Nestorians and later becoming
Catholics of Chaldean rite.
For the Greek Catholics [i.e. Mel-
kites], only the eparchy of Damascus
provided us with complete figures: 8
married priests, 14 celibate priests, 5
religious; total: 27. Of these 8 married
priests, 7 are in villages, 1 is in charge
of a parish of villagers in the town.
They were ordained between the ages
of 30 and 50 years. One is a widower
and continues to live in his parish.
Would it be an over-estimate to say
that among those Catholics rites which
have maintained the practice of ordain­
ing married men, these still constitute
about a third of the diocesan clergy?
All in all, it is an ageing clergy. Of
the 91 Catholics who replied 28 were
under 50, 63 over 50. In fact for the
last century the Catholics in the East
have concentrated on the recruitment
8. The Enthronement of the new Archbishop of Athens, Ieronymos Kotsonis and training of celibate clergy. The
(see Greek news) seminaries are schools where an ex­
cellent education is given practically
free. In one village in the Lebanon
(Bekaa) almost all the men and boys
have gone through the minor seminary
of their community, in this way obtain­
ing a secondary education. It would be
interesting to take a poll among the old
pupils of different Lebanese seminaries.
It would seem that about 7 per cent of
those who enter actually become priests.
Old seminarians often hold honourable
positions in the world: business men,
■yW f * i ™'*. .-■ 'f- officers, professors, lawyers, doctors,
engineers, civil servants. . . . The semi­
iZ*± naries thus play an important part in
the intellectual training of the country.
For long, in spite of inevitable 'wast­
age', which was accepted and foreseen,
the seminaries trained enough celibate
priests increasingly to take over the
service of the needs of the Christian
•i*
communities. However, after so many
years of secondary and higher educa­
tion, many found readaptation to the
country very difficult. There was also
the question of whether one should
389
9. The Saffron Monastery (Deir-U-Zafaran) in S.E. Turkey
(see article 'The Christians of South-East Turkey')
continue to ordain married men in
accordance with old custom, and es-
. pecially of whether one should leave
the existing married clergy to continue
without being too much concerned with
replacing them. In time, would not the
celibate clergy, as in Europe, end by
taking over all the pastoral work?
Moreover, considering the small size
of the Eastern dioceses, a praiseworthy
effort to improve the standards of the
scholastic and ritual training of diocesan
celibate clergy, under the influence of
the Oriental Congregation, which pro­
vides most of the funds, had produced
a twofold policy:
the suppression of the greater part
of the diocesan seminaries and concen­
tration on the central seminaries;
the establishment in each community
of one central seminary for that rite.
There is no question that this deve­
lopment has raised the scholastic level
of the seminaries, but it has also sup­
pressed the greater part of the diocesan
seminaries where the married men could
be trained at the smallest cost. Some
dioceses have, however, retained their
seminaries, as, for example, Tripoli,
where its seminary of Karm Saddeh
stops its secondary studies at the
brevet and accepts men who are mar­
ried or wish to marry before the dia-
conate; 1 all the students live under the
same regulations and follow the same
studies. Married men enjoy the one
privilege of spending every other week­
end in their homes.
Between the two wars, the Congre­
gation for Seminaries wished to impose
iWe should note that in the East (cf.
POC, 12, 1962) the rule used to be only to
admit to the priesthood monks, bound by
vow to celibacy, or married men. In this case
marriage had to be celebrated before the
diaconate.
For a priest, once ordained, it is impossible
to marry, or to remarry as a widower.
Following the Latin example, above all
since the 19th century, the Catholics have
developed a non-monastic celibate clergy.
Among the Orthodox these clergy are still
the exception: only those remain celibate
who one day envisage becoming bishops, as
was the case of. the young deacon Makarios,
who has since become the autocephalous
archbishop of Cyprus.
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
upon all candidates for the priesthood
the studies laid down by [canon] law.
This would have completely ruled out
the ordination of married men. The
Greek Catholic patriarchate then ob­
tained the right to give married men
a shortened training: when such men
present themselves as candidates for
the priesthood, they are brought to­
gether for two sessions, each of eight
months, to be given liturgical, moral,
theological, scriptural and pastoral
training. These studies are submitted
to examinations, and the results are
usually satisfactory.
The Maronite patriarchate has a
seminary for married men run on the
same lines, under the patronage of St
John Maron.
Among the 91 Catholic replies: a
few have undertaken the same ecclesias­
tical studies as celibate priests (among
these one who benefited from a bursary
at Salamanca); the younger ones have
done shortened studies in two years;
the rest have studied as they could: in
a religious house—and these are the
privileged—at the bishop's residence, or
with a neighbouring priest. For the
Chaldeans the fact of having learned in
youth the liturgical language with a
shammes (in principle a deacon, but
in fact often a simple village cantor)
sometimes suffices for the bishop to
suggest ordination, which is conferred
after a few months of rapid training:
three months, two years with the
bishop; a year in a monastery; two
years in a neighbouring village, three
months, a year with the patriarch; some
months with a 'not very well instructed'
priest.
Obviously such clergy are not of very
high intellectual standard nor highly
trained spiritually, but for long it suf­
ficed in the villages; knowing how to
read and write, knowing the liturgical
language (Syriac or Chaldean), the
priest was, in the old days, the most
cultivated man in his parish. . . . It
sufficed for a Christianity that was
firmly sustained by the sociological
structures of the country. The institu­
tion of the married priest, responsible
for the sacramental life of his flock,
has certainly contributed to the main­
tenance of the faith in Eastern
Christianity.
For the spiritual life the East, more
than the West, turns to the monks.
Everyone knows the part played by the
staretz in Slavonic spirituality. The
monk, whether priest or lay, was the
regular director of conscience for the
faithful. To this day Catholics confess
more readily to monks than to secular
clergy, even when celibate. The monks
were also the most willingly heard
preachers. The present Orthodox Coptic
patriarch, Cyril VI, once led a spiritual
renewal amongst students as a hermit
monk near Cairo. This priestly 'division
of labour' has preserved the spiritual
life, in spite of the intellectual deficien­
cies of the married parochial clergy.
The position has changed completely
in the last fifty years and above all in
the last twenty; education is spreading
to the villages. The car, electricity, and
above all the radio, are introducing the
whole countryside to modern life. There
is no longer such a thing as an isolated
house. Every beduin tent has at least
a transistor radio. The urban mentality
penetrates into the remotest country­
side. The priest no longer has any
influence if he is poorly educated or
humanly and spiritually untrained. He
is even looked down upon by the
better-educated young. The major diffi­
culty for the married Eastern clergy
ultimately lies here: in so far as they
are incapable of facing modern civiliza­
tion, they are no longer fitted to fulfil
their ministry.
And yet this clergy is worthy, honest,
apostolic and cares for the good of
souls.
Priestly vocation and marriage
What should we think of the priestly
vocation for the married man?
The term cannot have the full sense
given it by post-Tridentine theology
for celibate Latin clergy. However, 70
of these priests speak of having dreamt
of the priesthood before their marriage,
THE MARRIED EASTERN
and the greater number had agreed with
their fiancees to be ordained later:
— 'Yes, I had spent ten years in
the seminary and I proposed to her,
knowing that I should be ordained
a year later.'
— 'She and her parents were happy
that she should marry a priest' (mar­
riage just before ordination at 22).
— 'She agreed, even though she
knew that life would not be ma­
terially easy.'
— 'Yes, she helped me to undertake
it; she was very happy about it and
shared my ideas on the subject.'
— T was a seminarist and she
understood completely during the six
years of philosophy and theology
studies. She agreed fully and happily.'
— 'My first idea was the priesthood
without marriage, then, owing to
circumstances, I married, and was
then ordained. When I decided to
marry, my fiancee knew and was
in favour of the priesthood after
marriage.'
— 'While I was still quite small my
father said that he wanted me to be
a priest. When I had grown up
and married, I fulfilled my father's
wishes. . . . My wife insisted upon
my becoming a priest; she kept
saying to me, "A priest is like
Christ." '
— 'The fact of my being married,
especially, was in the way of my
becoming a priest. But she agreed in
the end and now she is quite happy
about my position.'
— 'She was a priest's daughter.'
— 'She always approved of my idea,
pressed me to accept the vocation,
and showed her willingness to over­
come all difficulties.'
— T got to know my wife in my
third year of theology. I was already
wearing the soutane. She agreed to
my ordination; she had regard for
the status of the priest, religiously
and socially.'
CLERGY
The greater number of replies came
from older vocations, and from a
simple milieu. The agreement of the
fiancee or wife was normal. Seeing the
low intellectual level of these clergy,
it is difficult nowadays for an educated
seminarist to find an educated fiancee.
Bachelor girls and university students
reject the idea of marrying a priest. 'I'd
prefer to be a nun', one of them
answered. What are the reasons for this
attitude? Probably, if motives were
analysed, one would find a great sense
of the sacred, developed on the lines
of Latin spirituality, which is very
widespread in the boarding schools; a
certain scorn of the married clergy,
who are too far below the cultural
level reached by these girls; and perhaps
the fear of a 'vocation' never confronted
and examined.
What motives impel these young
married men towards the priesthood?
They are numerous and varied. The 70
who thought of being priests before
they married have had, for the most
part, a 'child's or adolescent's vocation':
piety, love of the scriptures, desire to
save souls. These are the reasons that
they give to describe their vocation:
— 'I spent nine years in the semi­
nary. I left it because I saw some
bad examples among the clergy. Four
years after coming out I married [at
32]. After our marriage my wife knew
that I wanted to become a priest.
For a long time she objected. The
bishops of and of en­
couraged me towards the priesthood,
but I had difficulties. The bishop of
helped me to overcome all the
difficulties and I made up my mind.
I spent two years at the seminary for
married men. My wife was always
against it, but her father is a parish
priest and persuaded her to agree.'
— 'I made the decision under the
influence of grace.'
— 'To serve God and souls' (this
reply was given four times).
— 'The presence of one of my
parents, a parish priest, whose Mass
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
I served. My parents' sympathy for
priests and their encouragement.'
— 'From early youth I saw in the
priest a man of God; I was amazed
by his power and his mission. These
impressions were hidden in the depth
of my being from the age of 8 until
one of my teachers discovered them.
The idea remained unfulfilled because
there was no one to encourage me.
Then I learnt that a boy had been
sent to the seminary; I longed to find
a way of going there too. I asked
the parish priest if I could go to
the seminary, but I didn't succeed.
I was 13 when a priest of my village
asked me if I wanted to be a priest.
I greeted the question with joy, be­
cause I was thirsting for the priest­
hood. I then went to the bishop. He
accepted me and sent me to the
central seminary.' In conversation
this priest said that his parents had
been opposed to it because he was
the only son. He suggested to them
that he would marry and then be
ordained. They readily agreed.
— T became a seminarist at 13, in
1912. Then there was the war. I
resumed in 1938.' In the meantime
he married at 27. He was led back to
the priesthood by 'the work of the
parishes in saving souls', 'and by my
wife, who encouraged me in this
direction'.
— 'The lack of priests, which brings
about spiritual impoverishment in
the villages.'
— 'After my marriage [at 18] I went
through all the stages of life and
found them empty. Then I thought
of consecrating the rest of my life to
God [ordination at 40]. This was
under the influence of the Holy Bible,
where one reads, "What doth it profit
a man to gain the whole world and
lose his own soul", and also: "I
thirst".'
— 'My grandfather was a priest. He
had everyone's confidence. He wanted
me to succeed him in the priesthood.'
— 'My father was a priest. At 11
he sent me to the monastery of
to be a religious. I stayed there two-
and-a-half years and left because of
my health.' This man married at 23,
and twenty-six years later was or­
dained because the bishop of
'needed and wished it'. For thirty
years (he is now 80) he has been the
priest in a little parish which is chiefly
Moslem.
— 'I had the intention [of being a
priest] but my parents opposed it be­
cause I was the only son. Later [30
years after his marriage] Fr , a
Capuchin, strongly encouraged me to
receive the priesthood.' He is now
86 and continues to serve a parish of
1,000 inhabitants.
— 'I thought of becoming a priest
for the first time at 13 and since the
idea came to me it has never left me'
(married at 32 and priest at 33).
— 'Since I was 15 I have thought
of the priesthood' (married at 33,
priest at 36).
— T was at the monastery of
and never dreamt of marriage, but
my father's situation [a priest of 50]
forced me to go to America because
his salary was so small. At 20 I was
married abroad where all my children
were born. When he was about to
die my father asked me to come to
him; I came home. My priestly voca­
tion was not lost; at 37 I was or­
dained. I can only think that provi­
dence cared for me and called me
back to my vocation after so many
years. My wife [a Spaniard] does not
oppose it, because she is a genuine
Catholic'
— 'Since my childhood, because I
lived in a priestly setting, my grand­
father, father, paternal uncle and
cousin were all priests. When I was
young I served my grandfather's
Mass, and my father's. This atten­
dance, which I loved, had an influence
on me. I followed the advice of my
grandfather, whom I loved very much
and who loved me'. I accepted this
call in my grandfather's lifetime and
he was very happy.' (Married at 20,
ordained shortly after, this priest
THE MARRIED EASTERN
serves two parishes, one of 200, the
other of 700 people.)
— 'Under the influence of my eccle­
siastical family.' (This is an Ortho­
dox, Greek-speaking parish priest of
5,000 families, helped by three other
married priests.)
— 'I had the idea most strongly at
the age of 30 [he was married at 23].
With a strong will and a great desire
to become a priest, I prayed a great
deal to become one and I offered a
novena to St Joseph, the chaste, to
further my vocation.' (Ordained at
33, he is now 63.)
— 'I thought of the priesthood
through seeing souls being lost and
falling into the clutches of Satan.
From that came my strong desire to
become a priest and "fish" for souls
by the best means possible.' (Or­
dained at 23, three months after his
marriage, he is now 39.)
— 'I thought of the priesthood
before my marriage [at 19] but hesi­
tated because I didn't know whether
it was my vocation or not. My wife
went frequently to church. She ap­
proved my idea and encouraged me
to accept the vocation. After the birth
of my eldest child, I overcame all
hesitation; I asked God for his grace
and help and to show me what was
right for my own and others' salva­
tion. My father was a parish priest
and I always accompanied him in the
exercise of his ministry. I always
aspired to succeed him. Modest as it
was, his library contained numerous
spiritual books. I communicated
nearly every day, and when I had
examined my vocation I asked to be
admitted to the seminary and was
accepted.' (Ordained at 25, this priest
of 61 was priest of a parish for
twenty-four years and is now chap­
lain to an orphanage. He has seven
children.)
— 'The desire to save souls and the
lack of priests in some parishes.'
— 'I thought of it well before my
marriage [at 23] because of the
absence of a priest in our parish and
CLERGY
the desire to save souls.' (Ordained
at 26; now 54, he has a parish of
600 Christians in a milieu of 3,000
Moslems. He teaches in the school.)
— 'The desire to celebrate Mass, to
hold the Eucharist in my hands so as
to place it in the hearts of the faithful
and nourish them with the body of
Jesus.' (Married at 32, ordained at
43, now, at 57, priest of two moun­
tain parishes.)
— 'The love of the clerical life,
when I was a 10-year-old. When I
was more mature, the desire to serve
God and the Church and to save
souls impelled me to become a priest.'
(Married at 26, priest at 37, now 46,
five children, priest of a parish of
1,200 inhabitants.)
— 'Since I was clothed in the sou­
tane at 12, I have had the firm desire
to become a priest, in spite of all the
difficulties in the way of my vocation.
My father is a parish priest and I
am the youngest of his children.
Every day he asked me to hold the
thurible at Mass and so I learnt to
serve Mass. I assisted at Mass daily.
Since then I have aspired to become
a priest because I wanted to acquire
the religious qualities which are the
noblest on earth. When I made my
wife's acquaintance I was a semi­
narist. She understood my position
and accepted it.' (Aged 48.)
A similar enquiry, if carried out
among celibate priests, would elicit
much the same replies; the reasons that
impelled married men to the priesthood
do not, it seems, differ greatly from
those that move celibates. It is indeed
the same call of Christ: 'The harvest is
great . . .', or 'Come with me, and I
will make you fishers of men. . . .', or
again: 'I have pity on the multitude . . . ' .
Another motive should be under­
lined : the immediate needs of a parish,
made concrete by the call of the bishop:
— 'The bishop asked the parish
priest for a seminarist. The priest
chose me.' (53, married and ordained
at 22.)
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
— 'In 1934 my brother, who was
our parish priest, died. I was then
teaching in the school. The parish-
• ioners asked me to replace my
brother as priest.' That is how, having
been married at 29, he became a
priest at 40. He is now 69 and has a
parish of 500 people.
Such a case is more frequent than
one might suppose. Faced with a priest-
less parish, the bishop or the parish­
ioners look around for a 'man of good
will', capable of taking over the res­
ponsibility. The man chosen had perhaps
not thought about it before, but he
accepts and fulfils his charge conscien­
tiously and often with great zeal, as we
shall see later.
Among the ninety-seven cases col­
lected only one unhappy man is noted
by a correspondent:
— 'No educational certificate, no
elementary studies even. . . . Some
members of his family and two or
three influential people in the village
asked the bishop to ordain him,
because it was an honour for the
family. For a few months he studied
with a neighbouring priest who was
himself very little educated. On the
day of ordination as deacon, in his
394
own village, the whole population
tried to prevent his ordination be­
cause they thought him unworthy.
The bishop had to call in the
police. . . . His ordination to the
priesthood took place in the episcopal
town. He lives with his own family
in a village where there are three
priests. He is the most ignorant of
the three. He says Mass daily but
never preaches, teaches catechism,
hears confessions or administers the
sacraments. For long he was very
poor and did manual work to keep
his family. Now his sons contribute
to his maintenance and he constantly
visits local families, asking for money.
He has become one of the richest
men in the village.'
In this case the bishop seems to have
shown a lack of prudence in not follow­
ing St Paul's advice to Timothy: 'Lay
not hands lightly upon any man' (1
Tim. 5:22). The liturgy itself makes
provision for the laity having its word
to say at the moment of ordination of
sacred ministers. . . . But this case
remains entirely exceptional; one must
be careful not to generalize from it.
Continued in next issue: The Apostolate
and Problems of Married Life.
Orthodoxy in Alaska
THE CENTENARY OF THE SALE TO AMERICA*
A hundred years ago, on 18 October
1867, the Russians handed over the
province of Alaska to the United States.
It was sold for the surprisingly trivial
sum of $7,200,000.
The Russians, in their steady expan­
sion across Siberia, first reached the
coast of the Pacific Ocean in 1639. But
it was not until a century later, in 1741,
that Alaska was sighted by a Dane in
the Russian naval service, Vitus Bering.
During the years that followed Cossack
traders quickly began to exploit the
exceedingly rich trade in furs and other
skins, and a permanent settlement was
eventually established on Kodiak Island
in 1784. At that date the nearest settle­
ment of Europeans on the west coast
of the American continent was the tiny
Spanish outpost of San Francisco,
founded eight years earlier.
The organized life of the Orthodox
Church in Alaska begins in 1794, when
a party of ten monks from the cele­
brated monastery of Valamo or Valaam,
on Lake Ladoga close to the Finnish
border, arrived at Kodiak. The leader
of the mission, Archimandrite Iosaf,
was recalled to Irkutsk in 1798 to be
consecrated bishop for Alaska, but he
was drowned on the return journey
when the ship went down with every­
one on board; and it was some forty
years before a new bishop was ap­
pointed. The history of Orthodoxy in
Alaska is dominated in particular by
two great figures: the saintly Father
German, one of the original group of
monks from Valamo, who died as a
hermit on Spruce Island in 1837; and
*On the history of Alaska under the Rus­
sians, see Hector Chevigny, Russian America:
The Great Alaskan Adventure, 1741-1867
(London 1965): a popular account, highly
readable, but based on original research and
a close knowledge of the primary sources.
395
the outstanding missionary John Venia-
minov (1797-1879), better known by
the name Innocent which he adopted
on becoming a monk.
Veniaminov's long years of service in
Russian America began in 1824, when
he was appointed parish priest on the
island of Unalaska, off the Aleutian
peninsula; in 1834 he was transferred
to New Archangel (Sitka), the admini­
strative centre of Alaska. At first a
married priest, after the death of his
wife he took monastic vows and in 1840
he was consecrated bishop of Kamchat­
ka and the Aleutian Islands, a vast
diocese embracing not only Alaska but
a large section of Eastern Siberia as
well. His last visit to Alaska was in
1854, but he continued to work in
Eastern Siberia until his appointment
in 1868 as Metropolitan of Moscow.
Scientific as well as pastoral in his
interests, he made a close study of the
language and customs of the native
Aleutians to whom he ministered, and
his works still remain a primary
authority on the subject. The twenty-
eight years of his missionary episcopate
wholly transformed the position of Or­
thodoxy in Alaska. When he arrived in
1824, in the entire immense region
there were no more than five priests,
none young and one deranged. Virtually
no missionary work was undertaken
among the natives, except by Father
German. When Alaska was sold in
1867, there were 12,000 native Christ­
ians, some forty-three communities with
churches or permanent chapels, and
about fifty priests. He had built a
cathedral at Sitka, and he also opened
a seminary there, but this was later
transferred to Yakutsk in Siberia.
The end of Russian political rule in
Alaska did not mean the end of the
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
religious connection. While Metropo­
litan of Moscow, Bishop Innocent
founded an Orthodox Missionary
Society, which continued to send out
priests and money until 1917. Apart
from churches, the Orthodox diocese
in Alaska at the end of the 19th
century maintained three or four or­
phanages and seventeen schools: in
1887, for example—-twenty years after
the sale to America—far more money
was spent on educational work in the
territory by the Orthodox Church than
by the government of the United States.
The situation changed drastically
after the 1917 Revolution. No more
clergy or funds could come from Russia.
The Orthodox communities in the rest
of America—newly established for the
most part, and themselves confronted
by problems of alarming magnitude—
had little or no resources to spare for
their brothers in Alaska. Alaskan Or­
thodoxy passed into a period of decline.
The schools were closed, priests grew
old, died, and for the most part were
not replaced. Parishes were forced to
subsist for many years without a single
visit from a priest. The native Christians
often joined other groups, especially
the Baptists or the Adventists. But a
surprising number, despite their isola­
tion and the desperate pastoral neglect,
retained a touching loyalty to their
Orthodox faith.
What is the present situation of
Alaskan Orthodoxy in this centenary
year? A revealing picture is provided
in recent articles by Mrs Sophie Kou-
lomzin, from the staff of St Vladimir's
Seminary, New York, who visited
Alaska in September-October 1966 (see
The Orthodox Church for December
1966 and May 1967; and the Russian
Orthodox Journal for February-March-
April 1967).
Much t h a t she has to relate is far
from encouraging. There are today
about ninety 'nominal parishes'. These
are served by a total of fourteen priests,
eleven of whom have no theological
training while two are of very great
age. Wherever she went, Mrs Koulom-
zin heard the complaints, 'Why does
the Church forget us? Our priests and
bishops do not help u s ! ' At Sitka she
found the Orthodox cathedral in ruins,
burnt down in a recent fire and not •S
Si
rebuilt. 'The "Russian Mission" build­
ing, in the chapel of which services are
held since the cathedral burnt down, . . . <5>
a
is still furnished the way it originally o
was and is practically unrepaired and
unpainted since Russian days. Faded
portraits of Russian tsars and bishops 05
look down from the walls; ceilings sag
and peel, a smell of dampness prevails,
and even the cockroaches moving their
whiskers in the warm dry places behind
the stove seemed to speak to me in o
Russian.' Yet the situation is a little
better than in the recent past. A t a
dinner in Sitka in Mrs Koulomzin's
honour, attended by some sixty people, a
(SI
one of the guests said, 'Forty years ago
there would have been at least 200
present; a few years ago, there might
have been just twenty—so you can
figure where we stand today. . . .'
The saddest example of the decay of
Orthodox life which Mrs Koulomzin
encountered was in the village of Kenai.
'As my plane prepared to come down I
saw, right in the centre of the village,
a beautiful little Russian church domi­
nating all other buildings. Where are
the people? I wondered.' There was no
priest, but she had been given the
address of a deacon. He was discovered
with some difficulty. 'We found the
deacon in a miserable looking little hut, P
+->
of
standing in the middle of a completely
'a
littered up back yard. He was a tiny
and very old man. I showed him the 1
Tl
letter from the Metropolitan's office \ <U
XI
and explained that I was looking for
people interested in Sunday School 3 >, K
o. re
work. "No children. All grown up. a
People leave. People don't come Q
to church any more. No Sunday o
< ■ rea
School. . . .", he muttered. "Will there
be a service tomorrow on Sunday?"
I asked. "Yes, yes, there will be a
service, but people ,d°n't come." So 1-1
we agreed I'd come*'to the service at
10 o'clock and perhaps someone would
turn up. . . . N e x t morning I attended u
the church service obednitza served by o
 ORTHODOXY IN ALASKA
the deacon. He did it in a dignified way,
fully vested, in Slavonic, that he had
learned in his childhood from Russian
missionaries, reading and chanting all
responses himself.' Besides Mrs Kou-
lomzin, there was a congregation of
six, two of whom had been specially
invited there to meet her. 'And yet,
there are many, many Orthodox people
in the village and the surrounding area
and many of them are good Orthodox
families who sincerely feel that they
are Orthodox.'
The Kenai parish had previously been
served by a greatly loved priest, Fr
Paul Shadura, 'who had come as a
reader from Russia in the 1900s. He
had served as a priest in the parish for
about forty years, receiving no salary,
and working as a fisherman for six days
of the week. . . . Father Shadura did it
all himself: served on Sundays, married,
baptized, confessed, buried, painted the
church, built the fences around the
church, repaired the school, taught
children.' When he died, there had been
no other priest to take his place. For a
time the reader had tried to keep the
parish together; but then he too had
died, and with him the life of the
parish had died also.
Not that the picture was everywhere
as gloomy as this. On the remote island
of St Paul, for example, Mrs Koulomzin
found a village of some 300 Orthodox
Aleutians, with a 'beautiful white
church', served by a resident priest born
on a nearby island, a married man with
eight children. Here the traditional Or­
thodox customs, taught by the Rus­
sian missionaries, are still faithfully
observed.
'In every home I entered there was
a large icon hanging cross-wise in the
corner, with a vigil light in front of it.
Everyone makes the sign of the cross
as they enter the room, or as they sit
down for a meal. Whomever we met on
the road, would approach Father, ask
for his blessing, and kiss his hand.
'I stayed at the home of the choir
director. He is justifiably proud of his
large and well trained choir. They sing
mostly in Slavonic, a little in English
E
and a little in Aleut. The church looks
exactly like the village churches I re­
member in my childhood in Russia—
no pews, white and gold decorations,
many candles, many vigil lights. Fr
Lestenkoff [the parish priest] never went
to a Seminary: 'All I know—God
taught me. . . .", he says. And God
taught him well. When asked why they
have no pews, he answers: "A church
is not a theatre, we don't come to
watch a play, but to pray. And how can
we pray sitting down, when we look at
the image of the Crucified Lord? The
priest does not celebrate sitting down,
does he?"
'Church school meets in a small
building three times a week—after
public school is over. Father teaches
the eldest group, a volunteer teacher
and matushka [i.e. the priest's wife]
the other two. . . .
T left the island with real nostalgia.
As Father gave me his blessing and the
people who came to see me off waved
goodbye, I felt that here, on the further­
most tip of our world, I had found real
church life, a real Orthodox parish. I
belonged here. Truly, I felt, the Ortho­
dox Church is one, the world over.'
Another cheering visit was to
Tyonek, where some 98 per cent of
the population is Orthodox. Formerly
it was one of the poorest Alaskan
fishing villages, but the discovery of oil
has brought sudden wealth: in 1965
the village rented part of its land to
an oil company for $12,000,000 (nearly
twice as much as the USA paid for
the whole of Alaska!). New homes and
a school have been built; and the com­
munity is now able to support a full-
time priest of its own, Fr Simeon
Oskoloff, a young native Alaskan and
a recent graduate from St Tikhon's
Seminary, Pennsylvania. 'The chapel of
St Nicolas, that for many years re­
mained the run-down, priestless chapel
of the unfortunately typical Alaskan
parish, has been kept out of affection
and loyalty for its past. But it would be
difficult to recognize it, moved to a new
stone foundation, completely repaired
and redecorated, with a new belfry. . . .'
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
Still more encouraging for the future
is the work being undertaken at
Chemawa High School near Salem,
Oregon. This is a vast boarding school
for children drawn from all the Alaskan
villages where there are no high schools.
'The school is a kind of institutional
city within itself, institutionally bleak
and nothing done to make it attractive
or home-like. But for many students it
is a first contact with the more civilized
conditions of life.' Out of about 1,500
students, some 200 are Orthodox, and
since 1966 they have had a full-time
chaplain, a Russian, Fr Nicolas Sanin.
'Fr Nicolas Sanin is in his mid-
seventies, but with the gaiety, enthu­
siasm, and warm-heartedness of a
young man. Every day he conducts
three hours of classroom religious in­
struction and then spends three hours
more visiting the dormitories and talk­
ing to students. He organized a student
"church council", with a warden, a
choir director, readers, altar boys, and
a sisterhood for the care of the chapel.
Since the students like singing in
Slavonic, yet do not read it, he spends
hours every day transcribing Slavonic
liturgical texts in English characters.
Besides services on Sunday, he cele­
brates the Divine Liturgy, every time
there is a feast on a weekday, at 6
a.m., and the attendance is, as he says,
"heart-warming". . . . If the work at
Chemawa School is kept up it can
become a centre from which the better
educated Alaskan youth will return to
their homes, having learned to know
and love their Orthodox faith.'
The severe shortage of priests in
Alaska naturally places great respon­
sibility on the church readers; and
attempts are now being made to give
them a more thorough foundation for
their work. Mrs Koulomzin writes:
'Even with the greatest optimism it
is clear that for many years to come a
large number of parishes will be served
by visiting priests only, especially since
in most cases the community cannot
provide a salary. Under such circum­
stances the reader becomes the spiritual
398
leader of the parish. He celebrates
services on Sunday morning, he in­
structs the children, he keeps in touch
with the visiting priest and assists him
when he does come. Today most of the
men and women who serve as readers
are those who for some reason have a
little knowledge, however slight, of
Slavonic, although the congregation
does not understand it. It is very
important for the future of the church
to draw the young and better educated
generation of the Orthodox people in
Alaska into the work of the church.'
With this end in view, a special
eight-week course is being held at St
Vladimir's Seminary this year, at which
ten young Alaskans, men and women,
are to receive training as Church
readers.
'St Vladimir's Seminary is an ideal
place for such training, with its all-
English church services, its outstanding
faculty, its senior students who can
serve as teachers and guides, and the
proximity of many centres of Church
life—monasteries, convents, teachers'
conferences, large and well organized
parishes, etc. As the Church life of
Alaska grows stronger it will be possible
to hold such courses there, but at this
stage there is no place in Alaska where
young people could get inspired by the
vision of liturgical life in its fullness
and beauty, by a sense of the vitality
and meaningfulness of Orthodoxy.'
But despite places such as St Paul's
Island, Tyonek, and Chemawa, despite
the St Vladimir's course for readers,
the general outlook for Orthodoxy in
Alaska in this centenary year remains
bleak. Much indeed must be done to
make up for past losses and for fifty
years' neglect. The newly consecrated
Bishop Theodosius (Lazor), appointed
on 1 July 1967 to take charge of the
diocese of Sitka and Alaska, has before
him a severe and challenging mission.
He will need a double portion of the
spirit of Bishop ./Innocent, his great
predecessor.
KALLISTOS TIMOTHY WARE
The Christians of 'south-East Turkey
A JOURNEY THROUGH URFA (EDESSA), MARDIN AND MIDYAT
Most people in the West who remember the exchange of populations with Greece in
the early 1920s tend to think that the only Christians remaining in Turkey are the
Orthodox of Istanbul, with the oecumenical patriarch at their head. Possibly they
know that there are Armenians there and some Catholics, Latin or Eastern. But
few people know about the remnants of other ancient Churches, chiefly the Syrian
Orthodox (Jacobites), who still live in the ancient Christian centres not far from
Edessa in the 'Upper Mesopotamia' of south-east Turkey, very near to the Syrian
border, as well as over the borders in Iraq and Syria. On 3 October 1966 Fr X.
Jacob, AA, gave a very interesting account in La Croix of a journey he made to
this region. The editor has kindly let us give a shortened but substantial version of
this article, and supplied us with the photograph (plate 9) of one of the oldest of
Christian monasteries at Deir-U-Zafaran. (Ed.)
'But certainly this was the place they willingly showed us, was very well
where Abraham was born', said the preserved. At the end one could still
guardian of the grotto in Urfa, and an see the beautiful semi-circular apse and
English traveller in the last century choir. The body of the church was still
was assured by the inhabitants that divided into three naves by two rows
they possessed the cradle where Abra­ of columns. In the middle of the cen­
ham lay. Thus the old Arabic name, tral nave a large generator had been
Roha or Orha, now Urfa, that was installed. We learned later that this
given to Edessa, has given rise to this had been the Armenian cathedral of
local legend of Abraham's birth. the town.
We looked everywhere for another
But we were not here for this but
church which might still be open for
to visit a region that was an ancient
Christian worship, but there was none.
centre of Eastern Christianity, where
The Christianity of Edessa hardly ex­
once there were nourishing Christian
ists any longer. A few days later we
Churches.
learned from Bishop Dolapeanu in Mar-
Urfa-Edessa din that only three or four Syro-
Urfa-Edessa lies 85 kilometres east Jacobite families remain in Urfa, but
of the Euphrates. From the top of its neither church nor priest.
citadel there is a wonderful view over
the whole town and the immense plains Mardin: Metropolitan See of the
Jacobites of Turkey
of Mesopotamia. Opposite us, among
the anthill of small houses blanched by The same evening we arrived in
the heat, rose one large building out­ Mardin, about 180 kilometres further
standing by its almost cubic mass. east. At the entrance to the town an
When we arrived in front of it we were official notice read: 'Mardin. Inhabi­
told that it was the electricity station. t a n t s : 31,000. Altitude: 1,450 metres'.
We remarked that it was a very fine In spite of this altitude it was ex­
monument for an electricity station; tremely hot.
they replied that it was an old church. From the 8th century Mardin was a
This was no surprise, for the beautiful metropolitan see of the Jacobite
pillars that still decorated the facade Church; and still today Jacobites are
showed that this building was made for numerous in the town and its neigh­
a nobler purpose. The interior, which bourhood. In contrast to Urfa, Mardin
399
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
has many Christian communities of
different rites and many churches. The
Syro-Jacobite community even has a
bishop, resident in the monastery of
the town, Bishop Hanna Dolapeanu.
We were able to have an interview
with him, and a large part of our in­
formation about Mardin and its
neighbourhood comes from him or his
secretary.
The old man - he is 85 years old -
received us smilingly in his office,
where he was surrounded by a dozen
boys whom he was teaching their
prayers and the rudiments of Christian
doctrine. He willingly interrupted the
lesson to answer our questions and the
children were not sorry. He even spoke
a few words of French, but after the
forms of greeting, the conversation
continued in Turkish, to the accom­
paniment, of course, of the inevitable
Turkish coffee.
We must recall that Mardin was
once the residence of the patriarch of
all the Jacobites. Now he lives at
Damascus.
At the present day there are four
Syro-Jacobite churches in Mardin, each
served by a priest. The Jacobites form
the most important group among the
town's Christian minority. Round
about the town there are certain vil­
lages with still numerous communities
and their own churches and parish
priests; while on the other hand some
villages only have a few families and a
neighbouring priest visits them from
time to time. Seven kilometres to the
east of the town a monastery still ex­
ists, with a small apostolic school. This
we were to visit a few days later.
There are other Christian communi­
ties in Mardin beside the Jacobites.
The Catholic Syrians have a church
built in 1865. There is also a Chaldean
church and an Armenian Catholic
Church.
And while we are on statistics, let us
add immediately that—apart from the
Jacobites of Midyat who have their
own bishop, whom we saw a few days
later—Bishop Dolapeanu is in charge
of all the Jacobites of Turkey, even
those in Istanbul. In spite of the size
of the territory, the flock is small. It
exists only in this region of Upper
Mesopotamia: a parish at Diyerbakir,
another at Elazig and at Adiyaman;
and finally some scattered families iso­
lated in many villages of the region,
and some other families who have re­
cently settled in Ankara.
After this much of our time was
spent in visiting various churches in
the town, large and small, old and
newly built, Armenian, Chaldean,
Syriac. But, large or small, of whatever
rite, they all had the same squat little
tower, hexagonal at the base and with
a single bell. On the other hand the
entrance door was always richly carved,
in the same style as the entrances to
the local mosques. Inside, too, they
were alike, with almost identical
decoration, rather over-ornate and
archaic.
Pastoral questions: catechism,
language
When we visited one of these
churches about thirty children were
gathered in a neighbouring room
where they too were learning prayers,
chant and the first elements of the
Christian religion. Their master, a lay­
man, first made one or other of them
read some verses of the Gospel in
Turkish and in Syriac. Then he made
them sing two hymns in chorus, so
that we should appreciate their musical
talent. In fact these clear voices made
the hymn resound in a strongly ac­
cented rhythm, and with a constant
fortissimo, much amplified by the walls
and vaults of cut stone, and showed
that the youth of this parish was full
of life and spirit.
[The young priest then spoke to
them over a cup of coffee about this
and other parishes and their problems.]
Generally speaking it is during the
summer holidays that religious instruc­
tion is given in this region. During the
school year the children hardly have
the time, but during the long summer
months they meet like this every after­
noon, sometimes in the morning too, in
CHRISTIANS O F SOUTH-EAST TURKEY
these large vaulted rooms, sheltered
from the noise of the street and the
sweltering heat outside. There they
learn prayers and catechism by heart.
It is not always easy, because, apart
from the questions of time and perse­
verance, there is also that of language.
Their liturgical books are written in
Syriac or Chaldean; some in Arabic
also. But the official language is Tur­
kish, which everyone knows, which is
learnt at school, but which is only used
r a r e l y - w i t h people who do not know
Arabic, which is the normal language
of the area. In the past, religious ser­
vices were entirely in Arabic, but now
the sermon (when there is one) and a
large part of the readings - the Epistles
and Gospel - are translated into Tur­
kish.
The monastery of Deir-U-Zafaran
A few hours east of Mardin lies one
of the most ancient monasteries of the
Christian world, Deir-U-Zafaran, the
'Monastery of Saffron', the 'yellow
monastery'. We were received by the
prior, Fr Gabriel, who was our friendly
guide through the monastery: a great
quadrilateral, enclosing an internal
court surrounded by a cloister. For
centuries the monastery was the sum­
mer residence of the Jacobite patriarch
of Mardin, and, in its time, held up to
sixty monks. Today there are only
three. But nowadays they give hospi­
tality to old people and those who are
alone, and have organized a sort of
apostolic school with twenty-two pupils
between the ages of 10 and 14.
The father prior gladly showed us
the antiquities of his monastery: an­
cient wooden doors, finely carved or
encrusted, capitals with luxuriant foli­
age, and told us of the great men,
bishops and monks, who had made this
monastery famous: all things to be ad­
mired and appreciated, but it was diffi­
cult not to compare past glories with
its present state, and to wish for more
401
life and more preoccupation with the
apostolate and the future.
Midyat: the only Turkish town with a
Christian majority
[After a journey of 100 kilometres
eastwards in a crowded bus, they came
to Midyat.] It is a small town of 7,000
inhabitants, but which has the distinc­
tion of being the only Turkish town to
my knowledge with a Christian major­
ity. 5,500 are Jacobite Christians. It is
the residence of the second Jacobite
bishop of Turkey: Bishop Hanna
Ephrem Bilguitche. Our first visit was
naturally to him. He is an old man of
75 years and could not have received
us more amiably and simply. His dio­
cese includes 20,000 Jacobites living in
the villages around Midyat. Forty
priests, mostly young, are his helpers.
There is even in this diocese, further to
the east, a women's monastery, Deir-ul-
Amer, where the only three Jacobite
nuns in Turkey live; and a monastery
of men, also with three inhabitants.
They, like those of Deir-U-Zafaran,
conduct an apostolic school where a
score of boys are prepared to take over
the work in the surrounding parishes.
In the town of Midyat itself there
are five churches, each with its priest,
which we visited. All but one were old.
Some had once suffered the depreda­
tions of Tamerlane. But during the
last five or ten years all had been re­
stored, and very well restored, or
rather renewed; one could almost say
modernized. There had been an elimina­
tion of everything superfluous, or simply
old and baroque, a seeking after sim­
plicity and neatness. Even without
much talk with the population, one
could see that it was a living, active
community which knew how to do
something for its Church, for whom
Christianity is not only a pious tradi­
tion and memories to keep, but a life
to preserve and develop.
XAVIER JACOB, AA

EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
NOTE ON A NEW OFFICE OF ST PETER*
The pastoral supplement Ho Ephi-
merios (The Parish Priest) of the
official review of the Greek Church,
Ekklesia, for 15 April 1966 (vol. ix,
1966, no. 8, pp. 308-330) publishes a
new 'Office of the glorious and most
renowned apostle and first coryphaeus
Peter', for 28 August. In making an
office on this date for St Peter alone,
the author says in a note (p. 326) that
it is in agreement with 'some ancient
synaxaria'. The 29 June is consecrated
to the feast of the 'glorious and most
renowned apostles and first coryphaei
Peter and Paul'.
This office, published with the appro­
bation of the Holy Synod of the
Church of Greece, has been composed
by a monk of Mount Athos, Gerasimos
Mikrayannanitis, hymnographer of the
oecumenical patriarchate.
The office takes from ancient manu­
scripts a whole group of expressions
which underline the role of Peter.
These expressions had disappeared
from (printed) editions of Greek liturgi­
cal books, including that drawn up in
Rome in 1899 under the direction of
the Congregation of Propaganda. Car­
dinal Pitra had remarked on it long
ago in his book on Greek hymno-
graphy. The greater part of these ex­
pressions had remained in use in the
Slavonic and Rumanian liturgical
books. We will note the chief of those
phrases which do not appear in the
Greek printed editions.
At Vespers
— 'Peter, unbreakable rock of the
Church.'
— Having confessed Christ through
the revelation of the Father 'you
have received from the Father full­
ness of authority over men'.
♦This note appeared in Proche-Orient
Chretien, vol. xvi, 2-3, 1966, from which it is
translated. E.J.B.F.
— 'You have become, O Peter, the
occupant of the chief see among
the apostles (protokathedros).'
— 'Supreme among the apostles'
(akrotis).
— 'The Church's foundation-stone.'
— 'Unshakeable foundation of godli­
ness.'
— 'Faithful steward of the riches of
grace.'
— 'You who will be seated beside the
Saviour at the hour of judgement.'
— 'Chief (prokritos) of the apostles,
you who sit on the first throne
(protothrones).'
— 'Peter, chief of the apostles, rock
of the faith. . . . Hail, basis of the
Church and unshakeable founda­
tion, herald of God, you who have
the keys of the kingdom of heaven.'
(The expression 'the rock of the
faith' recurs often and is found in the
Roman edition. The phrase 'having
the keys' comes many times in the new
office.)
— 'Supreme (akrotis) among the
apostles and minister (diakonos)
of the new covenant.'
— ' . . . Having received the revelation
from the Father, you confessed
Christ as the Son of the living
God, seated on the same throne
[as his Father]. For this is surely
why you have heard the Lord say
to you: "You are Peter and upon
this rock I will build my Church
and the gates of hell shall not pre­
vail against her".'
— 'Most blessed apostle, keep us in
this good confession [of faith] so
that we may obtain eternal
treasure.'
— 'Hail, foundation of the apostles.
— , 'Most blessed Peter, sun of a
thousand fires, that rose from
NEW OFFICE O F ST PETER
Sion, and that illumines the uni­
verse with the light of truth by
which the night of untruth is dis­
pelled.'
At the Orthros:
— 'Great apostle, unflawed rock of
the venerable Church . . . , open
for us the gates of the kingdom,
divine Peter, you who have re­
ceived from Christ the keys of
grace.'
— 'You who have shone in the West
and have contended [for the faith]
in Rome. . . .'
— 'You who occupy the first place
(protokathedros) among the
apostles, foundation-stone of the
Church, as the Saviour clearly
foretold. . . .'
BYZANTINE LIBRARIES—II
PATRIARCHAL LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA
Ptolemy Soter is known to have
begun a collection of books in ancient
Egypt but Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the
famous hellenistic patron of learning
and establisher of the great Alexandrian
libraries, was the real friend of literary
circles. He not only established the two
libraries at Alexandria-—the larger in
the Brucheum quarter, and the smaller
in the Serapeum quarter—but it was
also he who had the Hebrew Old
Testament translated into Greek, known
as the Septuagint version.
The two libraries, known respectively
as the 'mother' and 'daughter' libraries,
had a large number of volumes, there
being nearly half a million in the former
library and 40,000 in the latter.
Julius Caesar was the first to destroy
the 'mother' library. The fragments
which remained were transferred to the
Serapeum 'daughter' library, which was
under the aegis of the Temple of
Serapis in the Rhakotis, native quarter
403
— 'Peter, coryphaeus of the glorious
apostles. . . .'
— 'You who have communicated to
the West the grace of the East
and have made them partakers in
it. . . .'
— 'We all praise the coryphaeus of
the apostles of Christ as the foun­
dation of the Church and the true
rock without flaw. . . .'
It would not be right to exaggerate
the meaning of these poetic expressions.
It is, however, noteworthy that such
expressions, witnessing to ancient tra­
dition and since the 14th century
gradually suppressed under the influ­
ence of anti-Latin controversy, should
be rediscovered in the changed condi­
tions of the present.
of Alexandria. After the Edict of Theo-
dosius I (A.D. 392) this was also burnt
down.
The Alexandrian library and the
library where the great church doctors,
Origen, Clement, Pantaenus, Athanasius
and Cyril, derived their learning were
therefore two separate institutions. The
patriarchal library is the remnant of the
church library, as accumulated through­
out the centuries since the church
fathers.
In its history the library has had a
series of homes, for, wherever the
patriarchs moved, there went the
library. From the church 'of the Bottle'
where Arius preached, it was moved to
the Didascaleum, and from there to the
church of the Virgin. Under Athanasius
and Cyril it was installed near the
cathedral of the Caesareum and there
it remained until A.D. 642. The learned
Eutychius, patriarch from 933 to 940,
who was known in the Arab world as
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
Said ibn Batriq, admitted his debt to
the library and reorganized it into its
present form.
In 997 it is known that the library
was transferred to the new capital of
Cairo, and later, under Patriarch Elias,
it was nearly burned by the mob, in­
furiated at the burning of the Arab
fleet by the Byzantines.
When Cyril Lukaris was elected to
the patriarchate of Constantinople, he
took with him the Codex Alexandrinus
and other manuscripts and gave them
to such rulers as Gustavus Adolphus
(a priceless copy of Job), Archbishop
Laud (a rare specimen of the Pentateuch
in Arabic) and King Charles I (the
Codex Alexandrinus itself, now to be
seen on public display in the British
Museum). Both King Charles and Cyril
Lukaris met violent and tragic deaths.
It appears that the Codex contains a
curse prohibiting its 'taking away from
Alexandria'.
The patriarchal library has had many
famous patrons, including Margaret,
Queen of Navarre, Queen Anne, and
Mohammed Ali, Pasha of Egypt. In
A NEW ORTHODOX ENCYCLOPEDIA
It is a curious fact that the Orthodox
Church has hitherto possessed no
complete religious encyclopedia of its
own—comparable, say, to the Lexicon
fiir Theologie und Kirche in German,
or the Enciclopedia Cattolica in Italian.
Two attempts at an Orthodox encyclo­
pedia have been made in the past, but
both remained unfinished: the first
started to come out in Russia in 1903,
but was interrupted by the revolution;
the second began to appear at Athens
in 1934, but was broken off on the
outbreak of the second world war.
Now at length a third attempt has
been made, once more in Greece, and
there seems every prospect that it will
soon be brought to a triumphant com­
pletion. The Thriskevtiki kai Ithiki En-
1928 it was brought back to Alexandria
by Patriarch Meletios II, and in 1948
a magnificent new building, with lecture
halls, was established in Ibrahimia, a
suburb of Alexandria. In 1952, at the
first millenary of its reorganization,
an institute of oriental studies was
founded.
The library today contains 30,000
volumes, with separate departments for
manuscripts and rare editions, and its
stock includes literature in Greek,
Latin, French, English, German, Arabic,
Georgian and Armenian. It also holds
the patriarchal archives, dating from
the 16th century, and some 160 codices
with unpublished sources of the history
of the Church in Egypt. This entire
collection was catalogued and published
in three volumes in 1942.
The present librarian, Dr Theodore
D. Moschonas (who supplied us with
this information), this year celebrates
his silver jubilee in that office. He is
well known in patristic and ecumenical
circles, and was an observer at Vatican
II. We print his photograph among our
illustrations. Ad multos annosl
kyklopaideia {Encyclopedia of Religion
and Ethics) commenced publication in
1962: it is to be completed in twelve
volumes, nine of which had appeared
by the end of 1966, while the remaining
three are scheduled for 1967. Each
volume contains some 625 pages, in
double column: there are about 8 full-
page illustrations to a volume, and
numerous others in black and white
in the text. The general standard of the
printing is high, and the appearance
and presentation of the encyclopedia as
a whole is most agreeable, although
some photographic reproductions are
not very clear. T h e work is greatly
enhanced by charming sketches, in the
'neo-Byzantine' style, from the hand of
Rallis Kopsidis.
A NEW ORTHODOX ENCYCLOPEDIA
The whole field of religious know­
ledge is covered: Bible, Patristics,
Dogmatic Theology, Liturgy, Church
History, Comparative Religion, and
Religious Folklore. Western readers
will find it particularly useful for Greek
Church history in the post-Byzantine
and modern periods. On these matters
it contains a wealth of valuable informa­
tion not to be found in any western
works, and extremely difficult of access
even in Greek sources.
The e d i t o r s - i n - c h i e f are Basil
Moustakis and A. Panotis. Both are
connected with the recently formed
organization The Wisdom of God,
which aims to promote inter-Orthodox
co-operation and produces an excellent
periodical, Orthodox Presence. The en­
cyclopedia reflects the broad and
generous pan-Orthodox spirit of the
editors. Prominent among the contri­
butors are, of course, the leading
theologians and Byzantinists in the
Greek universities: Trembelas, Alivi-
zatos, Bratsiotis, Karmiris, Kotsonis,
Christou, Tatakis, Tomadakis, and the
rest. But the encyclopedia also includes
non-university contributors, some from
the more traditionalist wing of contem­
porary Greek Orthodoxy, such as the
late Photios Kontoglou, Fr Theoklitos
of Dionysiou, and the redoubtable
Archimandrite Augustine Kantiotis.
Alongside the Greeks, however, there
are writers from other Orthodox
Churches: Russians from the Institute
of St Sergius and elsewhere in Paris—
Bishop Cassian, Professor Zander, Fr
Bobrinsky, Mme Behr-Sigel, and Le-
onide Ouspensky; and Frs Florovsky and
Meyendorff from America. From behind
the Iron Curtain, many articles are
contributed by Archpriest Feriz Berki
of Budapest (sometimes, alas, written
with a certain political flavour). Other
articles on Slav themes are provided
by a German Orthodox theologian in
Athens, Martin Jordan: but, unlike
Fr Berki, he always preserves an ad­
mirable impartiality. It is amusing to
405
observe, facing each other on opposite
pages, two biographical notices by
Martin Jordan, one on Metropolitan
Antony (Khrapovitsky), first head of
the Karlovtzy Synod, the other on
Metropolitan Antony (Bloom) of the
Moscow Patriarchate!
Nor is it only Orthodox who contri­
bute. Although I have not found articles
by any Anglican or Protestant, a number
of Roman Catholics are represented:
among others, Frs Salaville, Janin,
Grumel, and Laurent of the Assump-
tionists; Fr Halkin of the Bollandists;
Fr Marcel Richard, of the Institut de
Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes; and
Dom Bernard Botte of Mont Cesar.
The encyclopedia, while definitely Or­
thodox in its general spirit and inten­
tion, is yet free from all sectarian
narrowness, being marked by a sense of
ungrudging co-operation.
Several articles are very substantial:
that on Byzantium runs to 270 columns.
I was pleased to find a friendly notice
on the Fellowship of St Alban and St
Sergius, with a reproduction of the
cover of Sobornost. The biographies of
eminent contemporary figures tend to
be written in too laudatory terms—at
any rate for English taste!—and read
rather like a publisher's blurb: a tone
of greater detachment would have been
more appropriate. Occasionally an ar­
ticle, such as that on the non-trans­
ference of bishops, is unduly partisan
in its championship of one particular
viewpoint: on the whole, however, the
more burning and controversial issues
—for example, the Bulgarian or the
Old Calendar schism—are discussed
in a calm and fair-minded manner.
This new encyclopedia is a deeply
impressive and notable achievement. It
forms an unrivalled work of reference
on the Orthodox Church, whether past
or present, and represents much of
what is best in contemporary Orthodox
thought and scholarship.
KALLISTOS TIMOTHY WARE
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW THE ECUMENICAL DIRECTORY

12. There can be no doubt cast upon books, prescriptions or customs of a

the validity of baptism as conferred Church or community, celebrated by
The Ecumenical Directory among separated Eastern Christians. 1 a minister or delegate of such Church
or community, in his capacity as minis­
It is enough therefore to establish the
The first part of the long awaited directory, laying down guide lines for the practical fact that baptism was administered. ter of that community.
application of the Vatican Decree on Ecumenism, appeared at the end of May and Since in the Eastern Churches the B) Prayer in Common
the English text has been published in full in the Tablet, the summer number of sacrament of confirmation (Chrism) is
One in Christ and elsewhere, pending its separate publication. The full document always lawfully administered by the
can be consulted by readers in these texts, but, at the risk of giving an unbalanced priest at the same time as baptism, it 33. It is to be hoped that Catholics
impression, we thought it important that they should have the full text of the sec­ often happens that no mention is made and their other brethren will join in
tions concerning the Eastern Churches immediately to hand, together with the com­ of the confirmation in the canonical prayer for any common concern in
ment of our Orthodox associate editor. testimony of baptism. This does not which they can and should co-operate
It is important to realize that it is not intended to lay down either principles or give grounds for doubting that the —e.g. peace, social justice, mutual
the spiritual aims of ecumenism. That is the work of the council decree. This docu­ sacrament was conferred. charity among men, the dignity of the
ment exhorts Catholics to put the decree into practice, and tries to sort out the day- 13. In respect of other Christians a family and so on. The same may be
to-day possibilities and canonical implications. The criticism already made of them doubt can sometimes arise . . . said of occasions when according to
as too legal seems to miss the point, but is part of the present tendency to denigrate IWith regard to all Christians, considera­ circumstances a nation or community
canon law. Every historical Church has its 'holy canons', just as every human society tion should be given to the danger of in­ wishes to make a common act of
validity when baptism is administered by thanksgiving or petition to God, as on
has its laws, and it is as silly and unpractical to scorn and ignore them as it is to sprinkling, especially of several people at
refuse to rethink and develop them, or to let them become the masters instead of a national feast-day, at a time of pub­
once.
the servants, which was the dangerous and even evil tendency from the 11th century III. lic disaster or mourning, on a day set
until recently. This document is not law, but deals in the same practical sphere and aside for remembrance of those who
FOSTERING SPIRITUAL ECUMENISM IN
does not ignore canonical principles. It is a very encouraging document and in many have died for their country. This kind
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
ways shows how the ecumenical climate and understanding of the points of view of of prayer is also recommended so far
as is possible at times when Christians
other Churches has advanced in Rome since the decree in 1964. EJ.B.F. IV. hold meetings for study or common
SHARING OF SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY AND action.
DIRECTORY FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE DECISIONS OF THE SECOND RESOURCES WITH OUR SEPARATED 34. However, common prayer should
ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF THE VATICAN CONCERNING ECUMENICAL BRETHREN particularly be concerned with the
MATTERS A) Introduction restoration of Christian unity. It can
25. Fraternal charity in the relations centre on e.g. the mystery of the
INTRODUCTION Church, for through baptism as through of daily life is not enough to foster the Church and her unity, baptism as a
a door men enter the Church' (Dogm. restoration of unity among all Chris­ sacramental bond of unity however in­
Const, on the Church, n. 14). tians. It is right and proper that there complete, the renewal of personal and
T H E SETTING UP O F ECUMENICAL should also be allowed a certain 'com- social life as a necessary way to' achiev­
COMMISSIONS 11. Baptism is, then, the sacramen­ municatio in spiritualibus'—i.e. that ing unity . . .
tal bond of unity, indeed the founda­ Christians should be able to share that
35. The Form of the Service.
II. tion of communion among all Chris­ spiritual heritage they have in common,
tians. Hence its dignity and the man­ in a manner and to a degree permissible a) Representatives of the Churches
T H E VALIDITY OF BAPTISM CONFERRED or communities concerned should
ner of administering it are matters of and appropriate in their present divided
BY MINISTERS OF CHURCHES AND agree and co-operate in arranging such
great importance to all Christ's dis­ state. . . .
ECCLESIAL COMMUNITIES SEPARATED prayer—in deciding who should take
ciples. Yet a just evaluation of the 29. The term, sharing of spiritual
FROM US part, what themes, hymns, Scripture
sacrament and the mutual recognition activity and resources (communicatio
9. The Church's practice in this of each other's baptisms by different readings, prayers and the like should
in spiritualibus) is used to cover all
matter is governed by two principles: Communities is sometimes hindered be used.
prayer offered in common, common use
that baptism is necessary for salvation, because of a reasonable doubt about of sacred places and objects, as well as
and that it can be conferred only once. the baptism conferred in some particu­ all sharing in liturgical worship (com­ d) When services are arranged to
10. The ecumenical importance of lar case. To avoid difficulties which may municatio in sacris) in the strict sense. take place in an Eastern Church, it
baptism is clear from documents of the arise when some Christian separated should be borne in mind that an official
30. There is 'communicatio in sacris'
Second Vatican Council: 'He Himself from us, led by the grace of the Holy liturgical form is considered among
when anyone takes part in the liturgi­
[Jesus Christ] in explicit terms affirmed Spirit and by his conscience, seeks full Orientals as particularly well adapted
cal worship or in the sacraments of
the necessity of faith and baptism communion with the Catholic Church, to prayer of petition; particular con­
another Church or ecclesial community.
(cf. M k . l 6 : 1 6 ; Jn.3:5), and thereby the following guiding principles are put sideration should therefore be given to
31. By 'liturgical worship' is meant
affirmed also the necessity of the forward: the liturgical order of this Church.
worship carried out according to the
406 407
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
36. The Place.
c) It should be remembered, when
arranging prayer services with the
Eastern Orthodox brethren, that all
Eastern Christians regard the church
as far and away the most suitable place
for public prayer.
37. Dress. There is nothing against
the use of choir dress, where circum­
stances may indicate this and there is
common agreement among the partici­
pants.
C) Sharing in Liturgical Worship
38. 'Yet sharing in liturgical worship
(communicatio in sacris) is not to be
considered as a means to be used in­
discriminately for the restoration of
unity among Christians. There are two
main principles upon which the prac­
tice of such common worship de­
pends: first, that of the unity of the
Church which ought to be expressed;
and second, that of the sharing in
means of grace. The expression of unity
very generally forbids common wor­
ship. Grace to be obtained sometimes
commends it' {Decree on Ecumenism,
n. 8).
1. Sharing in Liturgical Worship with
our Separated Eastern Brothers
39. ' A l t h o u g h t h e s e [Eastern]
Churches are separated from us, yet
they possess true sacraments, above all
—by apostolic succession—the priest­
hood and the Eucharist, whereby they
are still joined to us in closest inti­
macy. Therefore some sharing in litur­
gical worship (communicatio in sacris),
given suitable circumstances and the
approval of Church authority, is not
merely possible but is encouraged'
{ibid. n. 15; cf. also the Decree on the
Eastern Catholic Churches, nn. 24-29).
40. Between the Catholic Church
and the Eastern Churches separated
from us there is still a very close com­
munion in matters of faith (cf. Decree
on Ecumenism, n. 44); moreover,
'through the celebration of the Euchar­
ist of the Lord in each of these
Churches, the Church of God is built
up and grows in stature' and 'although
separated from us, yet these Churches
possess true sacraments, above all—by
apostolic succession—the priesthood
and the Eucharist' . . . {ibid. n. 15).
This offers ecclesiological and
sacramental grounds for allowing and
even encouraging some sharing in lit­
urgical worship—even Eucharistie—
with these Churches 'given suitable
circumstances and the approval of
Church authority' {Decree on Ecu­
menism, n. 15).
Pastors should carefully instruct the
faithful so that they will be clearly
aware of the proper reasons for this
kind of sharing in liturgical worship.
41. The principles governing this
sharing set out in the Decree on Eas­
tern Churches (cf. nn. 26-29) should
be observed with the prudence that the
decree recommends; the norms which
apply to oriental Catholics apply
equally to the faithful of any rite, in­
cluding the Latin.
42. It is particularly opportune that
the Catholic authority, whether the
local one, the synod or the Episcopal
Conference, does not extend permis­
sion for sharing in the reception or ad­
ministration of the sacraments of pen­
ance, Holy Eucharist or anointing the
sick except after satisfactory consulta­
tions with the competent authorities
(at least local ones) of the separated
Oriental Church.
43. In granting permission for shar­
ing in the sacraments it is fitting that
the greatest possible attention be given
to 'reciprocity'.
44. Besides cases of necessity, there
would be reasonable ground for en­
couraging sacramental sharing if special
circumstances make it materially or
morally impossible over a long period
for one of the faithful to receive the
sacraments in his own Church, so that
in effect he would be deprived, with­
out legitimate reason, of the spiritual
fruit of the sacraments.
45. Since practice" differs between
Catholics and other Eastern Christians
in the. matter of frequent communion,
confession before communion and the
THE ECUMENICAL DIRECTORY
Eucharistic fast, care must be taken to
avoid scandal and suspicion among the
Orthodox, created by Catholics not
following the Orthodox usage. A Catho­
lic who legitimately communicates with
the Orthodox in the cases envisaged
here must observe the Orthodox disci­
pline as much as he can.
46. Those Eastern Christians who,
in the absence of sufficient confessors
of their own Church, spontaneously
desire to do so may go to a Catholic
confessor. In similar circumstances a
Catholic may approach a confessor of
an Eastern Church which is separated
from the Apostolic Roman See. Reci­
procity should be maintained here too.
Both sides should of course take care
to arouse no suspicion of proselytising.
47. A Catholic who occasionally, for
reasons set out below (cf. n. 50), at­
tends the Holy Liturgy (Mass) on a
Sunday or holiday of obligation in an
Orthodox church is not then bound to
assist at Mass in a Catholic church. It
is likewise a good thing if on such days
Catholics, who for just reasons cannot
go to Mass in their own church, attend
the Holy Liturgy of their separated
Oriental brethren, if this is possible.
48. Because of the close commu­
nion between the Catholic Church and
the separated Eastern Churches, as de­
scribed above (n. 40), it is permissible
for a member of one of the latter to
act as godparent, together with a
Catholic godparent, at the baptism of
a Catholic infant or adult so long as
there is provision for the Catholic edu­
cation of the person being baptised,
and it is clear that the godparent is a
suitable one. A Catholic is not for­
bidden to stand as godparent in an
Orthodox church, if he is so invited.
In this case, the duty of providing for
the Christian education of the baptised
person binds in the first place the god­
parent who belongs to' the Church in
which the child is baptised.
49. Brethren of other churches may
act as bridesmaid or best man at a
wedding in a Catholic church. A Catho­
lic too can be best man or bridesmaid
at a marriage properly celebrated
among separated brethren.
50. Catholics may be allowed to
attend Orthodox liturgical services if
they have reasonable grounds, e.g.
arising out of a public office or func­
tion, blood relationships, friendships,
desire to be better informed, etc. In
such cases there is nothing against their
taking part in the common responses,
hymns, and actions of the church in
which they are guests. Receiving Holy
Communion however, will be governed
by what is laid down above, nn. 42 &
44. Because of the close communion
referred to earlier (n. 40) local Ordi­
naries can give permission for a Catho­
lic to read lessons at a liturgical ser­
vice, if he is invited. These same prin­
ciples govern the manner in which an
Orthodox may assist at services in
Catholic churches.
51. Regarding participation in cere­
monies which do not call for sacra­
mental sharing the following should be
observed:
a) In ceremonies carried out by
Catholics, an oriental clergyman who
is representing his Church should have
the place and the liturgical honours
which Catholics of equal rank and
dignity have.
b) A Catholic clergyman present
in an official capacity at an Orthodox
service can, if it is acceptable to his
hosts, wear choir dress or the insignia
of his ecclesiastical rank.
c) There should be meticulous re­
gard for the outlook of the clergy and
faithful of the Eastern Churches, as
well as for their customs which may
vary according to time, place, persons
and circumstances.
52. Because sharing in sacred func­
tions, objects and places with all the
separated Eastern brethren is allowed
for a reasonable cause (cf. Decree on the
Eastern Catholic Churches, n. 28), it is
recommended that with the approval
of the local Ordinary separated Eastern
priests and communities be allowed the
use of Catholic churches, buildings and
cemeteries and other things necessary
for their religious rites, if they ask for
this, and have no place in which they
can celebrate sacred functions properly
and with dignity.
53. The authorities of Catholic
schools and institutions should take
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
care to offer Orthodox clergy every
facility for giving spiritual and sacra­
mental ministration to their own faith­
ful who attend such schools and institu­
tions. As far as circumstances allow, and
with the local Ordinary's permission,
these facilities can be offered on the
Catholic premises, including the church.
AN ORTHODOX COMMENT
The newly published Ecumenical
Directory speaks everywhere of the
'separated Eastern brothers' in terms of
generous respect. It is most clearly
emphasized that no practical decision
can be taken on the Roman Catholic
side 'except after satisfactory consulta­
tions with the competent authorities . . .
of the separated Oriental Church' (§42).
In the past it has sometimes seemed to
the Orthodox—rightly or wrongly—that
the Catholic hierarchy disregarded their
'ecclesial reality', their existence as a
Church, and treated them simply as
isolated groups of 'separated Christians',
requiring to be reconciled by one means
or another. The Directory definitely
excludes this kind of ecclesiastical im­
perialism, and insists that nothing
should be done involving the Orthodox
unless the Orthodox authorities them­
selves freely and formally agree to it.
This, at the very outset, is something
deeply reassuring, for which we must
all be genuinely grateful.
Chalcedonians and non-Chalcedo-
nians. The Ecumenical Directory is con­
cerned, not with general principles, but
with the more prosaic task of their
practical application. Its purpose, then,
is above all to be sober, lucid, and
precise: in this it succeeds admirably.
One point, however, in the use of ter­
minology is not made entirely clear.
When it speaks of 'Eastern Christians',
'Oriental brethren', or 'Eastern Ortho­
dox', nowhere is any distinction drawn
between the 'Chalcedonian' and 'non-
Chalcedonian' Churches. Are the terms
'Eastern Orthodox' and the like meant
to apply only to the 'Byzantine' Ortho­
dox (oecumenical patriarchate, Churches
of Russia, Greece, Serbia, Rumania,
410
54. In hospitals and similar institu­
tions conducted by Catholics, the
authorities should promptly advise the
Orthodox priest of the presence of his
faithful, and give him facilities to visit
the sick and administer the sacraments
to them in dignified and reverent con­
ditions.
etc.); or do they also include those
communities which are conventionally,
though perhaps misleadingly, designated
'Monophysite' (Syrian 'Jacobites', Copts,
Ethiopians, Armenians)? Here unfortu­
nately the Directory is not explicit: but
in default of any indication to the con­
trary, presumably all allusions to the
'Eastern Orthodox' must be understood
as applying equally to Chalcedonians
and non-Chalcedonians. This refusal
to mark any distinction between the
two is in itself a step of the greatest
interest from the ecumenical point of
view.
Validity of non-Roman baptism. The
Directory states, 'There can be no
doubt cast upon the validity of bap­
tism as conferred among separated
Eastern Christians' (§12). The Orthodox
standpoint on the validity of baptism
is somewhat more complicated. Cer­
tainly, there are many Orthodox who
would unhesitatingly accept the validity
of Catholic baptism, and for that mat­
ter, of Anglican and of most Protest­
ant baptism. But it must in honesty be
pointed out that there are other Ortho­
dox who uphold a far stricter position,
often labelled 'Cyprianic'. There can be
no valid baptism outside the Church
(so this second school argues); further­
more, all non-Orthodox must be re­
garded as outside the Church, and if
they are sometimes received into Or­
thodoxy without re-baptism, this is
simply in virtue of the principle of
'ecclesiastical econoniy' and does not
imply any recognition of non-Orthodox
baptism per se. This is the position still
expounded in most of the standard
Greek manuals of theology; it is de­
fended at some length in the writings
THE ECUMENICAL DIRECTORY
of the present head of the Greek
Church, Archbishop Ieronymos, which
he published while Professor of Canon
Law; and it is the view held also by
certain Russian theologians, for example,
the late Metropolitan Antony of Kiev
(d. 1936).
In connection with baptism, the
Directory also refers to the Eastern
practice whereby chrismation (confir­
mation) is conferred by the priest
immediately after baptism; and it is
explicitly stated that such a practice is
'lawful' (§12). The Eastern observance
over chrismation has sometimes been
misunderstood and condemned in the
west, and it is therefore good to find
that the Directory excludes all further
doubts or questionings in the matter.
Intercommunion. More than half the
Directory is concerned with the intri­
cate matter of communicatio in sacris.
Here a definite distinction is made be­
tween 'our separated Eastern brothers'
and 'other separated brethren', and the
two are set on a different level. As
regards the 'Eastern brothers', it is
stated that, under certain conditions,
Orthodox may receive 'the sacraments
of Penance, Holy Eucharist, or Anoint­
ing of the Sick' from Catholic clergy,
and that Catholics may receive the
same from Orthodox clergy-provided,
of course, that in both cases the Or­
thodox authorities themselves agree to
this policy (§42). The conditions en­
visaged a r e :
(i) 'cases of necessity' (danger of
death, during persecution, etc.).
(ii) '. . . if special circumstances make
it materially or morally impossible over
a long period for one of the faithful to
receive the sacraments in his own
Church' (§44).
Such are the rules for 'Eastern Chris­
tians'; but for the 'other separated
brethren' the regulations are markedly
more stringent. In their case intercom­
munion is only permited 'in danger of
death or in urgent need (during per­
secution, in prisons)' (§55). No mention
is made of the second condition allowed
in the case of the Orthodox—prolonged
separation from the sacraments.
But though the rules in regard to the
Orthodox are considerably less severe
1
than those applied to non-Catholics in
the west, nevertheless even where the
Orthodox are concerned the degree of
intercommunion approved by the Direc­
tory is distinctly limited in scope.
Many Catholics had concluded, from
the remarks about intercommunion in
the Vatican decrees on Ecumenism and
the Eastern Catholic Churches, that
they were now permitted, without fur­
ther formality, to receive communion
at Orthodox altars whenever they
wished; and so they began to ask for
Orthodox communion, not because they
were deprived of the ministrations of
their own Church, but simply as an
expression of Christian fellowship and
of their deep desire for fuller unity.
During the last three years Orthodox
priests in France and elsewhere have
quite frequently been faced by the
painful and invidious task of refusing
communion to Roman Catholics who
come forward without warning. 'But the
Council has permitted it', the Orthodox
clergy have been told; to which they
could only answer that no Council on
their side has so far issued such per­
mission. Now it transpires that neither
has Rome permitted intercommunion of
this kind. The Ecumenical Directory
clearly excludes such a wide-ranging
interpretation of the conciliar decrees.
Intercommunion is only permitted when
a Catholic or an Orthodox is cut off
from his own Church 'over a long
period'. It is nowhere stated or implied
that intercommunion can be practised
by the chance visitor to an Orthodox
service, or at ecumenical gatherings and
similar occasions.
The Directory, indeed, seems to lend
little or no support to the idea that
intercommunion may be used as a
'means' for securing fuller unity. Rather,
it is emphasized that communicatio in
sacris presupposes an existing unity in
faith: 'Celebration of the sacraments
is an action of the celebrating commu­
nity, carried out within the commu­
nity, signifying the oneness in faith,
worship, and life of the community'
(§55). The Directory, it would appear,
is not concerned with intercommunion
as an 'ecumenical gesture' intended
to 'prepare the paths of, unity', but
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
simply with the pastoral problem of
individual Christians deprived of the
grace of the sacraments—the situation
described in Orthodoxy as 'economic
intercommunion'. 1
Yet even when understood in this
more restricted sense, the Directory
represents an important relaxation of
the rules hitherto in force. Before
Vatican II, it was normally assumed
that a Catholic could receive Orthodox
sacraments only when in danger of
death. Now another reason is admitted
—isolation, the impossibility over a
long period of receiving Catholic sacra­
ments. Here the Directory returns, to
some extent, to the more liberal policy
practised by the Jesuits and others in
the Near East during the 17th century,
but vigorously condemned—more es­
pecially from 1729 onwards—by the
Propaganda and the Holy Office at
Rome. 2
How far do the rules on intercom­
munion now proposed by the Directory
coincide with the existing discipline in
the Orthodox Church? The official Or­
thodox position is at once more
generous and more stringent than that
of the Directory. It is more generous,
in that several Orthodox Churches are
willing on occasion to admit Anglicans
to communion, not only in cases of
extreme necessity (danger of death,
etc.), but also when the Anglican in
question is isolated for a time from his
own Church. Thus Orthodox apply to
Anglicans ,the regulations which the
Directory applies to 'the Easterns' but
not to the 'other separated brethren'.
But the Orthodox discipline is in
another respect more stringent, in that
the Orthodox Church, although under
certain circumstances admitting others
to its communion, has never so far
lOn the meaning of this term, see the
article by the present writer, 'Intercommunion:
The Decisions of Vatican II and the Orthodox
Standpoint', in Sobornost, series 5, no. 4
(1966), pp. 258-72
20n this, see W. de Vries, ' "Communicatio
in sacris." An Historical Study', in Concilium,
vol. 4, no. 1 (1965), pp. 11-22; and by the
present writer, Eustratios Argenti. A Study of
the Greek Church under Turkish Rule (Oxford
1964), pp. 17-30
412
given its own members formal permis­
sion—even if in danger of death—to
receive communion from non-Orthodox
clergy, whether Anglican or Roman. (I
speak here only of the official Ortho­
dox viewpoint. What some Orthodox
bishops say in private, and what many
Orthodox laity do in practice, is another
matter.) The existing Orthodox ruling
was reasserted, firmly and unam­
biguously, in the encyclical issued in
March 1967 by the oecumenical patri­
arch Athenagoras: '. . . This does not
mean that Orthodox Christians may re­
ceive the sacramental grace from a
priest who is not himself Orthodox, for
neither has such a decision been reached
on this matter, nor has sacramental
communion been reached as yet between
the Orthodox Church and the other
Churches.' 3 Here, then, is a significant
discrepancy between the proposals of
the Ecumenical Directory and the
present Orthodox discipline. Orthodox
bishops may well be ready to admit
Catholics to Orthodox sacraments,
under the circumstances that the Direc­
tory has in mind. But it is not yet
clear how far they will allow their own
people to receive Catholic sacraments.
From all this it will be clear that the
Ecumenical Directory raises some highly
delicate questions in its section upon
commimicatio in sacris with the Ortho­
dox. 'This is a matter', it has been
rightly said of intercommunion, 4 'where
convictions are deeply divided and pro­
found feelings are involved. It touches
the mysterious heart of the Church's
life and the Church's unity, and it
touches it not theoretically, but prac­
tically in a way we can feel and see.
One of the tasks set before all Christ­
ian people at the present time is to
recognize that on this question there
are sincere and seriously held differ­
ences of view within all the major
Christian traditions, and to learn to
respect the consciences of those who
differ from ourselves.'
K A I & I S T O S TIMOTHY WARE
SSee Eastern Churches Review, vol. I, no. 3
. (1967), p. 303
^Editorial in Sobornost, series 5, no. 4
(1966), p. 226
NEW RULING ON THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS IN RUMANIA
A new ruling on the organization of
theological teaching was ratified by the
Holy Synod of the Rumanian Orthodox
Church on 17 December 1965. It was
subsequently submitted for approval by
the Secretary General of the Depart­
ment of Cults, D. Dogaru, who granted
his consent; and it was printed in
Biserica Ortodoxa Romana for July-
August 1966. It contains 215 articles,
occupying some thirty-six closely
printed pages of text.
The ruling is concerned with two
types of establishment:
(i) cantor schools and theological
seminaries (these are six in number: at
Bucharest, Neamets Monastery, Cluj,
Craiova, Caransebes, and Buzau); 1
(ii) theological institutes, of university
standard (two in number: at Bucharest
and Sibiu).
(i) The cantor schools and theological
seminaries offer a five-year course, of
which two years are spent at the cantor
school and three at the seminary. The
subjects in the curriculum are mainly
religious: the Bible (Old and New Tes­
taments); Christian doctrine; liturgy
and church music; church history,
especially the history of the Rumanian
Church; 'Christian ideas of psychology,
pedagogy, and philosophy'; 'preaching
and catechism, applied to defending Or­
thodox doctrine vis-a-vis other Chris­
tian cults in the country'. The students
learn Latin and Greek, together with a
modern language; here the ruling states:
'Students are free to choose either
Russian or French.' The curriculum also
includes: 'History of the Rumanian
Socialist Republic. Geography of the
R.S.R. . . . Constitution of the R.S.R.'
(ii) Theological institutes. The most
promising of the seminary students
proceed to one of these. The course
lln the past there also existed two semi­
naries for nuns, at Agapia and Hurezi, but
these were suppressed around 1959 and are
not mentioned in the new ruling.
F
lasts for five years, 2 at the end of which
the degree of Licentiate of Theology is
granted. The curriculum is divided into
four sections:
Biblical section. Study of O.T., in­
cluding exegesis. Biblical archaeology
and the Hebrew language. Study of
N.T., including exegesis, Biblical her-
meneutics, and the Greek language.
Historical section. History of the
Universal Church. Patrology and the
Latin language. History of the Ruma­
nian Church and its literature; and
Slavonic language and literature.
Systematic section. Fundamental theo­
logy, with the Latin language and
history of religions. Dogmatic theo­
logy, with the Greek language. The
Creed, and missionary guidance.
Christian morality.
Practical section. Preaching and
catechism. Liturgy, pastoralia, and
Christian art. Church law and ad­
ministration. Church singing and
ritual. Modern languages: Russian,
French, English, and German—at the
free choice of the students.
No mention is made of instruction in
the constitution of the State. There are
thirty hours of teaching each week,
either lectures or tutorials.
To qualify for the degree of Licen­
tiate, besides passing the examinations
each candidate must submit a thesis 'of
at least 80 pages'. This, says the ruling,
'must be worked out with scholarly
methods and with honesty. The candi­
date will add the declaration: "Apart
from the works mentioned in the bib­
liography, I have used no others. The
work is not plagiarized, but is mine in
toto."' Before receiving his degree,
each Licentiate is required to make the
2TJnder previous regulations the course
lasted only for four years: see Alf Johansen,
Theological Study in the Rumanian Orthodox
Church under Communist Rule (London
1961), p. 6.
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
declaration: 'I swear before God . . .
that throughout my life I will keep and
propagate without change the teaching
of our Holy Orthodox Christian Church
of the East, as it was given to us by
our Lord lesus Christ, as it was pro­
claimed by the Holy Apostles and Holy
Fathers of our Church, as it is preserved
by Holy Church and was taught to me
by my professors at the theological
institute in —. I swear that all my life
I will keep and defend the good name
of this high institution of theological
learning. Amen.'
After the Licentiate there is a further
three-year course for the degree of
Doctor of Theology. The number of
those admitted to study for this is
strictly limited, and may not exceed ten
in any one year. During their second
and third years candidates for the
doctorate must publish articles in Studii
Teologice or other church journals: 'In
case of non-publication, a candidate
cannot sit for his final examination.'
To qualify for the degree, each student
must submit 'a scientific work of at
least 150 pages', on which he will be
publicly examined.
There are five professorial chairs in
each theological institute:
1. Exegesis of O.T. and N.T. and
comparative inter-Christian study;
2. Patrology;
3. History of religions;
4. Dogmatic theology;
5. Byzantology.
The professors of the two institutes edit
Studii Teologice: this journal, so the
ruling lays down, 'is to be sent to all
priests in the country'.
If one of the theological institutes,
over a period of 3 - 4 years, contains
less than 60 students, it is to be dis­
banded and the students transferred
to the other institute.
The ruling states in general that
'diplomas . . . obtained in institutes
abroad . . . are valid only if they are
equivalent to those of the theological
institute in Bucharest . . . and only if
issued by Orthodox institutes abroad'.
Under certain conditions, however,
provision is made for recognizing
'diplomas obtained by Orthodox Chris­
tians abroad, at Roman Catholic or
Protestant institutes'. It is interesting
that this possibility should be en­
visaged. It is normally assumed that
the students will all be Orthodox, but
the ruling adds: 'Theological institutes
can receive, with the approval of the
patriarch, students of all confessions.'
The teaching staff, both of the
cantor schools and seminaries and of
the theological institutes, consists of
ordained clergy, deacons or priests. 3
The cantor schools, seminaries, and
theological institutes are all residential.
The students eat together, attendance
at lectures and Church services is
evidently regarded as compulsory, and
discipline is to be strictly enforced.
For the cantor schools and seminaries
it is specified: 'During holidays pupils
must attend religious services in their
parishes, where they are obliged to
take an active part, remaining perma­
nently at the disposition of the priest;
after each holiday a written testimony
from the priest is to be brought by
each pupil regarding his activity and
any absences from church, etc. . . .
Smoking, gambling, and the introduc­
tion of alcohol into the school by
pupils or their acquaintances is to be
punished with severity.' The following
progressively severe punishments are
mentioned: 'Admonishment in private,
admonishment in front of the class,
admonishment in front of the whole
school, prohibition from going into
the town, publication of the offence
and of the punishment in the school
bulletin, fall in marks for behaviour,
expulsion from the school. . . . Cor­
poral punishment and deprivation of
food are forbidden.' In each school
there is a specially appointed spiritual
director, who receives the same salary
as a professor. Among his tasks are
the following: to supervise worship
and to hear confessions; to ensure,
together with the teachers, that good
order is maintained at meals and in
3Contrast the situation in the Church of
Greece, where theological teaching is given
largely by laymen.
THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS IN RUMANIA
the dormitories; 'to control and guide
the private reading of the pupils'. The
spiritual director 'is informed by the
professors about the conduct and
discipline of the pupils in class; and
he is told by the school doctor about
any measures taken for the health of
the pupils'. There is a rule, 'No mem­
ber of the teaching body can give
private instruction to his pupils, either
in term or in vacation.' In regard to
the theological institutes the ruling
states: 'Students are obliged to parti­
cipate in choral ensembles, and in all
cultural, religious, sporting, etc., mani­
festations organized by the Institute.'
Throughout the ruling it is assumed
that there will be close co-operation
between Church and State. Article 7
of the General Dispositions reads:
'Canonical jurisdiction, dogmatic teach­
ing and discipline, guidance and con­
trol of teaching . . . belong to the
organs of the Rumanian Orthodox
FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PATRISTIC STUDIES
The Fifth International Conference
on Patristic Studies was held at its
customary meeting-place, Oxford, on
18-23 September. As usual, it was
superbly organized by Dr F. L. Cross,
whose absence from the meetings owing
to ill-health was very deeply regretted
by the members. About 600 scholars
attended, including Cardinal Pellegrino
of Turin, who preached in the cathe­
dral on the Sunday preceding the con­
ference, gave the inaugural address on
'Culture in the Fathers', and thereafter
took a full, though characteristically
modest and unassuming, part in the pro­
ceedings. There were as usual a num­
ber of Orthodox scholars and theolo­
gians present, including Archbishops
Anthony Bloom and Basile Krivocheine
and Bishop Alexis van der Mens-
brughe, who celebrated Orthodox Ves­
pers, with the other Orthodox clergy
present and the choir of the Russian
church in London, in the cathedral on
415
Church. . . . Control by the Church
is exercised through inspectors at the
theological institutes, seminaries, and
cantor schools. Control by the State,
as provided for in the Constitution of
the Rumanian Socialist Republic, is
exercised through the Department of
Cults in conformity with the laws . . .
for religious cults.' Teachers at the
cantor schools or seminaries are nomi­
nated by the Metropolitan Synod to
which the school in question is subject,
but the ruling adds that whenever any
appointment is made, 'the decision is
communicated to the Department of
Cults for recognition'. In regard to the
theological institutes it is stated: 'All
names of personnel of any kind at the
Institutes . . . and the attributions
with which they are invested, must be
recognized by the Department of
Cults.'
(Further Rumanian news has been held
over.)
Tuesday evening. The lectures and com­
munications were, as always, very num­
erous; unfortunately but unavoidably,
many of the most interesting were de­
livered simultaneously, so that it was
impossible for any one member to gain
an adequate impression of the whole.
But the programme certainly gave a
good idea of the vast and varied activity
now going on in the almost boundless
field of patristic studies. Perhaps not
quite sufficient attention was paid to
the non-Greek Eastern Christian tra­
ditions, whose importance is now being
more and more generally recognized,
though there were some very notable
contributions in this field. There were
signs here and there that some patris­
tic scholars recognize that they can
and ought to make distinctive contri­
butions of their own to contemporary
theological debates. This was evident
in two of the principal lectures: 'The
Debate on Jewish Christianity' by
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
Professor G. Quispel, and 'The Problem
of Neo-Patristic Synthesis' by Professor
Florovsky.
But perhaps the main importance of
the conference does not lie in its set
programme of lectures and communi­
cations, but in the opportunity it gives
for scholars and theologians of many
different traditions and outlooks to
POPE AND PATRIARCH IN ISTANBUL
Pope Paul VI paid a swift but memor­
able visit to Turkey on 25 and 26 July.
Patriarch Athenagoras and the Presi­
dent of the Turkish Republic were
waiting at the airport of Istanbul to
greet him on arrival. On the afternoon
of 25 July the pope called at the Phanar,
and he and the patriarch took part
together in a joint service at the Greek
Orthodox Cathedral of St George (see
plates 3 and 6); and later in the evening
the oecumenical patriarch went to the
Catholic cathedral in Istanbul, where
the two took part in a similar service.
On the following day, 26 July, the pope
travelled to Smyrna and to Ephesus,
where the third ecumenical council was
held in 431 (see plate 5). Both in his
address at the Greek cathedral and
during his visit to Ephesus, Pope Paul
VI underlined his reverence for the
ecumenical councils of the ancient
Church, which form the common heri­
tage of Christians both in East and
West.
This is the first time that a pope has
visited Constantinople since the year
711.
Fr Rene Laurentin on the visit
Paul VI's visit is a stage on the way
to a rapprochement between East and
West, an acceptance of identity within
plurality. The East and the West have
differed from each other since the age
of the apostles, but they have differed
within the one divine revelation. . . .
The East instinctively enters into
dialogue by deeds rather than by words.
What was striking about the Istanbul
416
meet, converse, and come to understand
each other better. It is all the more
effective as a means for promoting
Christian unity in that the members
are not engaging in set ecumenical dis­
cussions but are working together to
try to understand the life, thought and
prayer of the ancient Church.
A. H. ARMSTRONG
meeting was that Paul VI and Athen­
agoras I understand one another with­
out the need of words. The unity which
springs from their meetings has the
proportions of a ground-swell. Between
these two men [symbolic] gestures
multiply of themselves, sometimes
groping, maladroit, but all the more
touching for that.
At the Orthodox cathedral Paul VI
made the sign of the cross in the
Greek way, from left to right, with
great care, but he forgot to join the
three fingers in token of the Trinity.
When he received the omophorion,
with the effigy of the twelve apostles,
he put it on in place of the stole
brought from Rome. And the people
shouted: 'Axios'. By this cry they
associate themselves with the conse­
cration of a new bishop, and recognize
him as bishop: 'He is worthy'. This
cry goes a long way.—'You have re­
stored the pope to the Church', an
Orthodox said to the patriarch on the
evening of the ceremony.
The same evening they blessed the
Catholic cathedral together. Their two
voices blended so completely that at
moments they seemed one.
The most fundamental gesture, at
the root of all the rest, was the journey
itself. Peter has renounced, as far as he
himself is concerned, the status of the
renaissance popes. 'If your brother
has something against you, go and be
reconciled with your brother first.'
Paul VI has taken seriously these words
written into the lifting of the anathe­
mas on 7 December 1965; and also
these other words of the Gospel: 'The
POPE AND PATRIARCH IN ISTANBUL
leader must be as if he were the one
who serves.'
This gesture has introduced the East
to a new conception of the primacy.
The long-term consequences may be in­
calculable. The primacy loses the
rigidity given it by pagan Rome, It
puts on the look of the Gospel. What
a joy, relief and benefit, for the West
The pope prays in Aghia Sophia
ICI (August 1967) reports:
It was in the glorious basilica of Holy
Wisdom, now a museum, that the pope
made his most unexpected gesture. He
knelt down to pray, after asking per­
mission from the Turkish minister who
accompanied him. It was a silent
prayer, but anyone could imagine that
Paul VI prayed for the unity in the
faith that Patriarch Athenagoras and he
had publicly decided to seek while pre­
serving the 'diversity of local usages'.
This gesture was not understood by
everyone. The daily paper, The New
Istanbul, of the next day ran a headline
across six columns: 'The pope has
prayed in Ag. Sophia where Moslems
are forbidden to say "Allah".' That
evening some Moslem students went as
a protest to prostrate in Ag. Sophia in
the Moslem manner.
The incident touched off what oppo­
sition there had been in Turkey, fear of
a missionary spearhead, etc., and the
papers both of right-wing Moslem
circles and of left-wing secularists con­
tinued to protest for some time, though
many papers defended the pope's ac­
tion, and government spokesmen said
it was an entirely natural, spontaneous
gesture and pointed out that Moslems
were given the use of Catholic churches
in Germany, where there are a great
many Turkish workers.
Extracts from the pope's address to the
patriarch in the Greek Orthodox
Cathedral of St. George
A little more than three years ago,
God, in His infinite goodness, per­
mitted us to meet in that holy land
where Christ founded His Church and
poured out His blood for her. . . .
Today it is the same love of Christ
and His Church which brings us, a pil­
grim once again, to this noble land
where the successors of the Apostles
once assembled in the Holy Spirit to
bear witness to the faith of the Church.
We recall here the four great ecumeni­
cal councils of Nicaea, Constantinople,
Ephesus and Chalcedon, which the
Fathers had no hesitation in likening
to the four Gospels. These were their
first meetings, and they came from the
entire Christian world of that time.
Inspired by the same brotherly love,
they provided our faith with a richness
and depth of expression which even in
our day nourishes the faith and loving
contemplation of all Christians. . . .
In the light of our love for Christ
and of our brotherly love, we perceive
even more clearly the profound identity
of our faith, and the points on which
we still differ must not prevent us
from seeing this profound unity. And
here, too, charity must come to our
aid, as it helped Hilary and Athanasius
to recognise the sameness of the faith
underlying the differences of vocabu­
lary at a time when serious disagree­
ments were creating divisions among,
Christian bishops. Did not pastoral love
prompt St Basil, in his defence of the
true faith in the Holy Spirit, to refrain
from using certain terms which, accu­
rate though they were, could have given
rise to scandal in one part of the Chris­
tian people? And did not St Cyril of
Alexandria consent in 433 to abandon
his beautiful formulation of theology in
the interests of making peace with John
of Antioch, once he had satisfied him­
self that in spite of divergent modes of
expression, their faith was identical?
Is this not a field in which the dia­
logue of charity can be profitably ex­
tended, eliminating many obstacles and
opening up paths to a full communion
of faith in the truth? To find ourselves
again one in diversity and fidelity can
only be the work of the Spirit of Love.
While unity of faith is required for full
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
communion, diversity of usages is not
an obstacle to it—on the contrary. . . .
Charity enables us to acquire a better
awareness of the very depth of our
unity, at the same time as it makes us
suffer more painfully the present im­
possibility of seeing this unity expand
into concelebration, and it spurs us on
to do everything possible to hasten the
advent of that day of the Lord. Thus
we see more clearly that it is incum­
bent on the heads of the Churches, on
their hierarchy, to lead the Churches
along the path which leads to the re­
discovery of full communion. They
must do it by mutual recognition of
each other and mutual respect for each
other. . . .
Extracts from the patriarch's reply
Glory to God the author of every
marvel, who has deemed us worthy
today . . . to receive Your Holiness,
dear and venerated, you who have come
here to bring the kiss of ancient Rome
to its younger sister.
Be welcome, most holy successor to
Peter, who have Paul's name and his
conduct, as a messenger of charity,
union and peace. . . .
The apostles Peter and Andrew, who
were brothers, are glad with us, and in
their joy are joined with the choir of
the holy Fathers of the setting sun and
of the rising sun, of north and of south,
who consumed themselves in the wit­
ness of the undivided Church's common
faith and in the sanctification of their
concelebration in its bosom. . . .
Descending in peace from the
Mount of Olives as from a first degree
of conciliation, and taking the road
towards Emmaus, walking along with
the risen Lord and longing for the
breaking of the bread, we have pursued
our road until today, carrying on a dia­
logue in charity. Our hearts were burn­
ing and the Lord has not left us.
According to His truthful words,
'Behold, I am with you' (Matthew 2 8 :
20), He has led us stage by stage and
has confronted us with the unhappy
signs of our common history. He has
ordered us to raise from between us,
from the midst of the Church and from
its very memory, the curtain of separa­
tion. That is what we have done as
far as our weakness allowed.
But He who gives far beyond what­
ever we can conceive, our common and
only Lord, has blessed and increased
the measure of His gifts to His Church
and to us ourselves. And see how, con­
trary to every human expectation, we
have among us the Bishop of Rome, the
first in honour among us, 'he who pre­
sides in charity' (Ignatius of Antioch,
Epistle to the Romans, Migne, P.G. 5,
801).
And here are both of us, facing our
common and holy responsibility to­
ward the Church and the world.
Henceforth, whither and how will
we continue along our route?
Both the goal and the paths that
lead to it are in the hands of God. But
it is not I, it is the Lord who says 'may
all be one' (John 17:21).
Obedient to His words and to His
will, we are moving toward the union
of all, toward the full communion of
charity and of faith, coming to pass in
the concelebration of the common
chalice of Christ. . . .
Let us then apply ourselves, by re­
ciprocal gestures of the Churches,
where it is possible, to reuniting what
is divided, in the firm recognition of
the common points of the Faith and of
canonical regulations. Let us thus con­
duct the theological dialogue accord­
ing to the principle of the full com­
munity of what is fundamental for the
Faith and for the liberty of theo­
logical, spiritual and creative thought,
inspired by the common Fathers, in
the diversity of local usage admitted by
the Church from its beginnings. . . .
THE JOURNEY OF THE OECUMENICAL PATRIARCH 1967
During October and November Patri­
arch Athenagoras undertook a long-
awaited journey to the Orthodox
Churches of Serbia, Rumania, and
Bulgaria, as well as to the West.
On the first stage of his journey he
went to Yugoslavia, where from 11 to
16 October he was the guest of the
Serbian Patriarch Gherman. On 13
October he was received officially by
Marshal Tito. During the visit the
Serbian patriarch stressed the relation­
ship of filial obedience linking the
Church of Serbia to Constantinople,
and he expressed full confidence in the
decision which the oecumenical patri­
arch had taken in going to meet the
pope. 'You are amongst your true
children who love you and honour you,'
Patriarch Gherman said, 'and who look
on you as their highest spiritual
father. . . . It is your office to teach
and direct us, and it is for the Serbian
people to obey you as your children. . . .
We are all persuaded that your meetings
and discussions with His Holiness the
Pope, both at Jerusalem and at Con­
stantinople, were not undertaken with
the intention of abandoning one iota
of Orthodoxy, but so that you could
both co-operate as brothers. . . .'
From Belgrade the oecumenical pat­
riarch travelled to Bucharest, spending
four days with the Church of Rumania,
and then from 20 to 24 October he
visited the Church of Bulgaria. Patri­
archs Justinian of Rumania and Cyril
of Bulgaria both emphasized that they
looked on the Patriarchate of Constan­
tinople as their 'Mother Church', and
like the Serbian patriarch they ex­
pressed their support for Patriarch
Athenagoras in his efforts towards re­
union.
After a short rest in Switzerland,
Patriarch Athenagoras arrived in Rome
on 26 October, where for two days he
was the pope's guest at the Vatican.
His visit happily coincided with the
sessions of the Roman Synod. This, the
culmination of the patriarch's journey,
was the third meeting between him and
the pope, following closely on Pope
Paul's visit to Constantinople in the
previous July, and continuing the
friendship begun at Jerusalem in
January 1964. In St Peter's the pope
and the patriarch sat on equal and
identical thrones, an event which must
surely be unprecedented in the annals
of papal Rome, and for which there
was certainly no parallel at the Council
of Florence in 1438-9.
In his address to the pope in St
Peter's on 26 October, the patriarch
said: 'Today, in this eternal city of the
Romans, the dwelling-place of the chief
leaders among the apostles, Peter and
Paul, and the glory of the Christian
world, we come to Your Holiness as
a brother to a brother'. He went on
to speak of the pope as 'the venerable
bishop of Rome, the bearer of apostolic
grace, the successor of a constellation
of holy and wise men who made illus­
trious this see which is the first in
honour and rank within the living body
of the Christian Churches throughout
the world'. 'We stand in this holy
place,' he continued, 'by the side of
Your Holiness and close to the altar,
and we prepare our heart and spirit
for the journey towards a common
eucharist, in the spirit of the Lord
washing the apostles' feet. . . . We hear
the cry of the blood of the apostles
Peter and Paul, the voice of the Church
of the catacombs and of the martyrs of
the Colosseum, the voice of our com­
mon fathers and teachers, inviting us
to explore to the full all ways and all
means to complete the holy work un­
dertaken, that of the perfect joining to­
gether of Christ's divided Church. . . .
We have all emerged from our isolation
and self-sufficiency to search for the
solid ground on which the undivided
Church was founded, and this has re­
vealed to us the truth that what unites
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
us is more than what divides us. . . .
We are called to continue and intensify
the dialogue of love, so that it may
lead us to the theological dialogue. As
for the fully theological dialogue . . .
we hope to achieve an exact apprecia­
tion of, and distinction between, those
points of the faith which must neces­
sarily be confessed in common and
those other elements in the life of the
Church which, since they do not touch
on faith, can freely constitute, in ac­
cordance with the traditions of the two
Churches, the proper and distinctive
aspects in the life of each, aspects
which are to be respected by the other.'
The pope said in his answer: '. . .
Christ demands with greater insistence
than ever that we be one that the world
may believe. This request of the Holy
Spirit we see manifested first of all in
the movement of renewal that He
is bringing about everywhere in the
Church. . . . The Second Vatican Coun­
cil in the Catholic Church is one of its
stages. . . . The Synod of Bishops,
gathered here, is a sign of it; today,
when problems are on a world scale it
guarantees in new forms a better co­
operation between local Churches and
the Church of Rome which presides in
love (St Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle
to the Romans, title). . . . We know
that a like effort for renewal is in
progress in the Orthodox Church and
we are following its development with
love and attention. You also are ex­
periencing the need we have mentioned
of securing a better co-operation be­
tween local Churches. The first pan-
Orthodox Conference at Rhodes, the
fruit in great measure of the patient
and persevering efforts of Your Holi­
ness, marked an important stage on
this path, and it is significant that the
programme which it set itself, although
worked out previously and indepen­
dently, bears in essentials a striking
resemblance to that of the Second
Vatican Council. Is that not a further
sign of the Spirit's action?'
In the joint declaration, issued at the
conclusion of the visit, Pope Paul and
Patriarch Athenagoras emphasized both
the obstacles still to be overcome, and
the unity already existing between the
two Churches: '. . . While recognizing
that there is still a long way to go on
the road towards the unity of all
Christians, and that between the Roman
Catholic and the Orthodox Church
there still remain points to clarify and
obstacles to surmount before attaining
that unity in the profession of faith
necessary for re-establishing full com­
munion, they rejoice in the fact that
their meeting was able to contribute to
their Churches' rediscovering them­
selves still more as sister Churches.
'In the prayers they offered, in their
public statements and in their private
conversation, the pope and the patri­
arch wished to emphasize their con­
viction that an essential element in the
restoration of full communion between
the Roman Catholic Church on the one
side and the Orthodox Church on the
other, is to be found within the frame­
work of the renewal of the Church and
of Christians, in fidelity to the tradi­
tions of the Fathers and to the inspira­
tion of the Holy Spirit who remains
always with the Church.'
Patriarch Athenagoras flew from
Rome back to Switzerland, where he
remained from 28 October until 9
November, paying an official visit to
the World Council of Churches at
Geneva on 5 November. On the con­
cluding stage of his travels, from 9 to
14 November, he was the guest of the
Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth
Palace, London. His programme in­
cluded a visit to the Queen at Bucking­
ham Palace, a Festal Evensong at
Westminster Abbey, and a pilgrimage
to Canterbury.
Wherever he went, whether among
Orthodox or western Christians, Patri­
arch Athenagoras was received with
great enthusiasm; and his warmth and
evident sincerity made an immediate
impression. It was an act of real courage
on his part to undertake such a
journey when moje than eighty years of
age, and despite the constant anxieties
by which he is faced at home in his
relations with the Turkish authorities.
NEWS AND COMMENT
GREECE
Church and State since 21 April
The law of 10 May. The outward
situation of the Church of Greece has
altered drastically since the military
coup during the night of 20-21 April
1967.
Concerned as they were not merely
to make certain political changes but
also to initiate a spiritual renewal of
the Greek people, the members of the
newly-established National Government
were quick to intervene in the life of
the Church. One of their early meas­
ures was to decree the compulsory at­
tendance of school children at the
Holy Liturgy each Sunday: teachers
were made responsible for gathering
their pupils together and bringing them
en bloc to church. These and other
such decisions - often of a markedly
'Puritan' tinge - clearly indicate the de­
sire of the National Government to
halt increasing secularization and to
preserve the Christian heritage of
Greece as a living reality. The personal
sincerity of the new rulers of Greece
is manifest: but how far, one wonders,
can the desired spiritual renewal be
achieved by coercion and external
legislation?
The government's main plans for
church reform were embodied in a
'compulsory law' (anankaslikos nomos)
promulgated on 10 May. The purpose
of this law, so the Prime Minister Mr
Kollias explained, was 'to strengthen
the authority of the heads of the
Church and to prevent certain dis­
orders such as have arisen in the past'.
This is presumably a reference to the
protracted and unedifying dispute be­
tween Church and state during the last
few years (see ECR, 1.1, pp. 53-4; 1.2,
p. 174; 1.3, p. 289), and perhaps also to
the affair of Archbishop Iakovos
(Vavanatsos) in 1962 (see below).
The new law specified t h a t :
(i) the Holy Synod is to consist of 9
bishops instead of 12.
421
(ii) the existing synod is dismissed from
office (under normal circumstances it
would have continued until October).
It is to be replaced by a 'specially
chosen synod' (aristindin synodos),
whose members will be selected by the
government. This new synod will re­
tain office until 30 September 1967,
but if necessary its term may be
extended by the government.
(iii) the provisions of law 4589, of 10
November 1966, requiring the retire­
ment of bishops at the age of 80, are
extended to include the archbishop of
Athens. Since the existing holder, Arch­
bishop Chrysostom, is 87, the see of
Athens automatically becomes vacant.
(iv) a new method is laid down for the
election of the archbishop: the synod
is to put forward three names, and one
of these will be selected by the govern­
ment, acting through the intermediary
of the king. The same method is also
to be followed when appointing bishops
for other sees.
(v) the post of Government Commis­
sioner to the Holy Synod is abolished.
His duties will be performed by the
Director General of Cults in the Min­
istry of Education and Cults. The
Director General must hold the degree
of Doctor of Theology, and should pre­
ferably be a person who has studied for
at least two years in the west.
Archbishop Chrysostom was in hos­
pital at the moment when the law
appeared announcing his enforced re­
tirement. He had suffered a mild stroke
during the Epitaphios procession on
Good Friday (28 April). He served as
head of the Greek Church for slightly
more than five years, having assumed
office on 14 February 1962, at a time
of grave crisis in the Greek hierarchy:
his predecessor, Archbishop Iakovos
(Vavanatsos) had resigned only twelve
days after his election, as a result of ac­
cusations of immorality levelled against
him (he was subsequently declared
innocent). Archbishop Chrysostom,
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
a man of deeply spiritual life and of
a vivid pastoral sense, has often been
grossly misrepresented in the west, and
his true character altogether distorted:
he was by no means the narrow-
minded and ignorant fanatic that many
western Christians imagined. There
can be no doubt, however, that be­
cause of his advanced years he had
failed to confront with sufficient de­
cisiveness the many problems of the
Greek Church, and in particular the
thorny question of relations with the
state.
Point (v) in the law of 10 May meant
the retirement of Professor Hamilcar
Alivizatos, Government Commissioner
since February 1963. Professor Aliviza­
tos celebrated his 80th birthday a week
after retirement, on 17 May.
The new synod. On 11 May, the day
following the promulgation of the 'com­
pulsory law', the government announced
the names of the eight Metropolitans
who were to constitute the 'specially
chosen synod':
Constantine of Patras
Dionysios of Trikka
Damaskinos of Nafpaktos
Meletios of Kythira
Antonios of Xanthi
Stylianos of Preveza
Constantine of Didymoteichon
Synesios of Kassandreia
The ninth place in the synod was to
be filled by the new Archbishop of
Athens, when elected. Meanwhile
Metropolitan Constantine of Patras
was nominated locum tenens.
It will be noted that a number of
prominent hierarchs - such as Metro­
politans Chrysostom of Piraeus and
Panteleimon of Thessalonica - were not
included in the new synod. The motive
that lay behind the selection of the
eight names can easily be discerned. All
but one - Metropolitan Stylianos of
Preveza - were members of the min­
ority group within the Greek hierarchy
that refused during November 1965 to
take any part in the election and con­
secration of new bishops in defiance
of the government.
Election of the new archbishop. The
'specially chosen synod' met on 13
May, and in accordance with the pro­
cedure laid down by the government
it selected three names as candidates
for the archbishopric:
Archimandrite Ieronymos Kotsonis
(with 8 votes)
Metropolitan Constantine of Patras
(with 7 votes)
Metropolitan Dionysios of Trikka
(with 7 votes)
Thus all three candidates received the
maximum possible number of votes,
since presumably the two Metropolitans
refrained from voting for themselves.
Metropolitans Constantine and Diony­
sios immediately thanked the synod for
the honour which it had shown to them
in choosing them; but they asked the
synod's permission to express to the
king their strong wish that he should
choose Fr Ieronymos.
On the same day, 13 May, King
Constantine - acting in consultation
with the Minister of Education and
Cults, Mr K. Kalambokias - announced
the appointment of Archimandrite Iero­
nymos as archbishop. He was conse­
crated bishop on the following Sunday,
14 May, in Athens cathedral and was
enthroned three days later. On his way
from the royal palace to his enthrone­
ment, by his own special decision Arch­
bishop leronymos called first at the
hospital, to ask for the prayers and
blessing of his predecessor. Deeply
moved and weeping, Archbishop Chry­
sostom embraced him and prayed for
his success. The enthronement cere­
mony took place amid scenes of extra­
ordinary popular enthusiasm.
While few would doubt that Arch­
bishop leronymos is by far the best
person that could have been chosen to
head the Greek Church, grave reserva­
tions must be expressed about the
actual manner in which the choice was
made. It is indeed disquieting that the
civil authorities, without consulting the
hierarchy of the -Church, should de­
pose the archbishop, dismiss the mem­
bers of the Holy Synod, and appoint
others of their own choosing. The new
NEWS AND COMMENT
archbishop, however great his personal
worthiness for this office, was in effect
the nominee of the secular arm: for
although the 'specially chosen synod'
went through the necessary outward
motions of election, the result was
clearly a foregone conclusion.
Nor is this all. The 'triadic' system,
laid down in the law of 10 May for
the selection of the archbishop and
new bishops, is certainly defensible in
theory, and was in fact employed in the
Byzantine empire. But modern Greece
is not medieval Byzantium: will a sys­
tem that worked well enough in the
11th century work equally well in the
second half of the 20th? The present
National Government might conceiv­
ably be replaced by a left-wing, anti­
clerical regime: should that happen,
the 'triadic' system would expose the
Church to all kinds of disastrous in­
filtration and pressure.
It is, however, by no means the first
occasion on which a Greek government
has intervened in the election of an
archbishop. Chrysostom Papadopoulos,
for example, the archbishop of Athens
from 1923 to 1938, was chosen by an
aristindin synodos, and not by the
regularly constituted synod; and the
system whereby the king chooses one
among three names was applied in the
case of Archbishop Chrysanthos, head
of the Greek Church from 1938 to
1941.
The previous career of Archbishop
leronymos. The new archbishop was
born in 1905, at the village of Hysternia
on the celebrated pilgrimage island of
Tinos. His father died six months be­
fore his birth and he was brought up
by his mother. His first act as arch­
bishop - on the day following his en­
thronement - was to revisit Tinos, in
order to pray there at the shrine of the
Theotokos and to celebrate a mem­
orial service for his parents in his native
village.
He studied at the Rizareios School
for clergy and then, from 1924 to
1928, in the theological school at the
university of Athens. In 1934 he re­
ceived a scholarship for study abroad:
he spent three years in Germany at the
universities of Munich, Berlin, and
Bonn, and then six months in England
at Lincoln Theological College and at
Mirfield. On his return to Greece, he
was ordained deacon and became secre­
tary of the Holy Synod. In 1940 he was
ordained priest and received the degree
of doctor of theology at Athens uni-.
versity. In November 1941 the occupa­
tion government relieved him of his
post as secretary to the synod, and he
then became chaplain to the Evanghelis-
mos hospital at Athens. During the
occupation and the immediate post­
war years he became widely known for
his charitable and social work among
the destitute and refugees.
In 1949 the late King Paul appointed
him chaplain to the Royal Family, and
this means that he has been responsible
for the present king's religious up­
bringing since childhood. In 1959, while
still remaining royal chaplain, he be­
came professor of canon law and pas­
toral theology at the university of
Thessalonica. As such, he was the only
priest among the eighteen theological
professors in Greece. He has travelled
extensively since the war, taking part
in inter-Orthodox meetings and in the
activities of the World Council of
Churches: he became a member of the
central committee of the WCC in 1954.
Probably no priest or bishop in the
Church of Greece possesses wider in­
ternational experience.
Archbishop Ieronymos is a fluent
writer: the list of his works in the
recent Greek Encyclopedia of Religion
and Ethics runs to 35 items, not in­
cluding works that he has translated.
Apart from his Notes on Canon Law in
three volumes (1960-2), he has written
studies on the place of the laity in the
Church (1956), intercommunion (1957),
ecclesiastical economy (1957), and the
validity of Anglican Orders (this last
appeared in English translation in The
Greek Orthodox Theological Review
for 1957-8).
He is the seventeenth Archbishop of
Athens and All Greece since the foun­
dation of the; Greek kingdom, and the
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
third to be drawn from the ranks of
the university professors. His two pre­
decessors in this regard were Proko-
pios Oikonomidis (1896-1901) and
Chrysostom Papadopoulos (1923-38).
Protest from the patriarch of Mos­
cow. At the meeting of the synod on
23 May, Archbishop Ieronymos stated
that, out of the whole hierarchy of the
Church of Greece, only two bishops had
refused to accept the validity of the
acts of 10-17 May: he did not mention
them by name. Outside Greece, it seems
that no protests were made by any of
the heads of the autocephalous Ortho­
dox Churches, with the one exception
of Patriarch Alexis of Moscow. The
Russian patriarch sent a telegram to
King Constantine of Greece, deploring
the deposition of Archbishop Chrysos­
tom and the dissolution of the synod.
'We are profoundly saddened', he
wrote, 'by the interference of the new
holders of power in the affairs of the
Church . . . without precedent in our
day.' Striking a more explicitly politi­
cal note, he also expressed regret at
'the continual persecution of patriots'
by the new government.
In reply the Greek government stated
that they had acted in the best inter­
ests of the Church, and with the sup­
port of the clergy and people; why, they
asked, did the patriarch speak thus
about Church-state relations in Greece,
while remaining silent about govern­
ment pressure on the Church in his
own country? As for the 'patriots' on
whose behalf the patriarch appeals, he
knows quite well that they have been
imprisoned because they are 'danger­
ous communists' (Le Monde, 19 & 25
May '67). In a press interview, Arch­
bishop Ieronymos emphasized his per­
sonal respect for Patriarch Alexis, but
he added that the patriarch was not
accurately informed about the situation
in Greece (Katholiki, 7 June '67),
The enthronement address of Arch­
bishop Ieronymos. In what has justly
been described as an 'historic address'
(Diakonia, II.2, p. 181), the new arch­
bishop outlined his future programme.
Among the points which he stressed
were the following:
(A) Domestic problems.
(1) The diocese of A t h e n s - w h i c h in­
cludes more than an eighth of Greece's
total population - is to be subdivided.
The training of deaconesses must be
further developed.
(2) The vacant parishes in north Greece
must be supplied with priests. The
standard of education among the clergy
must be raised, and where possible,
clergy already ordained are to be given
further education. 'Out of some 8,000
clergy in the Church of Greece, only
300 hold university degrees; 1,800 have
studied at the higher ecclesiastical
seminaries, that is, they have an edu­
cation of intermediate level; the re­
maining 6,000 have received for the
most part only an elementary educa­
tion.'
(3) The finances of the Church must be
set on a proper footing. Adequate mate­
rial support must be ensured for the
parish clergy. The existing situation,
whereby the Church is dependent on
financial assistance from the state, can
be regarded as only a 'temporary solu­
tion'. The Church should become 'eco­
nomically independent': 'this, we be­
lieve, can be achieved progressively
within a period of ten years.' To indi­
cate the sincerity of his concern for
the parish clergy, the archbishop
promised that all his revenues, apart
from a small monthly sum, would be
set aside to provide a hospital for the
clergy.
(4) The work of the catechism schools,
which has declined in recent years,
must be improved. The various church
organizations and religious movements
should be more closely integrated in
the life of the Church as a whole, in­
stead of being isolated as in the past.
Vacant episcopal sees will be promptly
filled; any candidate for the episcopate
who is found canvassing for his own
name will be automatically disqualified.
Careful thought must be given to the
present crisis in Greek monasticism.
(B) Inter-Orthodox, relations; work for
Christian unity.
(1) The relations of the Church of
Greece with the other Orthodox
NEWS AND COMMENT
Churches must be strengthened, and
above all her links with the 'venerable
oecumenical throne, the Mother Church
of our Church'. Intense preparation
must be made for the forthcoming pro-
synod.
(2) The theological school of the Cross
in Jerusalem, closed for some years,
should be reopened as a seminary for
Orthodox clergy in Palestine and the
Near East, and also as a centre for
Orthodox biblical studies.
(3) 'Our relations with non-Orthodox
confessions must be marked by Chris­
tian love and by mutual respect, so as
to foster friendship; but at the same
time we must preserve our dignity and
our firm adherence to the Orthodox
faith and teaching. As a pre-condition
for any closer relations, we must insist
on the condemnation of proselytism.'
(4) In collaboration with the other
Orthodox Churches, we should face
seriously our missionary responsibility.
Immediate steps should be taken to
realize the scheme to found a centre
for Afro-Asian studies within the theo­
logical school at Thessalonica.
(5) Orthodox participation at pan-
Christian conferences should be more
weighty and considered; we should pre­
pare ourselves more carefully for these
gatherings.
In conclusion the archbishop spoke
of the Church's witness in the modern
world.
In this very thorough 'programme for
a true aggiornamento' (La Croix, 30
May '67), it is noticeable that two
problems were not mentioned: the
question of a new constitutional char­
ter for the Church of Greece, a point
much debated in recent years; and the
question of the Old Calendarists
(Irenikon, 1967, p. 287).
Visit to the oecumenical patriarchate.
Archbishop Ieronymos quickly showed
that he had no intention of allowing
this ambitious programme to remain a
dead letter. First of all, he took swift
and decisive action to terminate the
estrangement between Constantinople
and Athens that had arisen in the time
of his predecessor. His enthronement
was attended by Metropolitan Meliton
of Chalcedon, the senior metropolitan
of the oecumenical throne, who de­
livered a pastoral staff to the arch­
bishop in the name of the patriarch, as
a symbol of the spiritual relation be­
tween the Mother Church and her
daughter. During his stay in Athens
Metropolitan Meliton had several dis­
cussions with Archbishop Ieronymos
about future co-operation between their
two Churches. On 8-11 June Arch­
bishop Ieronymos followed this up by
himself visiting Constantinople, accom­
panied by two members of his synod,
the metropolitans of Patras and Kas-
sandreia. Conversations were held with
the oecumenical patriarch Athenagoras
and his synod on the subject of inter-
Orthodox relations and the attitude of
Orthodoxy to other Churches; and a
joint communique was issued which
stated, without entering into details,
that 'full agreement' had been reached
between the two sides. The whole visit
took place in an atmosphere of remark­
able friendliness and cordiality. Even
Archbishop Chrysostom, who has re­
peatedly expressed reservations about
the reunion work of the oecumenical
patriarch, sent a telegram to Arch­
bishop Ieronymos at Istanbul, with the
words 'Blessed be your pilgrimage to
the centre of eternal truth'.
Three months later, during Septem­
ber, Archbishop Ieronymos paid an­
other visit to a sister Orthodox Church
- that of Cyprus - and held discus­
sions with Archbishop Makarios.
Appointment of new bishops. True
to the promise made in his enthrone­
ment address, Archbishop Ieronymos
has seen that vacant dioceses are
speedily filled. During June the appoint­
ment of thirteen diocesan and two assis­
tant bishops was announced. The same
'triadic' system was used as in the
election of the Archbishop:
Chrysostom, Bishop of Kernitsa
(assistant bishop in the Arch­
diocese of Athens): Metropolitan
of Phocis
Archimandrite John Papalis: Metr.
of Sidirocastron
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
Archimandrite Nikodimos Graikos:
Metr. of Thebes
Archimandrite Sebastian Oikono-
midis: Metr. of Dryinopolis
Archimandrite Konstantios Chronis:
Metr. of Alexandroupolis
Archimandrite Augustine Kantiotis:
Metr. of Fiorina
Archimandrite Apostolos Papakon-
stantinou: Metr. of Zakynthos
Archimandrite Polycarp Vagenas:
Metr. of Kerkyra
Archimandrite Ierotheos Tsantilis:
Metr. of Hydra
Archimandrite Spyridon Trantelis:
Metr. of Langada
Archimandrite Chrysostom Gialouris:
Metr. of Chios
Archimandrite Kallinikos Poulos:
Metr. of Edessa and Pella
George (Pavlidis), Chorepiskopos of
Trimythous: Metr. of Nicaea
Archimandrite Elias Tsakogiannis:
Bishop of Peristera (assistant in
the Archdiocese of Athens)
Archimandrite Dimitrios Trakatellis:
Bishop of Vresthena (assistant in
the Archdiocese of Athens)
These appointments have given very
widespread satisfaction in Greece, and
it seems that a genuine effort has been
made, by the synod and the govern­
ment, to select the best possible men.
At the same time there are many
Greeks who feel that there can be no
real solution to the difficulties of the
contemporary Greek episcopate, unless
the parish clergy and the laity in a
vacant diocese are also allowed to share
in the election of their new shepherd.
The most striking of the new ap­
pointments is that of Archimandrite
Augustine Kantiotis. An outstanding
preacher, deeply ascetic in personal
character, devoted to works of charity
and to 'Christian action' of a highly
militant type, Fr Augustine is a vigor­
ous opponent of 'ecumenism' and a
fierce critic of the patriarch of Con­
stantinople. Many had felt that he was
far too controversial a figure ever to be
chosen bishop. His appointment sug­
gests that the new leaders in Church
and state are anxious that all points of
426
view should be represented in the ranks
of the hierarchy. The diocese of Fior­
ina is one of the most difficult in all
Greece, where Metropolitan Augus­
tine's immense pastoral energy will find
full scope.
A significant feature is the strong in­
fluence of Zoe among the new bishops.
Several of them are full members of the
Zoe Brotherhood or of its close paral­
lel, the Sotir movement; others, though
not full members, are in close contact
with it. Archbishop Ieronymos him­
self, while not actually belonging to the
Brotherhood, is noted for his sympathy
towards Zoe. One of the freshly ap­
pointed Zoe bishops, Fr Dimitrios
Trakatellis, speaks excellent English
and is well known in Great Britain and
America: he is eminently well quali­
fied to deal with the 'foreign relations'
department of the archbishopric. He
was studying at Harvard at the time
of his election.
Journey to north Greece. One of the
problems touched upon in the Arch­
bishop's enthronement address was that
of the frontier dioceses in northern
Greece. This is the area which suffered
most in the bitter struggle against the
communists after the last war. Count­
less church buildings were reduced to
ruins and some 250 parish clergy were
murdered by left-wing partisans - the
'Accursed of God', as the local popu­
lation termed them. Recovery has been
slow, and it has not proved easy to re­
plenish the depleted ranks of the
clergy. In March, just before the coup,
the Ministry of Education announced
that there were 1,077 vacant parishes
in the whole of Greece, 584 of these
being in the frontier districts. In the
diocese of Fiorina, now assigned to Fr
Augustine Kantiotis, 73 out of 141
parishes are without a priest; in the
neighbouring diocese of Kastoria, 39
out of 106 parishes are priestless. Ten
years ago, however, the situation was
even worse: the two dioceses had a
total of 140 vacant:- parishes (Irenikon,
1967, p. 273).
Here again Archbishop Ieronymos
has taken prompt action. Under his
NEWS AND COMMENT
chairmanship, a special committee met
at Athens on 12-20 June, at which two
lines of action were decided upon:
(i) Long-term. Particular efforts must
be made to attract teachers to the
priesthood: in poorer areas they can
act as both schoolmasters and parish
priests. Before ordination they will
undergo a special course lasting six
months.
(ii) Short-term. In dioceses such as
Athens, which are better served with
clergy, priests will be sent to work for
six-month periods in the north.
The second point in this programme
has already been carried into effect. At
the end of August a first instalment of
priests, numbering about 140, set out
from Athens for the north. The arch­
bishop himself accompanied them, and
during 23-31 August he made a jour­
ney through the frontier dioceses, being
welcomed wherever he went with great
enthusiasm. 'So far as we are aware,'
commented the magazine Zoe (21 Sep­
tember '67), 'it is the first time that an
archbishop of Greece has undertaken
such an extended tour through northern
Greece.'
All this is only a beginning, but it
is a beginning full of hope. During re­
cent years there has been much talk in
Greece about the alarming decline in
the religious life of the country: but
while many words were said, all too
little was actually done. Schemes for
reform met with tortuous opposition
and became hopelessly bogged down in
petty details. Now at last some posi­
tive and practical action is being taken.
This, indeed, is one of the most notable
features about Church life since 21
April - the speed with which new de­
velopments have taken concrete form,
and one event has succeeded another.
The most encouraging point of all is
the personality of the new archbishop
himself. Eis polla eti, despotal
KALLISTOS TIMOTHY WARE
Relics of St Isidore restored to Chios
In June 1967, Cardinal Urbani
handed over the relics of St Isidore,
patron of Chios, to a Greek Orthodox
delegation headed by Metropolitan
Iakovos of Mytilene, locum tenens of
the diocese of Chios. The relics were
taken to Greece by ship, arriving at the
island of Chios on 18 June. While in
Italy, Metropolitan Iakovos with the
rest of the delegation visited Pope Paul
at the Vatican, to thank him for the
restoration of the relics to their origi­
nal home.
St Isidore, a Roman soldier from
Alexandria, was martyred on Chios in
249-50 during the Decian persecution.
His remains have been at St Mark's,
Venice, since 1125.
Divorces in Greece
The number of divorces in Greece
has shown a disturbing increase in re­
cent years. In 1960, there were 2,463
divorces; in 1964, the figure had risen
to 3,279.
(Zoe, 27 July 1967)
The fifth pan-Orthodox conference
It is hoped to hold the fifth pan-
Orthodox conference at Vienna during
1968. Previous pan-Orthodox confer­
ences have met in Rhodes (1961, 1963,
1964) and in Belgrade (1966), although
spokesmen for the Moscow patriarch­
ate refer to this last as a 'pan-Ortho­
dox commission', rather than a 'con­
ference' in the proper sense. The chief
themes for discussion at the 1968 con­
ference are expected to b e : (i) the rela­
tions of the Orthodox Church with
Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and
the non-Chalcedonians; (ii) the pre­
parations for a full-scale pan-Orthodox
synod (not just a conference).
(Katholiki, 12 July 1967)
Crete: a correction
Two small corrections should be
made to the account of the elevation
of the Church of Crete into an arch­
diocese, published in our last issue
(ECR, 1.3, p. 290).
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
(i) It is not exact to state that 'hither­
to the only Cretan bishop with the
title of metropolitan was the bishop of
Heraklion'. In fact, the seven other
diocesan bishops of the island have also
held the title 'metropolitan' for the
past five years, since the decision to
that effect by the oecumenical patri­
archate on 25 September 1962.
USSR
Easter 1967
Easter 1967 did not pass without
the usual outbursts of anti-religious
hooliganism, but the rioters who at­
tempted to disrupt the Paschal celebra­
tions at Chernovtsy (SW Ukraine) were
evicted from church by the militia: it
appears that a number of the intruders
were subsequently fined in the courts.
The militia, though present on such
occasions, is usually entirely passive.
One gathers that the worshippers were
no less surprised than the intruders at
this unwonted application of the laws
which guarantee freedom of religious
belief.*
The behaviour of such anti-religious
activists disgusts a number of respon­
sible Party members, one of whom (offi­
cially connected with anti-religious
work) recently remarked in private
conversation that militant atheists
caused far more harm than militant
believers. In general, the Soviet in­
telligentsia cannot be said to approve
either the administrative or the ideo­
logical measures taken against believers.
It is no longer uncommon for Soviet
intellectuals to demonstrate a genuine
interest in religious and philosophical
problems (though it is not necessarily
any one denomination or religion which
attracts them exclusively).
*On the question of such laws: The Times
(Supplement on Russia, 6 November, 1967)
was sadly degraded by a contribution from
'a Russian correspondent' (for Russian, read
Soviet correspondent) under the heading
Freedom to believe. In his view, the laws of
the USSR on religion are violated only by
such ill-advised malcontents as the Baptist
initsiativniki.
428
(ii) It is not strictly accurate to des­
cribe the newly-elevated archdiocese of
Crete as 'autonomous'. It should rather
be styled 'semi-autonomous'- the term
used, for example, by Archbishop Ier-
onymos of Athens (an expert on canon
law) in the course of his enthronement
address on 17 May this year.
The Patriarch
The ninetieth birthday of Alexii,
patriarch of Moscow and all Russia,
was celebrated by the Russian Church
in November 1967. The patriarch
(whose name before his monastic pro­
fession was Sergei Simanskii) was born
in Moscow on 27 October (O.S.) 1877.
He has been a bishop of the Russian
Church since April 1913 and patriarch
since 1945.
The Seminaries
In the three theological seminaries
(over the reopening of which the patri­
arch presided in the immediate post­
war period) some beneficial changes in
curriculum have been authorized re­
cently. The curriculum adopted two de­
cades ago reflected the attitudes of an
older generation that had not only
gained its training but also virtually
all its experience of theological schools
before the revolution. Moreover, the
complete unpreparedness of the ma­
jority of modern students at entry led
to a somewhat excessive emphasis on
learning by rote. The syllabus has now
been (lightly but effectively) reshaped
to give it a more practical, less theo­
retical bent.
The Belgrade Consultation of 1966
The Journal of the Moscow Patri­
archate (1967, 6, pp. 35-48) carries an
article by Archbishop Basil (Krivocheine)
of Brussels and Belgium on the Inter-
Orthodox Commission on Dialogue
with the Anglican Church (see ECR,
I, 2, pp. 165-6). Archbishop Basil led
the Russian delegation at the Belgrade
NEWS AND COMMENT
Consultation. The author gives an in­
formative account of the discussions,
which revealed two basic tendencies
among the delegates: in their evalua­
tion of the present position of the
Anglican Church, some (like the arch­
bishop himself) took 'a strictly Ortho­
dox and realistic' view; while others
(such as Athenagoras, metropolitan of
Thyateira) adhered to a point of view
described by the author as 'liberal and
optimistic, which takes little account
NEAR EAST
The life of virtually all Christian
communities in the Near East has been
sadly disrupted by the Arab-Israel war.
It is still far from clear what aspect
the eventual settlement will assume,
and so the future situation of the Holy
Places and of the many religious insti­
tutions in Palestine remains uncertain.
EGYPT
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of
Alexandria
Since our correspondent's note in our
last issue, the newly-retired Patriarch
Christopher II has died (see obitu­
aries). At the time of writing an elec­
tion has not been held, but there are
reports that it can soon be expected.
It has been confirmed that it was the
demands of the Arabic-speaking Or­
thodox which caused the Holy Synod
to suspend preparations for the elec­
tion. The following information comes
from Proche-Orient Chretien, xvii, 1.
The Arabophones demanded the choice
and consecration of a second Arab
metropolitan, an increase in the num­
ber of their representatives among the
electors from 22 to 40, participation in
the administration of the patriarchate
and so in its economic control. These
claims are not new and, before they
became known to the general public,
some people were astonished that a
patriarchal election was taking place
G
of the actual situation' (p. 39). The one
group, notes Archbishop Basil, might be
described as proponents of d/cpt/3ei<x
(strictness in the application of the
Church's law); the other, of oiKovofila
(economy; 'the suspension of the strict
enforcement of Canon Law . . . in a
spirit of prudent stewardship, conde­
scension and leniency'-—in the defini­
tion of H. S. Alivizatos).
SAVELII TUBEROZOV
without the 'difficulties of the Arabo­
phones' being heard of and they ad­
mired the strict non-intervention of the
Egyptian government (see ECR I, 3,
p. 296).
In fact the situation of the patri­
archate of Alexandria has greatly
changed since the last patriarchal elec­
tion. The considerable Hellenic popula­
tion in Egypt has been constantly di­
minishing. 'Egypt for the Egyptians' has
been applied even to other Arabs of
Syrian and Lebanese origin, which has
meant the departure of the greater part
of the Arabic-speaking Orthodox as
well in these last fifteen years. They
now number between 5,000 and 10,000,
and probably nearer the former figure.
They used to number about 40,000 (To
Vima, 3.1.67). Their social position is
also greatly changed and they are far
from the wealth and influence they once
enjoyed. Yet they are Arabs and Egyp­
tian subjects, and in the Egypt of 1967
that is an important fact that some
people have perhaps been wrong in
underestimating; especially as the Hel­
lenes, although they number between
35,000 and 50,000 in the whole of
Africa, number no more than about
15,000 in Egypt itself (Kosmos, 15.3.67).
To these claims the bishops reply
that a change in the internal arrange­
ments of the patriarchate is under con­
sideration, but that it cannot take
place while the see is vacant; neverthe-
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
less, these desires will, they say, be
fully considered directly the new patri­
arch is elected. Appointment to the
three vacant sees—South Africa, Tanta
(Hermopolis) and Port Said (Pelusium)
—also awaits the patriarchal election.
However fair and canonical the answer,
it was not of a character to satisfy the
Arabophones who, ever since Decem­
ber, 1966, it seems (Alpha, 11.3.67),
have been sending their complaints to
the National Assembly and the secre­
tary of the party (To Vima, 5.3.67).
The proceedings for the election had
been begun when, on 9 Feb., the topo-
teretes received a visit from the deputy
chief of the security police of Alex­
andria who transmitted from the min­
ister of the interior a verbal order that
the electoral process was to be stopped.
At the request of the topoteretes, the
official put this order into writing
(Pantainos, 59, 1967). On 15 Feb. the
topoteretes, accompanied by the legal
adviser of the patriarchate, was received
by the chief of the security police and
requested an interview with the minis­
ter of the interior. On the 16th he re­
ported on his visit to the Holy Synod
and the Greek ambassador (ibid.). On
9 March the topoteretes, together with
Bishop Synesios of Nubia and Bishop
Parthenios of Carthage and the legal
adviser, Maitre Vasos Kanavatis, saw
the minister of the interior in Cairo. In
reply to the request to postpone the
election, he presented a memorandum
to the minister and gave him the neces­
sary explanations. The minister prom­
ised to examine the whole affair in a
friendly spirit (loc. cit., pp. 109-10).
On 13 March Bishops Nicolas of Ak-
sum and Cyprian of Central Africa re­
turned to their dioceses (ibid.). The
government required that an agreement
with the Arabophones should be
reached before the patriarchal election
took place (Alpha, loc. cit.). Some
Greek papers thought that there would
be many months' delay as the Arabo­
phones were being egged on by govern­
ment circles, but this may not neces­
sarily be so and one must hope, says
the writer in POC, that understanding,
moderation and realism will prevail for
the good of Christianity in Egypt.
Anbd Ruwes (Dec. 1966), the Cairo
review of the Coptic Theological
Faculty, writes: 'We suggest an idea
with regard to unity: if our Greek Or­
thodox brethren believe in our Ortho­
doxy and have the cause of unity with
us at heart, why do they then think of
electing a new patriarch? If unity be­
tween us is to be achieved, it will
not be legitimate to have two patri­
archs, since the canons of the Church
do not authorize two bishops for the
same eparchy. In this case, in the patri­
archate of Alexandria the Greek Ortho­
dox would be under the jurisdiction of
Pope Cyril VI, pope of Alexandria; in
Greece our own faithful would be
under the jurisdiction of the arch­
bishop of Athens. If steps are taken for
the consecration of a new patriarch,
this will mean that the matter of unity
is nothing but talk, and that the hour
for it has not yet come.'
We have received the following note
from our correspondent in Alexandria:
Origen presents his best regards and
begs to report that since writing in
ECR I. 3, Spring 1967 (see pp. 295-6),
many things have happened and fresh
shibboleths have arisen around the elec­
tion of a new patriarch in Alexandria.
The writer expressed the opinion that
it was early to foresee if a new patriarch
would be elected 'before the Orthodox
Easter (30 April) or . . . Christmas
1967'. Easter came and was duly, if
poorly, kept. The bishops, each and all,
had left already for their respective
dioceses, leaving Constantine of Leonto-
polis, the locum tenens, alone. Then
the 'six days war' broke out, followed
by the Egyptian heat of July, August
and September, when everything is at
a standstill in Egypt. Moreover, the
Angel of Death intervened twice: on
23 July the old Patriarch Christopher
II, who had formally resigned in 1966,
was gathered to his fathers, and on 18
October Nicolas of Aksum, the enfant
terrible of the synod, breathed his last
in Cairo.
NEWS AND COMMENT
With four dioceses vacant (Aksum,
Pelusium, Hermopolis and Johannes­
burg), the 'remnant' is now composed
of six metropolitans: Constantine of
Leontopolis, the locum tenens who be­
comes dean of the synod, Synesios of
Nubia, Parthenios of Carthage, Cyprian
of Central Africa, Nicolas of Eirinopo-
lis, and Eustace of Accra. A new shib­
boleth now arises. For the election of a
patriarch there must be seven bishops
in the synod. In 1939 a seventh bishop
(Sardis) was called from Constantinople.
But since 1940 there are also two suf­
fragan bishops: Hilarion of Babylon
and Barnabas of Mareotis, vicars re­
spectively in Cairo and Alexandria. The
first suffers from Parkinson's disease,
the second is in good health. The next
step will be, as all hope, the nomina­
tion of one of the two to take the place
of the seventh member. Let us then
hope that the six will soon be able to
say 'Now we are seven'! After all,
Christmas is nearing. . . .
ORIGEN
IRAQ
The Assyrian Church consecrates a 17-
year-old bishop.
The Assyrian Church in Iraq, which
is always divided by internal struggles
(see ECR I, 3 and POC 12 (1962), p.
243; 15 (1965), pp. 412-14) has lost
one of the best of the bishops loyal to
the patriarchal party. Mar Iso Sarkis,
bishop of Baghdad, died of cancer in
London on 18 December 1966, at the
age of 54.
He was born in the village of Mata
de Mar Zeya, in the centre of the
Jelo district, of which he was later
to become bishop, in the then Chris­
tian mountain region of the Turkish
Hakari. His family, from which the
bishops are traditionally recruited, was
ancestrally from Alkosh in Iraq. As a
small child he left his native country,
with all his compatriots, and fled to
Iraq. After one year in the priesthood
— during which he served first the
families of the Camp Gaylani refugee
quarter of Baghdad, then the families
at the once English air-base of Hab-
431
baniyah—he was, at the age of 39, con­
secrated bishop in 1951, to succeed his
uncle who had died.
His official title was Bishop of Jelo,
Baz and Rekan, whence the second
name of Sarkis, added to his personal
name of ISo. This is the name of all
titulars of the see of Jelo, just as that
of the titular of the patriarchal see of
Antioch is always Ignatius. Neverthe­
less he resided in Baghdad, whereas
the metropolitan, Mar Yusif Hnanisho,
at that time lived on the plain of Harir,
in the north of Iraq. He too came to
Baghdad in 1961 when the Kurdish
troubles began.
The funeral of Mar Iso Sarkis on
28 December 1966 at the cathedral of
Mar Zeya in Baghdad was the occasion
for demonstrations of sympathy and
esteem on the part of the various
Christian communities of Baghdad.
Mar Yusif Sarkis, who has succeeded
Mar Iso Sarkis as bishop of Jelo,
Baz and Rekan, is his cousin, son of
his uncle Abraham. He was consecrated
bishop in the cathedral of Mar Zeya
on 19 February 1967, in the presence
of representatives of the Anglican,
Presbyterian and Orthodox Churches;
of the Catholic pro-nuncio, Mgr
Maurice Perrin; of the Catholic Ar­
menian archbishop of Iraq, Narses
Zayroyan; of the superior-general of
the Chaldean monks; and of repre­
sentatives of the Chaldean patriarchate,
the Syrian Catholic archbishopric, the
Carmelites, Jesuits, Redemptorists and
Dominicans of Baghdad.
Mar Yusif Sarkis was ordained priest
on Friday and consecrated bishop on
Sunday. He is only 17 years of age.
There were only two consecrators,
which is allowed by the synod of the
East Syrian Church: Mar Yusif
Hnanisho, metropolitan of Shames-
din and Shapat, vicar of the patriarch
of Iraq and the Middle East, Mar
Simun; and Mar Philippos Yukhan-
nan, resident titular bishop of Terga-
war, nowadays resident at Diyana in
the north of Iraq.
The new bishop was born in Kirkuk
in 1950. Until a few weeks before his

EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
consecration he was a pupil at a public
school in a class roughly correspond­
ing to the third form in an English
school. He has obviously not had time
for any philosophical and theological
studies. He is now just learning the
rubrics of his rite so that he can cele­
brate the liturgy on Sundays and feast-
days, and he will probably d o some
supplementary study, general and par­
ticular, either in England or with the
patriarch in Chicago.
Our readers may be interested in
the method of electing Assyrian
bishops. Formerly the bishop was
chosen from among the monks by an
assembly of clergy and notables. He
was then approved by the metropolitan,
who consecrated him, and finally he
received from the Catholicos the 'per­
fection' of the consecration.
Since monks ceased to exist in the
Assyrian Church, that is to say, since
about the middle of the 16th century,
the episcopate has been hereditary,
from uncle to nephew, in certain
families. There are, however, many
conditions: especially that the mother
of the future bishop, who is normally
the wife of the brother of the bishop
in office, abstains from meat from the
time she realizes that she is pregnant
until the child is weaned. He himself
will never drink milk again; he will
never touch meat, wine or fermented
drinks. In this the law is the same as
for the biblical Nazarites, except as
regards growing the hair long; the
Assyrian Nazir wears it like other
boys and men. Obviously such a
'vowed man' can break the abstinence
imposed upon him and refuse to be a
AROUND THE WORLD
A new Orthodox saint:
Arsenios of Paros
On 20 June 1967 the Holy Synod of
the oecumenical patriarchate proclaimed
Hieromonk Arsenios of Paros as a
saint.
Born at Joannina on 31 January
1800, St Arsenios went at the age of 15
bishop if, for example, he wishes to
marry.
For this reason Mar Yusif himself
now has no heir apparent, his 'vowed'
nephew having in advance renounced
the episcopate. During the ceremony
we therefore heard the old archbishop
appeal to the Christian sentiments of
those parents who could do so - belong­
ing, that is to say, to the families who
were eligible - to consecrate their sons
at birth to the service of the Lord in
the episcopate.
What will the Nestorians do if there
is a failure in the supply of these des­
tined 'monks'? I was told that they
would choose a worthy priest of con­
siderable age, who would then have
to separate from his wife and children.
In fact, two young bishops have been
consecrated in modern times: the
present patriarch himself, Mar Isay
Simun XXI, succeeded to the patri­
archal throne in 1921 at the age of 11.
In the present case, the young
bishop still has much to learn if he is
to fulfil his responsibility as spiritual
pastor and to some extent temporal
leader of his nation. The difference of
age between him and the metropolitan
is of critical importance. The latter is
nearly 70 and the weight of responsi­
bility, above all in the present crisis,
may prove crushing for such young
shoulders. Mar Yusif Sarkis knows
this, and his 17 years do not prevent
him from looking to the future with
great seriousness, but also with a deep
confidence which should give the young
David a sense of being 'the Lord's an­
ointed'.
(Proche-Orient Chretien, 1967
vol. xvii, 1.)
to Mount Athos where he became a
monk. After a stay of six years on the
Holy Mountain, he moved first to the
monastery of Penteli in the outskirts
of Athens and then to the island of
Paros, where most of his life was
spent. He devoted himself to spiritual
work, especially the ministry of con-
NEWS AND COMMENT
fession. He died at Paros on his
seventy-seventh birthday, 31 January
1877, at the Convent of the Trans­
figuration, in which he acted as spiri­
tual father.
This official act of proclamation
comes in response to popular devotion.
Even during his lifetime Hieromonk
Arsenios was honoured as a saint by
the local population of Paros, and after
his death a special church was built to
house his tomb. The patriarchal procla­
mation refers in particular to the
miracles performed by God through
him during his life and after his death.
The request for formal proclamation
came initially from the local bishop,
Metropolitan Epiphanios of Paronaxia:
this was submitted to the Holy Synod
of the Church of Greece and forwarded
with their approval to the oecumenical
patriarchate (see ECR, 1.3, p. 290).
A life of St Arsenios has been written
by Archimandrite Philotheos Zervakos,
abbot of the monastery of Longovarda
on Paros: The life, character and
miracles of our Father Arsenios the
New (Athens, 1960: in Greek).
Serbian Orthodox and German Catho­
lics exchange students
Bishop Graber of Regensburg, who
is responsible to the German Bishops'
Conference for relations with the Or­
thodox, led a delegation to Constanti­
nople, Sofia and Belgrade. There is to
be an exchange of students at faculties
of theology between German Catholics
and Serbian Orthodox. The German
bishops are to give more scholarships
than before to allow Serbian Orthodox
theology students to pursue their
studies in German. They are also pro­
viding free places for Serbian Ortho­
dox students at their own Orthodox
theological schools in Yugoslavia. Ger­
man Catholic theology students may
spend their so-called 'free semester' at
an Orthodox school of theology. Theo­
logical literature is to be exchanged.
In the future Orthodox and Catholic
priests will study together at a centre
in Regensburg.
(Deutsche Kulturnachrichten, May 1967)
433
Recklinghausen Ikon Museum acquires
new collection
This museum, which already posses­
ses over 500 ikons, has recently ac­
quired the collection of the Paris art
dealer, Alexander Popoff, who has died.
It consists of 52 ikons, mostly of the
Novgorod school.
(Deutsche Kulturnachrichten,
June/July 1967)
France
Russian Orthodox Convent in France
moves to new home
The Russian Orthodox convent of
the Holy Virgin of Lesna, which has
been settled since 1950 at Fourqueux,
not far from St Germain-en-Laye, has
moved this autumn to Provemont, near
Gisors, in Normandy. Planning de­
velopments at Fourqueux and compul­
sory purchase schemes have deprived
the sisters of their garden and other
land, and made it impossible for them
to remain there.
The convent was originally founded
in 1884 close to the small town of
Lesna, on the western frontier of
Russia. The foundress, Mother Kather-
ine (Countess Efimovsky), was highly
educated and well read in theology;
like the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, she
desired to establish a monastic life for
women that would be orientated to­
wards the world as well as towards
God, dedicated both to prayer and to
the service of men through active social
work. It was her great hope to see the
Order of Deaconesses revived once
more. 1 At Lesna the sisters were chiefly
concerned with the education of chil­
dren. At the outbreak of the first world
war the community numbered 400 nuns,
with 100 novices, and in their charge
were 400 school children and a hospital
of 60 beds.
In 1915 the approach of fighting
forced the nuns to flee from Lesna.
They settled first in Rumania and then,
in 1921, at Hopovo in Yugoslavia,
where they opened a school for Rus­
sian orphans. During the next twenty
iSee Sergei Hackel, in ECR, I, 3 (1967), p.
265
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
years the convent played a decisive
role in the revival of the monastic life
of women within the Church of Serbia,
no less than fifteen convents being
founded by Serbian nuns who had re­
ceived their training at Hopovo. In
1942 the Hopovo convent was burnt to
the ground by Communist partisans.
After a period of great hardship and
harassment under the newly established
Communist regime, the sisters eventu­
ally managed to escape to France in
June 1950.
The Lesna convent is unique among
the religious communities of the Rus­
sian emigration, in that it left Russia
as a single unit. It belongs to the
Russian Orthodox Church in Exile
(jurisdiction of Metropolitan Philaret).
There are at present about 40 nuns,
served by two priests: the liturgy is
celebrated daily. The community pos­
sesses an ancient miracle-working ikon,
the Holy Virgin of Lesna, which has
accompanied the nuns on all their
wanderings. This ikon is of a striking
and unusual character, being oval in
shape and painted upon a red stone.
K.T.W.
Albania
The Osservatore Romano of 11 July
1967 denounced the 'particularly vio­
lent phase' of the anti-religious cam­
paign in Albania. It says that all the
churches [? Catholic] have been closed
one after the other. The last to remain
open, the cathedral of Tirana, was
closed on 4 June, after an anti-religious
poster had been affixed to it.
According to certain sources of in­
formation, the campaign, for which not
only the government of Mr Enver
Hoxha, but also 'Red Guards' arrived
from China were responsible, was
turning the churches into 'houses of
culture', and was accompanied by the
desecration of sacred images. The
Osservatore hoped that there would be
no confirmation of this news, at least
of the worst of it.
It should be added that the pope re­
ceived a delegation of Albanian refu­
gees at the beginning of July, and
deplored the repressive measures being
taken in that country, not only against
Catholics but also against Orthodox and
Moslems. (IC1> August 1966)
Portugal
Mariological Conference at Lisbon
Several Orthodox attended the fifth
International Mariological Conference
held at Lisbon on 2-9 August 1967.
Patriarch Gherman of Serbia sent as
personal representative the Fr Dimitri
Dimitrijevid, Dean of the Theological
School of Belgrade, who delivered a
very cordial message from the Patri­
arch to the Conference. Also present
was Professor Ioannes Kalogirou, of the
Theological School of Thessalonica Uni­
versity, author of a study in Greek on
the Mother of God. The chief librarian
at the Patriarchate of Alexandria, Dr
Theodore Moschonas, had planned to
attend but was prevented from doing
so.
Czechoslovakia
Dialogue in Marienbad
The third International Conference
between Christians and Marxists, or­
ganized by the West German Paulus
Society, was held at Marianske Lazne
(Marienbad) on 27-30 April 1967. This
is the first time that the Conference
has taken place in a Communist
country.
According to Fr Peter Hebblethwaite,
SJ, one of the Conference members
(Tablet, 6 May 1967), permission to
hold the Conference on Czech territory
was granted only 'by the narrowest of
margins' within the Central Commit­
tee of the Czech Communist party. In­
vitations were issued jointly by the
Paulus Society and the Prague Academy
of Sciences. Some 200 delegates at­
tended: Christians, but no Marxists,
came from E. Germany and Poland,
while no one at all came from the
Soviet Union. Dr Erich Kellner, Presi­
dent of the Paulus Society, stated that
representatives of r ;the Moscow patri­
archate had been approached, but they
found the idea of a dialogue between
Christians and Marxists 'irrelevant'.
Obituaries
PATRIARCH MAXIMOS IV SAIGH
(1878-1967)
An obituary will appear in the next
number.
PATRIARCH CHRISTOPHER OF
ALEXANDRIA (1876-1967)
On 23 July 1967 the former patri­
arch of Alexandria, Christopher II,
died at the age of 91 in his house at
Kifissia outside Athens.
Born Charalampos Danielidis at
Madytos, Thrace, in 1876, he studied
at the Orthodox seminary of the Cross
in Jerusalem from 1894 to 1900. Or­
dained deacon in 1899, in 1904 he en-
entered the service of the Alexandrian
patriarchate, becoming metropolitan of
Aksum in 1908 and metropolitan of
Leontopolis in 1914. This latter see he
occupied for 25 years until his election
on 21 June 1938 as 'Pope and Patriarch
of Alexandria and All Africa'. He was
the 111th patriarch on the throne of
St Mark.
For reasons that lay beyond his con­
trol, the situation of his patriarchate
deteriorated markedly during his peri­
od of office, and especially during his
later years. The number of Greek
Orthodox in Egypt sharply diminished
in consequence of pressure from the
Nasser regime: many thousands of
Greeks, whose families had in most
cases lived in Egypt for several genera­
tions, were summarily expelled, being
forced to leave virtually all their pos­
sessions behind them. To his sorrow
the patriarch found himself powerless
to afford them protection. The exodus
of Greeks produced an increase in the
influence of the Syrian Orthodox ele­
ments within the patriarchate, and this
has now led to the demand in certain
circles for more Arab bishops and for
the use of Arabic in place of Greek as
the official language. But if Patriarch
435
Christopher's Greek flock in Egypt
diminished, elsewhere in Africa the
colonies of Greeks multiplied, while
firm links were also established during
his reign with the newly-founded native
communities of African Orthodox in
Uganda and Kenya. To mark the shift
in the geographical distribution of
faithful, three new dioceses were
formed in 1959, for Central, Eastern,
and Western Africa.
Patriarch Christopher was active as
a writer, particularly on topics relat­
ing to canon law, and his collected
works appeared in two volumes in
1960-1. A traditionalist and an up­
holder of conservative ways, he re­
gretted the introduction of the New
Style (Gregorian) calendar in Alexan­
dria; and in 1958 he even wrote to
Archbishop Theoklitos of Athens,
begging him to stop the persecution of
the Old Calendarists in Greece, and
suggesting that the deplorable schism in
the Greek Church could best be healed
if the official Church reverted to the
traditional Orthodox calendar, that is,
the Julian.
Increasing ill-health led Patriarch
Christopher to settle at Athens in 1961.
Bedridden, almost totally blind and
paralysed, during the next five years he
was unable actively to administer his
patriarchate. He resigned on 16 August
1966, in a moment of lucidity, and this
act of resignation was confirmed by the
Holy Synod at its meeting on 18 Nov­
ember. But although accepted by the
six Greek metropolitans of the patri­
archate, the validity of this resignation
was somewhat called in doubt by the
only Arab metropolitan, Nicolas of
Aksum.
The patriarch's funeral was cele­
brated in Athens cathedral by Arch­
bishop Ieronymos, after which the body
was taken by air to Cairo and interred
in the cemetery of St George.
K.T.W.
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
ARCHBISHOP PHILIP NABAA
Kyr Philip Nabaa, Melkite arch­
bishop of Beirut, who was constantly
spoken of as the most likely successor
of the patriarch Maximos, died sud­
denly of a heart attack in September.
Born at Jun, near Saida (Sidon) in
the Lebanon in 1907, he entered the
Society of St Paul, which has provided
so many of the Melkite bishops. He was
ordained in 1931 and consecrated
bishop in 1948. His diocese has by a
large margin the biggest number of
parishes, faithful and clergy of any
Melkite diocese (they are many and
small). He was a balanced and wise
man who played his part in the Vati­
can Council both in the group helping
the patriarch and in his own speeches.
Lately he was increasingly coming to
the fore in local ecumenical meetings
and joint action. An interesting paper
of his on 'Diversity in unity' is pub­
lished in The Eastern Churches and
Catholic Unity (Herder-Nelson 1963).
Archbishop Nabaa's successor in the
see of Beirut is his auxiliary, Kyr
Gregory Haddad, titular bishop of
Palmyra.
ARCHBISHOP PETER CHAMI OF
BOSRA AND OF JEBEL ED DRUZ
AND THE H A U R A N
Archbishop Chami, who died this
summer, was Melkite bishop of the
whole of the south of Syria, an area
bigger than the Lebanon, but with
widely scattered faithful. His diocese
included the 'Syrian heights', captured
by Israel, and among the 7,000 refugees
in Damascus are almost the whole Mel­
kite parish of El Kuneitra together with
their parish priest.
Archbishop Chami was a member of
the Paulist community, of which his
brother, Fr John Chami, is Superior
General. I met him before the war in
the Paulist house in Harissa. I then
learned that he spoke English, having
spent some time in his youth with an
uncle who farmed in Kenya. In 1965
he took me on two expeditions round
his vast diocese, including the ruined
Roman towns of Philippopolis and
Bosra itself, with its Roman theatre
and ruined early Christian church. The
principal family of Bosra abandoned
its Christian religion for the Moslem
faith not much more than fifty years
ago, and since then all Christians are
excluded from the town, including the
Orthodox and Melkite bishops.
One of a group of three predomi­
nantly Melkite villages was chosen as
the seat of the bishop, with a small
house for him and a small and rather
dilapidated church. The village is down
a long dirt road (in the whole of
southern Syria there are only two
north-south roads that are metalled).
It scrambles about among the black
volcanic rocks; its houses are made of
these rocks piled on one another with­
out cement, and have turf roofs that let
in all the wet in a rainy season. This
village, unlike many, has a waterpipe
line and one tap, so that when no rain
comes to the deep, fertile soil, you will
not die of thirst, even though you may
die of starvation. When Bishop Chami
first came to his diocese he was alone
here, acting as parish priest as well as
bishop; when he tried to start an or­
phanage, he had to care for the children
himself, day and night, for want of
help. Now the Holy See has built a
more modern but still modest bishop's
house, and nuns have taken over the
old house, where they run a girls'
school. In various larger villages,
schools have been started with much
effort and funds from the west. These
people are so intelligent that, once
started on the educational ladder, they
may well reach the Sorbonne. In one
place a hospital was founded. But every­
thing depended on constant begging
and generosity from America and
Europe. The diocese has not a penny
of its own, and how right it is that we
should help this ancient Christianity
that has survived in Bible lands
through centuries of, oppression. The
Orthodox diocese of !i Bosra is largely
supported by funds from Russia. (In
October this year, however, the Marx-
OBITUARIES AND APPOINTMENTS
ist government of Syria, after first try­
ing to take over complete control of
the teaching, finally sequestrated all
the private, mostly Christian, schools
of Syria; much of this labour is there­
fore lost.)
Kyr Chami was a gentle and gener­
ous man and until he broke his leg in
1963 he visited every house and hovel
in his diocese every six months. After
his accident he lived in a room at the
patriarchate at Damascus but visited
his diocese in his car. He was able to
get to the last session of the Vatican
Council in Rome where I last saw him.
This year he broke his other leg and
suffered other troubles and operations
before his death.
He admitted to me that he was
Appointments
ARCHBISHOP IERONYMOS
KOTSONIS
See Greek news, p. 423
15 NEW BISHOPS APPOINTED IN
GREECE
See Greek news, pp. 425-6
RUSSIAN ORTHODOX METROPOLIA
IN AMERICA
(jurisdiction of Metropolitan Ireney)
On 31 March 1967, the Great Coun­
cil of Bishops elected Hieromonk Theo-
dosius (Lazor) to the episcopate. He
was consecrated on 6 May in Holy
Virgin Protection Cathedral, New
York, and on 1 June he was appointed
to administer the diocese of Sitka and
Alaska, in succession to Bishop Am-
vrossy.
Bishop Theodosius was born in
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1933. He
graduated from Washington and Jeffer­
son College in 1957, and from St
Vladimir's Seminary in 1960. During
1960-1 he studied in the Ecumenical
437
frightened at his first sight of the black
volcanic village where he was to live
and work. His apostolic labours and
poverty will surely have their reward.
His vicar apostolic, Mgr Nicolas
Naaman, who succeeds him, has for the
last few years carried the chief weight
of administering the diocese and the
crushing burden of finding enough
money to feed the sisters and others
who help in schools, hospitals and
clinics. He is an able and dedicated
man, and it is not surprising that his
first refusal to be elected bishop was
not willingly accepted. The ECR wishes
him courage and success in his difficult
task and hopes that its readers will give
him prayers and aid.
E.J.B.F.
Institute at Bossey, Switzerland. He
took monastic vows and was ordained
deacon and priest in 1961. Since then
he has served as parish priest and in
the central administration of the
Metropolia. Among the six bishops
taking part in his consecration were
two from the jurisdiction of the oecu­
menical patriarchate, Bishops Silas of
Amphipolis and Mark of Levke.
Bishop Theodosius is the second
member of the hierarchy of the Russian
Metropolia who is American-born, the
other being Bishop Vladimir of Tokyo.
His election will no doubt give great
satisfaction to the many priests and
lay people in the Metropolia who wish
to see their Church become less speci­
fically 'Russian' and more 'American'.
r The participation of two bishops of the
oecumenical patriarchate in the conse­
cration is an encouraging example of
the growing co-operation between vari­
ous Orthodox groups in the U.S.A.,
and serves also to refute those Ortho­
dox who speak of the Metropolia as
'uncanonical'.
K.T.W.

Books
The Jerusalem Bible. Edited by Alexan­
der Jones. (London: Darton, Long­
man & Todd. 1966. Pp. xvi-1547-
498-9 maps. Price 84s.)
The value of the French Bible de
Jerusalem, the work of the Dominican
Biblical School in Jerusalem, is well
known. The publication of this English
translation has been universally wel­
comed by Catholics and non-Catholics
alike. The work of translation and
literary revision was entrusted to a
team of twenty-seven 'principal colla­
borators' (whose names are found on
the page opposite the title-page) under
the general editorship of the Revd
Alexander Jones of Christ's College,
Liverpool.
Each main division of the Bible and
each separate book has a special intro­
duction. There are extensive notes
commenting on the text, more abundant
for the New Testament than for the
Old Testament. These notes constitute
an important element in the work in as
far as they give not only the realia
necessary for the understanding of the
passage, but also expose the doctrinal
import of the text. Supplementary
material at the back of the volume
includes: an excellent, detailed chrono­
logical table; a genealogical table of the
Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties; a
calendar; a table of weights and
measures; nine maps, and an index of
biblical themes occurring in the notes.
This index which is a key to find out
what the Bible as a whole has to say
on a particular theological topic, enables
the reader to follow the historical
development of biblical revelation; it
also offers a solid basis for a biblical
theology. The index is considerably
wider in scope than that of the French
edition. Special thanks are due to the
group responsible for compiling this ex­
cellent section. Other valuable features
of the Jerusalem Bible are its typo­
graphical and marginal reference sys­
tems which provide a maximum of
information in a minimum of space.
The book is beautifully produced, on
excellent paper. The single column
arrangement has been adopted 'to make
intelligent reading easier'.
In his Foreword the editor mentions
that the introductions and notes are a
direct translation from the French, but
'revised and brought up to date in
some places'. The translation of the
biblical text itself, evidently, is not
made upon the French translation but
directly upon the original Hebrew, Ara­
maic and Greek texts, while keeping the
text critically established, and, for the
most part, the interpretation adopted
by the French scholars in the light of
the most recent research in the fields
of history, archaeology and literary
criticism (p. v). In translating the sacred
text the authors were free to remove
the purely linguistic archaisms of the
vernacular, also out-dated traditional
forms; thus, for example, 'Yahweh' is
used instead of 'the Lord'; the current
spelling of proper names found in
Protestant Bibles has been adopted. The
translators, however, could not impose
their own style on the originals, at the
risk of suppressing the individuality of
the sacred writers. No attempt has been
made at having a uniform 'biblical'
English throughout the Bible; the pur­
pose has been to translate the Bible
into 'contemporary' English with a
view to bringing the Scriptures closer
to the modern reader. In this endeavour
the translators have succeeded, except
for an occasional slip into the cosy
colloquial style which is characteristic
of more than one modern translation;
a style not very .suitable for public
reading in liturgical functions. The
translators had the benefit of consult­
ants who are men of English letters.
BOOK REVIEWS
This collaboration has resulted in pro­
ducing a work which is remarkable not
only for its scholarship and accuracy
of rendering, but also for its freshness
and vigour of expression. One reserva­
tion, however, ought to be made: the
translation of the Psalter is rather weak
compared with the other books. The
editor himself remarks that the Psalms
present a special problem for the trans­
lator, since the Psalms are not meant
to be read only, but rather to be sung
or chanted. He rightly holds that 'it
would certainly be dangerous to give
the form of the translation precedence
over the meaning' (p. vi). Still, one
hesitates to recommend the translation
of the Psalter in the Jerusalem Bible
especially for public reading, let alone
for singing or chanting. Translation is
a difficult task. No one should be
astonished that in the Jerusalem Bible
a few slips do occur; but these few
instances in no way lessen the over-all
excellence of the work.
The editorial staff have set them­
selves a twofold programme in deter­
mining the form and the nature of this
edition of the Bible: to keep abreast
of the times (aggiornamento) by trans­
lating our Scriptures into the language
people use today, so as to prevent the
Bible becoming a mere relic of the past
without any appeal to modern man;
secondly, to provide the reader of the
Bible with a deeper insight into its
theology {approfondimento) by supple­
menting the text with notes which are r
neither sectarian nor superficial. The
outstanding importance of this scholarly
work becomes apparent only as one
goes over it over and over again; as
one comes to appreciate the nuances
both in translation and interpretation,
even in passages where one does not
necessarily agree with the views ex­
pressed by the authors. It would be
rash to consider the Jerusalem Bible
as the definitive English translation of
the Bible. Nevertheless one may con­
fidently express the opinion that the
Jerusalem Bible will remain an impor­
tant translation for several generations
to come. _ _. _,T
J. VOLCKAERT, SJ
ON ENGLISHING THE LITURGY
The Jerusalem Bible Lectionary for
Sundays and Holy Days (Darton,
Longman & Todd, 1967, pp. 136,
12s. 6d.).
The Jerusalem Bible itself is reviewed
above, so it only remains to speak of
the presentation of this lectionary,
which is clear and pleasant, and of the
value of this translation for liturgical
use.
We are suffering so much in the
Catholic Church from the appalling
banality of liturgical translations, above
all of the proper of the Mass, that one
looks at any new versions with a rather
shaky hope. The present middle-aged
generation, who seem to be responsible
for our liturgical translations, are per­
haps the least fitted for the task of
any generation in history. They read
even poetry with the eye and the mind
and not with the ear. The young poets,
like all the generations before us,
know better. Rhythm and dignity are
essential, and rhythm and dignity are
entirely lacking. It is not even in the
interests of clear English in the modern
idiom. In the creed, we have now been
given 'one in substance with the Father',
which in modern parlance can only
mean 'more or less one with the Father'.
If 'consubstantial' is rejected as being
too much a theological jargon word,
what is wrong with the sonorous and
lucid Anglican version, 'being of one
substance with the Father'? - good in
itself and not making differences for
difference's sake. All of, us must,
occasionally, have been on the verge
of saying 'Same to you' instead of the
equally offhand 'And to you', which
was prescribed. If we had to lose, 'And
with thy spirit', would not 'And with
you also', at least have been more
rhythmical? But we were given the
stuttering and spitting 'And also with
you.' Liturgical translations should be
spoken aloud in large buildings before
being put to liturgical use.
This is a very serious matter. Banality
breeds boredom, frustrates the instinct
to worship and devalues the mysterium
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
tremendum. And no one can say that
the English language is not a suitable
vehicle for liturgical worship. Its
richness and flexibility, its idiomatic
character, its love of metaphor and
simile, all fostered by the Bible, could
repay their debt to the Bible and to
liturgy also; instead, we seem to have
been handed over to the Science Sixth.
However, the translators of the Jeru­
salem Bible are not responsible for the
translation of the proper of the Mass—
perhaps they should have been. In
rhythm, dignity and clarity, this Bible
is one of the best modern versions we
have: not involuted like Knox, and
often eminently suited to reading aloud.
The broken-line poetry-forms of old
and new Testaments are particularly
happy. The translations are by different
hands and are certainly uneven in
literary quality. Some great descriptive
passages go dead—narrative more often
than speech—and an occasional sudden
and rather comic colloquialism jerks
away the attention. But all in all this
layman hopes that the appearance of
the Lectionary will mean that we more
often hear the Jerusalem Bible in
church.
E. J. B. FRY
Les Moines d'Orient I V / 2 : La premiere
Vie Grecque de Saint Pachome, In­
troduction critique et traduction par
A.-J. Festugiere, O.P. (252 p p . : 2
plates: Les Editions du Cerf, 1965).
Father Festugiere shows good dis­
crimination in selecting for translation
the Greek sources most revealing for
the early stages of East Christian
monasticism. This is only to be ex­
pected of a scholar of his standing,
with his wide knowledge of hellenistic
literature. The translation of the Greek
Vita Prima of Pachomius—the 'founder'
of coenobitic monasticism as St Antony
was of the eremitic—puts us especially
in his debt. For hitherto only the frag­
mentary Coptic Lives have been avail­
able in translation, in Lefort's Vies
Copies de Saint Pdchome—a book
which, translating each fragmentary
manuscript, long or short, indepen­
dently of the others, is somewhat un­
usable except by the scholar: also,
Lefort's prejudice in favour of the
Coptic as against the Greek warps the
whole book. Festugiere, with something
of the opposite prejudice, devotes his
long and detailed introduction (the
actual translation occupies little more
than a third of the book) to vindicating
the Greek Vita Prima as at least equal
in historical value to any of the Coptic
and Arabic Lives except the exceed­
ingly fragmentary 'premiers documents
coptes'. Beyond this he does not g o :
he does not attempt to date the
Vita Prima. But he does vindicate its
language as genuine Greek of the
type of Kowr\ found in contemporary
Egyptian papyri and other literature. I
have argued to the same effect else­
where ('Pachomian Sources recon­
sidered', J.E.H. V (1954), pp. 3 8 - 7 7 :
Festugiere, who only discovered this
article when his introduction was al­
ready in print, pays a generous tribute
to it). But I also gave evidence, there
and in subsequent short papers, for
dating the Vita Prima somewhere about
A.D. 390. Moreover, I see no valid
reason for doubting the claim it makes
explicitly in c. 98 to be the earliest
written Life, using (c. 99) written—no
doubt Coptic—sources, these consist­
ing of meditations on Scripture, and
accounts of visions of Pachomius, and
his Rule and Letters (which survive in
Jerome's translation); but largely depen­
dent on oral accounts received directly
from Theodore, Orsisius, and others of
the first generation of Pachomius' dis­
ciples (cc. 10, 17, 46, etc.): and I hope
shortly to elaborate the case for the
employment by all the surviving Coptic
Lives (even the 'premiers documents')
of the Greek Vita Prima as a source.
Be that as it may, the Vita Prima,
whether in its original form or in a
later adaptation, retains quite sufficient
of the 4th-century atmosphere to give
it unique importance. Here, alongside
the Vita Antonii to which it is clearly
indebted, 'we have an account of the
BOOK REVIEWS
foundation of the Tabennesiote Coeno-
bium with a warm humanity and
spirituality of its own, from which the
Evagrian vocabulary, which affected all
later Greek spirituality, is markedly
absent. The author of the Vita is in
many ways an inexpert writer: and a
monastic reticence and allusiveness
make exacting demands on the reader.
Hence the failure of the work to sur­
vive except in three imperfect manu­
scripts (two of them of a secondary
character), and in later compilations and
adaptations, Greek or Coptic, of which
most, if not all, manage to omit just
those passages which expose the
author's very definite teaching on the
spiritual life.
In the Vita Prima we have constantly
the sense that the pagan world is still
a present reality. Hence the sobriety
which gives us a minimum of miracles
and visions, and which, with all the
Life has to say about Pachomius' gift
of clairvoyance, is not afraid on several
occasions to assert his ignorance (e.g.,
cc. 42, 97), or again Antony's ignorance
that Pachomius had died (c. 120). The
Coptic Lives are impatient of all this,
they omit the chapter (48) in which
Pachomius, deprecating a desire for
visions, speaks of a pure and humble
man as a great vision, and rewrite the
stories to make Pachomius and Antony
know beforehand on every occasion.
As is to be expected, the translation
is in good readable French, following
carefully the Greek. It is a pity that in
c. 32 (for which Halkin in his edition
of the Greek had no manuscript avail­
able until too late) Festugiere has
followed the Vita Tertia instead of the
Athenian MS. he used for c. 3 1 : he
would have found the last two sen­
tences ('Alors . . . melote') absent. They
are in fact taken by the Vita Tertia
from the Lausiac History. Also the
monk shown in the plate opposite p.
186, beating a semantron, is surely not
in fact (as stated in the opening ac­
knowledgement) a Copt but an Ar­
menian. But let not these minor
blemishes diminish our admiration for
Fr Festugiere's labours, or our gratitude
to him for making available to western
readers a very important work.
DERWAS J. CHITTY
Cambridge Medieval History, volume
IV, The Byzantine Empire: Part I,
Byzantium and its neighbours; Part
II, Government, Church and Civi­
lization, both edited by J. M. Hussey.
(Cambridge, 1966, pp. xl, 1168, 15
maps, £7; and 1967, pp. xlii, 517, 42
plates, 3 maps and plans, £3. 15s.)
To review these two volumes is too
much for anyone. I should like to call
attention to some important differences
between this and the first edition of
volume IV, 'a good part of which was
in type before' 1914. This was pub­
lished in 1923 and sub-titled The
Eastern Roman Empire, 717-1453. I
used it a good deal as a student in
1928-9, and again with increasing dis­
satisfaction in the 1940s. Soon after
the second war it became evident that
it would have to be replaced. Its limita­
tions were determined partly by Bury's
planning of the whole series. He rightly
regarded the later Roman empire from
Constantine to Heraclius as an essen­
tial part of the medieval history of
Europe as a whole. The eastern Roman
empire from the 8th to the 11th cen­
tury had a separate story, told in the
first four chapters by Charles Diehl
and the Abbe Albert Vogt. These were
followed by specialized studies of the
empire's relations with its neighbours,
including one by Louis Brehier on 'the
Greek Church: its relations with the
west up to 1054'. The narrative was
then resumed by Chalandon, Diehl and
William Miller, who covered the Latin
empire, Bulgaria and Serbia, but little
or nothing was said about the Palaeo-
logi except in relation to 'attempts at
reunion of the Greek and Latin
Churches' (again by Louis Brehier) or
to the Turkish conquest. The chapter
on this last, by Sir Edwin Pears, is
concerned rather with the rise of the
Ottoman empire than with the decline
of the Byzantines, who are allowed to
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
fade out before 1300. The last two
chapters were by Diehl on Byzantine
government and civilization.
Part I of the new edition is rather
larger than the whole of the old. The
necessities of the series still determine
the starting-point, but the new title
recognizes the distinctiveness of By­
zantine civilization, and two introduc­
tory chapters build up the links with
Rome. Of these the second, on 'the
Christian background', by Fr Gervase
Mathew, though unfortunately com­
pressed into less than eighteen pages,
contains not only a survey of the tran­
sition from paganism but a brilliant
and penetrating account of Greek pat­
ristic theology and of the rise of mon-
asticism in its cultural and social con­
texts. The narrative after this is now
continuous, except for a chapter on
Venice, inserted as in the first edition,
before the fourth crusade. Signifi­
cantly Ostrogorsky's chapter on the
Palaeologi now precedes an account by
K. M. Setton of the lesser Latin states
in Greece, and a chapter by Dvornik
on Constantinople and Rome. This in­
troduces a series of chapters on the
empire's relations with its neighbours,
as in the middle and end of the first
edition, but the final chapters there on
law, government and civilization are
now represented by eleven in the
second part, which has chapters on
literature, science and art, and one by
Sir Steven Runciman on 'the place of
Byzantium in the medieval world'.
This part contains four chapters on
the Church. To these Professor Hussey
herself has contributed the chapter on
monasticism and some of the chapter
(partly by T. A. Hart) on 'Byzantine
theological speculation and spirituality'.
This contains an account of the hesy-
chast controversy and a short sum­
mary of the theological aspect of the
schism with Rome. The chapter on the
secular church is by the late Fr Emil
Herman, and the one on music and
liturgy by Egon Wellesz. Professor
Hussey has also contributed the chap­
ter on the later Macedonians, the
Comneni and the Angeli, in part I, and
a new and illuminating introduction,
printed beside Bury's original in both
parts. In this she acknowledges her
obligations to Norman Baynes, with
whom the replanning was 'long dis­
cussed', as well as to Dr D. M. Nicol
and Miss G. Cowan, whose names
appear on the title page as her assis­
tants; but no doubt the design is sub­
stantially hers. Fr David Knowles in the
Spectator (11/8/67) has noted the ab­
sence of 'a critical and reasoned pres­
entation of the growth of the schism'.
He also speaks of 'the absence through­
out of reflection and analysis', but this
is hardly fair to the second part. The
difficulty with the schism in a history
of Byzantium is that the radical change
was in Rome, the problem was the de­
cline of Byzantine influence in the
West.
Notice should also be taken of the
very full treatment of relations with
the Moslem world in part I, including
chapters on the Turks by Taeschner,
and in the same part, of Dmitri Obol-
ensky's chapter on 'the empire and its
northern neighbours'. In part II the
chapters on science by K. Vogel and
on art by Grabar are welcome. The fine
collection of photographs is a new fea­
ture. It is unfortunate that commerce
and industry fell between the slools of
this and the Cambridge Economic
History. GEORGE EVERY, SSM
The Great Betrayal. Constantinople
1204, by Ernie Bradford. (Hodder
and Stoughton, 1967. 35s.)
The sack of Constantinople by the
members of the Fourth Crusade in 1204
is still such a deep source of bitterness
among Eastern Christians that one is
pleased to see any attempt to bring the
facts before Western eyes in a popular
form. The present book is written with
a passion which may help to convey to
its readers something of the feelings of
Orthodox Christians when they think
of these sorry events. The book has the
advantage of being excellently written
by someone who, though clearly an
amateur historian, has a keen under-
BOOK REVIEWS
standing of military tactics and a capa­
city for imaginative reconstruction
which make parts of his narrative really
come alive. The professional historian,
however, cannot but hesitate to re­
commend Mr Bradford's book whole­
heartedly. It is clear even to the present
reviewer, who is not an expert, that as
a work of history the book must be
used with caution. It contains irritating
inaccuracies, e.g. (p. 57) a page (Bodleian
MS Laud Misc. 587 folio I) said to be
from 'the original' manuscript of Ville-
hardouin is from an early 14th-cen­
tury Italian MS which, though one of
the best Villehardouin MSS, cannot be
called the original. My irritations at
Mr Bradford's inaccuracies, however,
are less troubling than my frequent
doubts about his general judgements.
The sack accentuated problems and
perhaps accelerated some developments
but it began neither the inroads of Islam
into the West, nor the decay of the
Eastern Empire, nor the hatred between
East and West. It is by no means true
to say, as the writer does in his preface,
that 'the division and isolation of
Eastern from Western Europe derives
from their act'. I would more readily
assert that the sack was the culmination
of more (and perhaps very much more)
than two centuries of failure to commu­
nicate. Schisms and cultural differences
are mentioned often but perhaps not
sufficiently understood here. Another
example is the calling Innocent Ill's
statement on Philip Augustus's mar­
riage the 'supreme claim of the Papacy
to dominion here on earth' (p. 27).
Innocent may have made this sort of
claim (though dons are still disputing
exactly what he meant to claim), but
this particular statement referred at
least to a sacramental question where
his right to interfere was much less
doubtful than on many other occasions.
It is perhaps niggardly, however, thus
to criticize a book which many non-
historians will read with great enjoy­
ment. If they also begin to understand
the enormity of the evil of the sack
they may even read with some profit.
MARGARET M. HARVEY
The Georgians, by David Marshall Lang
(Thames and Hudson, 1966, pp. 190,
75 plates, 45 line drawings, 35s.)
It is a misfortune that the term
'Georgian' should have passed into
common western use. It is derived from
the term Kurj which the Persians
applied to the Kartvel-ebi who live at
the east end of the Black Sea between
the Caucasus, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The Kartvel-ebi of the eastern region
were known to the Greeks and Byzan­
tines as Iberians, and it is as Iberians
that Georgians continue to haunt so
many branches of Byzantine studies.
Iviron, the Iberian monastery on
Athos, had a lasting function as a
diffusion centre. There were Iberian
monks at Jerusalem and on Sinai.
Although Byzantine influences were
dominant in Iberia, they mingled there
with other influences that came from
Iran and in return Iberian culture had
sporadic effects through the Byzantine
sphere.
The attempt to identify Pseudo-
Dionysios with Peter the Iberian seems
very unconvincing but it is almost
certain that Euthymius the Athonite
translated Barlaam and Ioasaph from
an Iberian source, and Barlaam and
loasaph with its remote Buddhist origins
has fertilized Christendom. There are
Byzantine animal stories that seem to
have their origin in Iberia, and perhaps
the story of Cinderella came first from
there. Under the late Macedonian and
Comnenian emperors it seems likely
that there were Iberian influences in
the development of Byzantine enamels
and ceramics and perhaps on the ex­
ternal decoration of churches. The
relation between Iberian and late By­
zantine wall-painting is quite unexplored
though clues may be found at Trebi-
zond. Many students must have felt the
need of a study like Professor Lang's.
Professor Lang begins with pre­
history; the Georgians do not become
Christians until page 91. Although he
deals in some detail with the Georgian
medieval monarchy his treatment of
later periods is very cursory. But he
ends with two admirable chapters on

EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
'Architecture and the Arts' and 'Litera­ this of Monophysitism and Iconoclasm.
ture and Learning'. Throughout he In his discussion of Hesychasm, he
writes very simply. But it is the kind makes clear the political forces involved
of simplicity that can only be achieved but seems to miss the religious signifi­
after a life-time of study. cance, for which he seems to have little
GERVASE MATHEW, OP feeling. There is not much detail about
economics, though there are some lovely
pictures of men at work from an 11th-
century manuscript.
Byzantium and Europe, by Speros
Altogether the pictures add a great
Vryonis. (Thames and Hudson 1967,
deal to the book and are very varied
pp. 215, 129 illustrations, cloth 35s.
and well chosen. There are pictures of
paper 18s.)
coronations and royal portraits which
This is a very compact and concise, give a feeling of the relationship and
but well-balanced account of the Byzan­ contrast between eastern and western
tine empire from the 3rd century until Christendom and Islam - for instance
the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The that of John VI Cantacuzene with
author describes how the Byzantine Baldwin of Flanders and Muhammad
empire developed out of the Roman II - how they look and how they sit.
empire, and shows how the eastern and The ivory carving of the crowning of
western parts grew in different yet Romanus II and Eudoxia by Christ and
related ways. In the early period he the manuscript illumination of that of
makes clear how important the survival Baldwin show a difference between the
of the eastern empire was for the west attitudes of east and west which can
too, because it received the first attacks be seen but which would be difficult to
of most of the tribes migrating from put into words. The Byzantine illus­
central Asia and also because 'the trations are interesting not only for
Empire was able to overcome the their content, but for the change and
greatest military effort of Islam, and development of style. Arabic and west­
thus to preserve the Christian charac­ ern pictures are also used; there is a
ter of European civilisation'. He points particularly beautiful drawing of a
out that the failure of Muawiyya to Turkish janissary by Bellini. There are
take Constantinople in 674-8 was much three good maps and an excellent
more important than the victory of bibliography.
Charles Martel at Poitiers. Professor
Professor Vryonis has managed to
Vryonis makes this kind of assertion,
include a great deal of information in
especially about religious matters, and
this book. To do it, he has sometimes
it is both irritating and stimulating
had to assume that his reader has a
because at first it seems superficial, but
certain amount of knowledge already,
provokes questions. Throughout the
so that the book may be difficult for
book he shows how the empire could someone entirely new to the subject.
survive in spite of great difficulties from
The epilogue discusses very interest­
inside and outside. He describes how
ingly the relative positions of Latin-
flexible the administrative machinery
German western Europe, the 'modern
was, within the framework of the
Byzantine derivatives' and the Islamic
imperial idea, and how even when
countries now. The title is rather mis­
politically the empire was in difficulties,
leading. The reader hoping for a
as it was under the Palaeologi, there
detailed and specific discussion of the
was a flowering of the arts and intellec­
relationship between Byzantium and
tual activity. He deals very fully with
Europe may be disappointed. However,
the interaction between religion and
the book might well have been called
politics, especially where it affects the
'Byzantium, Europe and Islam', because
relationship between Islam and the
the discussion of the relationship be­
Byzantine empire and the influence on
tween Byzantium and Islam is at least
BOOK REVIEWS
as good as that between Byzantium and welcome. Propaganda controlled all such
the West. Vryonis has an unusually matters, and in its dealings with the
acute understanding of Islam and its Near East it looked on the heavily
interaction with the Byzantine empire latinized Maronites as the ideal. The
which makes the book especially Chaldean Church dating from the
interesting. reconciliation of John Sullaqa in 1552
had become unreliable in the eyes of
SUSAN MURRAY
Rome; in fact, the heads of this united
group had gradually drifted away, for
reasons partly understood by Latin
Ein Martyrer der Union mit Rom:
Joseph I (1681-1696), Patriarch der observers (cf. Lampart, pp. 102-3)—
Chaldder, by Albert Lampart (Einsie- isolation from Rome and insufficient
re-instruction—but mostly not; Propa­
deln, Benziger Verlag, 1966, with 4
ganda showed no real feeling for the
plates, n.p.).
lawful variety of the various authentic
This painstakingly thorough and Eastern forms of Christianity.
scholarly study by a Swiss priest,
Joseph gradually won favour at Rome,
based on documents preserved in Rome
thanks especially to Francois Picquet,
which occupy nearly 130 pages of the
sometime French consul at Aleppo, then
book, throws light on that group of
a priest and finally, as bishop, Apostolic
Oriental Christians which today is,
Visitor to most of the Near East.
perhaps, the least known in England—
Intrigue at the Sultan's court gained
the East Syrian Church, now divided
for Joseph the title of 'Patriarch' (for
between the dissident 'Nestorians' (esti­
what it could be worth at the hands of
mated strength, about 70,000) and the
the Turk!) and the title was eventually
Catholic 'Chaldeans' (about 190,000).
confirmed by Rome with the gift of the
To most interested English readers, the
pallium. The Turks were always in­
complex intrigues and changing lines of
terested in embarrassing the Christians,
succession through which Joseph I lived
and the actual effect of the nomination,
can be known only from a few pages
whatever its validity, was to limit the
in Donald Attwater's Christian Churches
jurisdiction of the Nestorian Catholicos.
of the East. Naturally a work so large
Joseph now gradually increased his
as Dr Lampart's reveals the picture as
authority (till then very small in actual
even more complex, but he writes with
fact), appointed another bishop and
admirable clarity, sketching the back­
began carrying through a programme of
ground—-the Turkish administration, the
reform but also, alas, of latinization
ecclesiastical relationships in northern
(vividly described with approval in a
Mesopotamia and the increasing activity
letter given on pp. 169-172). As a final
of the Latin missionaries, especially the
and, in the East, unprecedented act of
Capuchins—and untwining the threads
subservience to Rome, Joseph in 1696
of the story most readably.
placed his resignation in the hands
Joseph had not long become bishop of the Pope and, after a surprisingly
of Diarbekr, on the upper waters of the successful operation for cataract, passed
Tigris, when under the influence of the the remaining eleven years of his life in
recently-arrived Capuchins he was, it Rome copying manuscripts.
seems, sincerely converted to Catholi­
Dr Lampart tells his story very
cism. He sent a profession of faith to
plainly, but with undertones of passion,
Rome explicitly renouncing Nestorian
which comes to the fore in his conclu­
tenets, and he adopted a seal represent­
sion (pp. 206-224). It is, however, surely
ing the Mother of God with St Francis.
an exaggeration to call Joseph a martyr.
As Joseph began to change traditional
A patient, long-suffering confessor in­
customs he came into conflict with his
deed, humiliated overbearingly and
Nestorian Catholicos, who got the
improperly by Rome as well as by his
Turkish authorities to banish him.
Turkish masters; but, to see what may
Meanwhile Rome was only cool in its
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW BOOK REVIEWS

seem Rome's cynicism in focus, we must
recognize, as Propaganda did, that (in
Donald Attwater's words) 'for 250 years
union with or secession from the Holy
See was freely used as a move in
Nestorian ecclesiastical polities'. As for
latinization, the very fact that Joseph
seems to have been sincerely converted
means that he must share the responsi­
bility for this, both in ritual details and
much more in his totally subservient
attitude to Rome. Yet in his place in
history we could not expect the bold­
ness of his successor, Joseph VI Audo,
who stood up to Pio Nono's over­
powering emotional pressure with such
courage. A moral and ecclesiological
judgement on Joseph I will inevitably
be complex and nuance. We must hope
and pray that the Western Church will
learn by the review of stories such as
this, and that the good resolutions
taken at Vatican II will be honoured.
ROBERT MURRAY, S.J.
Le Dimanche. Proceedings of the Ninth
Week of Liturgical Studies at the
Institute of St Sergius, Paris. (Edi­
tions du Cerf, Lex Orandi series, no.
39, Paris, 1965.)
The former volume (Le Livre des
Heures) on the Divine Office that was
the fruit of a previous liturgical and
ecumenical study group threw valuable
light on the history and theology of
the Office. This, a similar one on
Sunday, is hardly less important. Maybe
it does not reveal a great deal that is
new or go very much beyond what was
being written in France some years ago,
but the convergence of views between
scholars of the Orthodox, Protestant,
Anglican and Catholic traditions is
impressive and the agreement in points
of scholarship is equally so. Professor
Rordorf (Protestant), for instance, apart
from throwing new light on the Christ­
ian origins of Sunday, ends with a
sentiment that would not have been
expressed some years ago: 'No Supper
without Sunday and contrariwise, No
Sunday without the Supper' and he
adds, 'On this point, we Protestants
have something to learn.'
Dom Botte, in a philological exami­
nation of the term kyriake hemera in
the N.T. and early literature, wishes
to insist that this refers rather to the
resurrection than to the eschatological
day of the Lord. The late and regretted
Bishop Cassien would prefer to see an
eschatological reference and through it
a mystical significance: it is the day,
with its liturgical celebration, when we
are drawn into union with the Lord.
This view is supported by Professor
Theodorou's study of Sunday in the
Orthodox liturgy.
Other studies by such well-known
scholars as Dubarle (on the Sabbath in
O.T.), Danielou (from the patristic
angle) throw light from the point of
view of their own disciplines, and the
Reverend Douglas Webb writes on the
English Sunday since the Reformation.
Professor Grabar's interesting chapter
on the iconography of Sunday would
have benefited from illustration.
The whole volume, like its predeces­
sor, is an example of the enrichment
that can come from ecumenical en­
counter in depth.
J. D. CRICHTON
The Art of Prayer. An Orthodox An­
thology, compiled by Igumen Chari-
ton of Valamo. Translated by E.
Kadloubovsky and E. M. Palmer.
Edited with an Introduction by
Timothy Ware. (Faber & Faber, pp.
287, 50/-.)
The modest compiler of this an­
thology, abbot of Valamo before the
second world war, intended it originally
for his own use. His custom was to
record passages from spiritual writers
that were of particular importance to
him and that corresponded to, or
guided him in, his prayer life. Eventu­
ally, in 1936 and 1938, he published
two such anthologies. The present book
is a carefully though "lightly edited ver­
sion of the first of these. It is trans­
lated .with dignity and precision from
the Russian (and, where appropriate,
from the Greek) by E. Kadloubovsky
and E. M. Palmer, and it is provided
by the editor, Kallistos Timothy Ware,
with a concise and valuable introduc­
tion which places the texts in their
spiritual and historical context.
Despite, or possibly because of, the
book's unplanned growth in the com­
piler's cell, it provides an illuminating
insight into the Orthodox experience
of inner prayer and, in particular, of the
Jesus Prayer. 'If anyone should ask me
how to carry out the task of prayer,'
writes Theophan the Recluse (whose
writings predominate in this anthology),
'I would say to h i m : Accustom your­
self to walk in the presence of God. . . .
Inner prayer is to stand before the
Lord, continually crying out to him
without words.' Such aphorisms about
the aim of prayer would make frus­
trating reading in isolation; but the
anthology, while essentially positive in
tone, is rich in advice about the diffi­
culties to be encountered and over­
come on the way to pure prayer. The
prayer to be aimed at is simple; the
difficulties, however, are numerous,
complex and constant.
The imagination must be restrained:
'Hold no intermediate image between
the mind and the Lord when practis­
ing the Jesus Prayer.' . . . 'To arrive
successfully at our inward objective,
we must travel safely past the imagi­
nation.' . . . 'Do not permit yourself
any concepts, images, or visions.' Ver­
bal or oral prayer may lead one into
danger: 'Verbal and oral praying is
certainly fruitful when it is linked with
attention, but this happens only very
occasionally.' Even the simplest and
most reputable formula, such as that
of the Jesus Prayer, is no use of itself:
'The Jesus Prayer is no talisman . . . a
mere repetition of the words does not
signify anything.' Physical or personal
well-being may be achieved, but should
not be aimed at or savoured: 'Who­
ever strives to maintain or increase
this warmth for the sake of sweetness
alone, will develop in himself a kind
of spiritual hedonism.' Physical tech­
niques are to be used with caution, if
at a l l - t h e y are not of the essence of
prayer: 'Indeed,' warns Theophan,
'without a spiritual director they are
actually dangerous. It is better not to
try them.'
This impressive work, with its con­
stant call 'to stand consciously in the
presence of the Lord with fear, faith
and love' is not an academic exercise.
It demands to be used, as well as read.
In the words of Theophan, 'We have
read enough, now we must act; we have
watched enough how others walk, now
we must walk ourselves.'
SERGEIHACKEL
Studies in Eastern Chant, vol. i, ed. by
Milog Velimirovic" (Oxford University
Press, London, 1966, pp. xvi+134,
50s.).
The initiative for the new OUP
series devoted to the Eastern Chant
came from the distinguished composer
and historian of Byzantine music Dr
Egon Wellesz. General editors of the
series are Dr Wellesz (Oxford) and Dr
MiloS Velimirovid (Yale University,
New Haven, Conn.). The latter is
entirely responsible for the first volume.
The well-known series Monumenta
Musicae Byzantinae, published under
the auspices of the Royal Danish
Academy in Copenhagen, devotes its
volumes mainly to the longer studies.
Authors of shorter articles, however,
have always had some difficulty in
finding a publisher: editors of periodi­
cals dealing with Byzantine studies seem
reluctant to accept such contributions
because of the increase in the cost of
printing owing to the numerous music
examples, whereas the musicological
periodicals do not welcome them be­
cause of the variety of alphabets which
inevitably appear in the texts submitted.
The solution seems to have been found
in an entirely new series, and the
appearance of this valuable first volume
should be warmly greeted. The contri­
butors, among whom there is an im­
pressive number of younger scholars,
have dedicated the volume to the two
founders of Byzantine musicology:
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
H. J. W. Tillyard and Egon Wellesz. 'It
has been prepared', to quote from the
dedicatory page, 'as a token of esteem
and admiration in gratitude for their
pioneering spirit and courage in dealing
with uncharted areas of musicology.'
The book contains ten contributions
from eleven scholars; we shall only
mention the articles briefly, without
going into a detailed discussion of their
content. Gabor Devai (Budapest) in the
article entitled 'Akathistos-Prooemia in
Byzantine Musical Manuscripts in
Hungary' reports on some hitherto
unknown sources in the libraries in
Budapest and Szentendre. Markos Ph.
Dragoumis (Athens) offers some in­
teresting comparisons between the By­
zantine and Modern Greek chants ('The
Survival of Byzantine Chant in the
Monophonic Music of the Modern
Greek Church'). Gudrun Engberg
(Copenhagen), in the article 'Greek
Ekphonetic Neumes and Masoretic Ac­
cents', tackles a little-discussed prob­
lem of the musical significance of some
vowel signs in the early biblical texts.
Under the title 'A Papadike from
Skoplje', Jelena Milojkovic-Djuric (Bel­
grade) describes a 16th-century theo­
retical treatise on notation, basing her
discussion on some incomplete photo­
copies. The manuscript itself was burnt
during the German bombing of Belgrade
in April 1941. Jorgen Raasted (Roskilde)
discusses the significance of some or­
namental figures in a contribution which
he calls 'Some Reflections on Byzantine
Musical Style'. Under the common title
'Peter Lampadarios and Metropolitan
Seraphim of Bosnia' first MiloS Velimi-
rovid relates the story of an 18th-
century manuscript now at Yale Uni­
versity Library, and then Dimitrije
Stefanovic" (Oxford) offers a detailed
description of the manuscript and also
the transcription of the Sticheron
Vsemirnuyu slavu, comparing the Yale
version with the two older sources:
MS. Sinai 1326 and MS. Chilandar 309.
Maria Stohr (Vienna) contributes an
article entitled 'Reflections on Trans­
cribing the Hirmoi in Byzantine Music',
and Oliver Strunk (general editor of the
MMB and until recently Professor at
Princeton University, New Jersey) talks
about the efforts to reconstruct from
various copies the notation of an early
manuscript from Mount Athos which
was lost during the bombing of Chartres
in 1944 ('H. J. W. Tillyard and the
Recovery of a Lost Fragment'). In the
course of preparation of the new
edition of the complete works of St
Romanos, 1 Prof. C. Trypanis (Oxford)
came across some notes in the texts
which can be interpreted as the instruc­
tions to the singers, and now writes on
these under the title 'On the Musical
Rendering of the Early Byzantine Kon-
takia'. Finally, M. Velimirovic reports
on some results of his researches in the
National Library in Athens ('Unknown
Stichera for the Feast of St Athanasios
of Mount Athos').
It is understandable that technical
difficulties involved in the production
of such books are considerable and the
costs therefore high. However, the price
of fifty shillings for a book of 150 pages
is perhaps too much and will be a
serious obstacle for many who would
like to see it on their bookshelves.
BOJAN Bujic
Mosaics: from antiquity to the early
middle ages by H. P. L'Orange and
P. J. Nordhagen (Methuen & Co.
Ltd., 1966, pp. ix, 92, 4 colour
plates, xii + 98 black and white, 70s.)
This admirable and beautifully illus­
trated study of the history and tech­
niques of mosaic during the great
period of its development (from the
4th century B.C. to the 9th century
A.D.) will be indispensable to libraries
and art historians. It gives a clear and
continuous account of this develop­
ment, knocking yet one more nail in
the coffin of the myth that between
the classical and the Christian era a
great gulf is fixed, that discontinuity
is almost completed Among others,
IP. Maas and C. A. Trypanis: Sancti
Romani Melodi Cantica Genuina (Oxford
1963)
BOOK REVIEWS
Professors Marrou and A. H. Arm­
strong have already been busy with
their hammers in the historical and
philosophical fields. H. P. L'Orange
says in the first paragraph of his
section of the book—on the history
of mosaics:
Despite all the attempts that have
recently been made to amend the
view, we still imagine that the
ancient world succumbed, and that
in its place arose a new Christian
world to which we ourselves belong.
In our time scholars have been
engaged in constructing a view of the
past which shows more and more
clearly that the ancient world did not
'collapse', but that it survived into
the Middle Ages as the Christian
antique; that the transformation
which the ancient world underwent
was a lengthy and consistent process;
that the Middle Ages grew organically
out of antiquity. . . . The really
decisive period in some respects is
the third century A.D.
One of the great changes between
imperial and later times is from three-
dimensional sculpture, filling architec­
tural space, to mosaic and wall-painting,
decorating and creating architectural
space.
P. J. Nordhagen's section of the book,
on the development of mosaic tech­
nique, is particularly interesting, ranging
from the first pebble mosaics in Greece,
through all the developing tesserae
styles of Roman paving, to the wall and
vault mosaics that were already present
in Pompeii and ending with the subtle
modelling in colour and blending of
colour in, for example, the Orthodox
Baptistery in Ravenna and Santa Cos-
tanza in Rome, and finally the 'flat'
techniques of many of the great 9th-
century mosaics in Rome, where, 'with
large harmonious areas of colour set
against each other, . . . mosaic achieves
an unparalleled chromatic clarity and
force'.
The photographs are admirably
chosen to illustrate the development:
pavements from Delos; the astonishing
vast Nile mosaic from Palestrina, near
Rome (here dated to 80 B.C.); Pompeii;
the 2nd- and 3rd-century black and
white mosaics from Ostia and Tivoli,
with their flowing rhythms; the famous
wild beasts and emperors and bikini
girl athletes from Piazza Armerina in
Sicily; Aquileia; Santa Costanza; Salo­
nika; the too little known 4th-century
mosaics in San Lorenzo in Milan;
Naples; Ravenna; Rome; Constanti­
nople; Jerusalem. The selection of the
photographs is also admirable both in
quality and in avoidance of the trite.
By being seen in some vivid detail the
great mosaics take one by the throat
once again, though they have been re­
produced so often as to become visual
cliches. The photographs are from many
sources, but a considerable number,
especially of the fine details, are by the
co-author, P. J. Nordhagen himself,
including our illustration (pi. 2). This
superb 5th-century head of St Peter is
from the Vatican grottoes.
The book was published in Norway
in 1958, and is well translated by Ann
E. Keep.
E. J. B. FRY
Coptic Art, by Klaus Wessel. Translated
from the German by Jean Carroll and
Sheila Hatton. (McGraw-Hill Pub­
lishers, New York, 1965, pp. 233.
$17.50.)
There is much interest these days in
early Christian folk art. Klaus Wessel,
professor of early Christian and Byzan­
tine art at the university of Munich,
presents us with an exhaustive study of
a most fascinating subject. This book
could well be called, in the words of
the author, 'an imaginary Museum of
Coptic Art', full of sculpture, funerary
reliefs, ikon paintings and magnificent
textiles.
Professor Wessel offers us a new and
definite analysis of the mysterious re­
gional art of the Copts and considers
it to be the result of several parallel in­
fluences culminating in the Arab con­
quest. What is called Coptic art is no
unified whole but is divided into two
independent branches: a provincial
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
hellenistic art and a popular a r t - e a c h
with distinctive cultural potentialities
and traditions. In the 6th century the
two main divisions were influenced by
early Byzantine art and the artistic
movements of the Mediterranean basin.
The author stresses the importance
of the movements of this Egyptian folk
art in the commercial trade and mis­
sionary endeavours of early Christi­
anity. The Roman army carried many
textiles as far north as Germany. The
Egyptian monks radiated their art
forms from Ethiopia right u p to Ire­
land. He even stresses the Coptic in­
fluence found in the Book of Kells, and
concludes: 'The rich decorative forms
of the two branches of late antique art
in Egypt, however, came up against the
artistic fervour of the Celts and Ger­
mans of Western Europe, with their
own highly developed folk art based
upon decoration. Here folk art came
into contact with folk art, and these
influenced each other in the same way
as they were influenced by the dying
antique mode and formed an entity in
the awakening Europe.'
ALLEN MALOOF
Sinai, by Heinz Skrobucha, Photographs
by George Allan. (OUP 1967, pp.
120.70s.)
The Monastery of St Katharine at
the foot of Mount Moses is the oldest
existing religious house of Christendom.
It was founded in the 6th century by
the Emperor Justinian on the spot
where Moses saw the burning bush in
the desert.
It is a locality of grand forbidding
beauty and the most inaccessible place
in the Near East. Until recent times a
long and dangerous journey on a camel
was the only link between the monas­
tery and the rest of the world. Today
a taxi hired in Cairo can bring a pilgrim
in one day to this unique point, so rich
in biblical associations.
It is a real miracle that the buildings
erected by Justinian are still preserved,
Several times in their long history the
monks had to flee from theirabode and
450
the monastery stood deserted for many
decades. But when the monks returned
they found their fortress still intact
and they were able to resume on the
same spot their ascetic life.
This long continuous history makes
St Katharine's one of the greatest
treasure houses of Eastern Orthodoxy.
Many rare manuscripts are located in
its library. They are written in sixteen
different languages-—2,289 of them are
in Greek and 560 in Arabic. The oldest
copy of the Bible, the so-called 'Codex
Sinaiticus' was discovered there in the
middle of the 19th century by Constan-
tine von Tischendorf. In our own time
the unique collection of ikons has at­
tracted the attention of historians and
lovers of art. Some 2,000 of them have
recently been cleaned and placed in a
special room. Several of them date from
the 6th and 7th centuries and are the
oldest in existence. A t last a link with
pre-christian pictorial art has been
established. 1
Skrobucha's book contains a detailed
narrative of the history of the monas­
tery and describes its treasures. It is
richly illustrated by magnificent photo­
graphs both in black and white and in
colour, which give an excellent impres­
sion both of the wild scenery and the
refined beauty of the ikons.
Several reproductions of old prints
enhance the charm of this valuable
publication. NICOLAS ZERNOV
VATICAN II
Orthodoxie und Zweites Vatikanum;
Dokumente und Stimmen aus der
Okumene, edited by Franz Hummer.
(Vienna-Freiburg-Basel, Herder 1966,
pp. 224, DM 16.80.)
Ad Limina Apostolonim, by Karl Barth.
(Zurich, EVZ Verlag 1967, pp. 66,
F r / D M 6.80.)
The first book is a useful collection
of documents, whjjch is commended
sufficiently by summarizing the con­
tents. They cover the period from Pope
ISee Prof. Kurt Weitzmann's article in
ECR I, 1, p. 27
BOOK REVIEWS
Paul VFs journey to the Holy Land in
December 1963 up till Patriarch
Athenagoras's 80th birthday (March
1966). Included are the documents of
the third Panorthodox Conference on
Rhodes (Nov. 1964), the various reci­
procal visits of representatives between
Pope Paul and the oecumenical pat­
riarch, the theological discussions in
Vienna (June 1965) and Istanbul (Nov.
1965) and various documents relating
to the observers at Vatican II, including
the addresses of Pope Paul and Cardinal
Bea at the service in St Paul's Outside
the Walls in December 1965. The
Decree on Ecumenism is given in full,
perhaps unnecessarily. The last major
event documented here is the lifting of
the mutual excommunications of 1054
in December 1965.
The discussion section of the book
contains Fr Dumont's impressions of
the Rhodes conference, the talks of
Archbishops Edelby and Anthony
Bloom a t Hammersmith (translated
from ECR I), articles on Vatican II by
Metropolitan Timiadis, Archimandrite
Scrima and Professor Cullmann, and
a conference on the importance of
Eastern Church studies for theology
today by Franz Lakner, SJ. The value
of a book like this is obvious; happily
the existence of ECR now makes it
hardly necessary to wish for an English
translation of most of the contents.
Karl Barth's little book is a theolo­
gian's delight. The first section gives his
impressions of his 'pilgrimage' to Rome
in September 1966, when he visited the
pope and took part in a session of the
international theological conference
which was then meeting. The second
section goes through the sixteen docu­
ments of Vatican II, not with comments
but with questions. At Heythrop in
1966-7 the candidates for theology
finals were invited to draft their own
examination syllabus. After many
hours' work in committee they con­
fessed that it was harder t o choose
the right questions than to answer
them. Theology is essentially the art of
finding and posing the right questions
about God and man; history is full of
451
bad questions and the quarrels, even
wars, they have caused. Karl Barth
picks his questions as only a great
theologian could. The last two sections
contain a penetrating examination of
the relationship of the Constitution on
Revelation to Trent and Vatican I, and
a letter to a Catholic theologian on the
ecumenical problem of Mariology.
ROBERT MURRAY, SJ
Clerical Celibacy and the Church of
Armenia, by Yedvard Gulbekian,
M.Sc. (HARQ Publications, London,
1966, 3s.)
Not only is there talk about celibacy
in the Catholic Church, but there is
discussion about it even in the ranks of
our separated Eastern brethren (where
bishops must be celibate).
In his succinct booklet Mr Gulbe­
kian surveys the situation in his church
and laments the shortage of a well-
educated clergy. Discussing the Arme­
nian communities of the Dispersion he
writes on page 2 : 'What must be ques­
tioned is whether the Church is in a
position to fulfil its task.'
In 1912 the qahanas (parish priests)
numbered approximately 4,000, while in
1954 the number had fallen to about
400 serving the same total Armenian
population.
Mr Gulbekian observes that of thir­
teen students admitted t o the seminary
at Echmiadzin during the period 1951-
64 only one or two graduates took Holy
Orders. According to our author, celi­
bacy for the educated cleric aspiring to
the episcopate is next to impossible
under present conditions—consequently
the shortage of well-trained clergy in
the Armenian Church today.
On page 4, the author gives us the
historical development of the present
discipline and in short his booklet
makes a militant demand for a change.
He claims there is no canonical rule
governing this question for the Ar­
menians. On page 8 he argues:
'The function of the priest and
bishop is to act as intermediary be­
tween God and Man and involves

EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
active work in the community. The
married state is therefore proper.
The vardapet is a teacher and again
can be married. Only for the monk,
who essentially has withdrawn from
the world and therefore would nor­
mally live apart from society, is
celibacy the natural state.
'It is here that the basic misunder­
standing has occurred. Not only has
the rule of celibacy been forced on­
to the vardapet and the bishop, the
concept of the vardapet as a teacher
has been overlooked, the degree
being regarded merely as a stepping
stone to the episcopate, completely
confusing the concepts of priest and
rabbi. The efforts of the Seminary of
Echmiadzin to restore the degree of
vardapet to its proper academic posi­
tion are very welcome in this regard.
'The results of this confusion have
been disastrous since the qahana has
been unable to proceed to the ful­
filment of his office as bishop. The
consequences were described by
Ormanyan as early as 1910:
' "We find, therefore, scarcely any
but men of a simple rank in life and
of mediocre capacity who aim at
attaining the priesthood at the pre­
sent time. It is for this reason that
the priesthood in the East in these
days is in a condition of inferiority;
and it goes without saying that the
faithful are the first to suffer from
such a state of things." ' (Malachia
Ormanyan: The Church of Armenia,
2nd revised English edition, p. 126,
A. R. Mowbray & Co., London 1955.)
On page 10, our author gives us his
solution:
'Fortunately the solution is simple
and straightforward: that, in keeping
with the admonition of the Apostle
Paul and the tradition of the early
Church, the episcopate should be
open to those qahanas having the
necessary qualifications and abilities.
Simultaneously, the classification of
the clergy into teacher {vardapet) and
priest (qahana) would be clarified,
while celibacy would be retained as
the natural state of the monk.'
452
As the reviewer of this book I must
add that Mr Gulbekian does have a
point there, which we Catholics of the
Eastern Rite understand very well.
However we leave it to the authorities,
which, in the opinion of the reviewer,
should have discussed it at Vatican II.
A L L E N MALOOF
SHORT NOTICES
Baptismal Anointing, by Leonel L.
Mitchell. (Alcuin Club Collections,
no. XLVIII, London, SPCK 1966, pp.
xvii, 200, 42s.)
This work, presented as a doctoral
dissertation in the United States, may
be of some value to curious readers
who have not access to the original
documents illustrating the rite of bap­
tismal anointing in all parts of historic
Christianity, but it can be recommended
to serious students only with qualifica­
tions. The author shows an almost naif
attitude in his discussions of many
points, and reveals not only a lack of
that general familiarity which would
come from membership of a Church
which uses this rite, but also numerous
deficiencies in his reading, many of
them due (as far as one can deduce) to
his not knowing German, with others
which can less easily be excused. Dr
Eric Segelberg's important article on the
Benedictio Olei in Hippolytus (Oriens
Christianus, 1964) was available by the
time this work was being prepared for
the press. The note referring to Dr
A. F. I. Klijn's edition of the Acts of
Thomas (Leiden 1962) makes it doubt­
ful whether this essential work can
have been in the author's hand. He has
had no clear guidance in speaking of
Ephrem; Theodore of Mopsuestia is
quoted in the often weird version of
Mingana (habitually called Mignana
here) without reference to R. M. Ton-
neau's edition in Testi e Studi 145
(Rome 1949). A colleague well ac­
quainted with the Latin sources has
offered the reviewer H still longer list
of shortcomings on the western side,
but these need not be mentioned in a
journal with the scope of ECR.
BOOK REVIEWS
The reviewer does not wish to give
the impression that the book is totally
unreliable, which would be far from the
truth; but neither is it all that one
expects from a series such as the Alcuin
Club Collections.
ROBERT MURRAY, SJ
Christian Initiation in Spain, c. 300-
1100, by T. C. Akeley (Darton,
Longman & Todd, 1966, pp. 223, 35s.).
This book may be compared to
another on Christian Initiation: Baptism
in the Medieval West, by J. D. C. Fisher,
reviewed in the first number of ECR.
It is more specialized, by an author who
is clearly learned in the palaeography
of Spanish manuscripts, and able to
point out a number of minor ritual
variations which Fisher and other earlier
authors missed. But he is even more
unaware of the normality of emergency
baptisms until very recent times. All
the ceremonies connected with prepara­
tion for baptism, with exorcism, unction
and the blessing of the font in the
middle ages and indeed in the Renais­
sance, were normally applied to infants
who had already been baptized. Since
they were in any case anomalous, there
was no point in adapting them to a
new situation, until in our own time
the drop in infant mortality produced
articles 67 and 69 in the Constitution
on the Sacred Liturgy of Vatican II.
The reforms there adumbrated were
made in the East in the 5th and 6th
centuries. They were possible in Eastern
churches because the fear of children
dying unbaptized was less pervasive, to
the horror of Latin observers who feared
for the infants whose baptism was
delayed until they could be properly
immersed and anointed.
GEORGE EVERY, SSM
American Interests in Syria 1800-1901,
A Study of Educational, Literary and
Religious Work, by A. L. Tibawi
(Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1966).
This is a parallel volume to British
Interests in Palestine 1800-1901, by the
same author, published by the Oxford
453
University Press in 1961. It is under­
stood that a further volume or volumes,
dealing with the present century, can
be expected.
The title may lead the reader to
expect something rather different, a
history of American policy or American
commerce. But it is a perfectly justified
title. The same is to be said about the
volume on British interests. In the 19th
century the British and American in­
terests in Syria and Palestine, as distinct
from Egypt and the Canal Zone, were
religious and educational.
The author is a Muslim Arab and a
professional historian. Both his books
ought to be read with great interest by
all who are concerned with the history
of Christian Missions during the 19th
century. He deals with the materials
provided by the archives of the mis­
sionary societies, the American Govern­
ment Records and what can be found
of the Ottoman Empire's state papers,
with cool impartiality.
This is not the place to summarize
his conclusions. It would be very in­
teresting to have similar work done on
the interests of the Roman Catholic
countries and of Imperial Russia.
We see here very clearly that Western
Christians were not able to influence
the Eastern Christians in the Ottoman
Empire, in the direction of the union
of the Churches as the West understood
it or in the direction of Reform or
Enlightenment. All that they could do
was to form new sects. When this was
clear, many turned to the practical task
of supplying a general education to
everyone. But this was not missionary
work as missionary societies had un­
derstood it. „ „
E. EVERY
BOOKS RECEIVED
Cambridge University Press: The Cam­
bridge History of Later Greek and
Early Christian Philosophy, ed. by
A. H. Armstrong, 1967, 95s.: $18.50.
Geoffrey Chapman:
Early Sources of the Liturgy, by
Lucien Deiss, 1967, 21s.
 EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
The Canon of the Mass and Liturgi­
cal Reform, by Cipriano Vagaggini,
1967, 30s.
Clarendon Press: Oxford University
Press: Archaeology and Old Testa­
ment Study, ed. by D. Winton
Thomas, 1967, 75s.
Darton, Longman & Todd:
God is a New Language, by Sebastian
Moore, 1967, 12s. 6d.
The Glory of God and the Trans­
figuration of Christ, by Michael
Ramsey, Libra Book, 1967, 8s. 6d.
Editions du Cerf:
Commentaire de I'Evangile Concor­
dant, ou Diatessaron, by fiphrem
de Nisibe, ed. with trans, and
notes by Louis Leloir, 1966, 39
frs.
Sur la Pdque, by Meliton de Sardes,
1966, 27 frs.
Editions de Chevetogne/Desclee de
Brouwer: Dogmatique de UEglise
Orthodoxe Catholique, by Panagi-
otis Trembelas, 2 vols., 1966-7.
Fordham University Press: Byzantium
and the Roman Primacy, by Francis
Dvornik, Eng. Ed. 1966, 30s. French
Ed. 1964, reviewed in ECR, 1.1.
Gollancz: Divorce and Remarriage:
towards a new Catholic Teaching, by
Viktor Pospishil, 1967, $4.50.
Hodder & Stoughton: The Christian
Fathers, by Maurice Wiles, 1966,
15s.
John Karmiris (author, from whom the
books can be obtained):
Eyiaeis 'OpdoSotjoov KO.1 'Apfievtcov KM
ISICUS 6 Kara TOP 12 alcova deoXoyiKOs
SidXoyos fxera^v CII5T<W (Relations and
Dialogue between Orthodox and Ar­
menians) by John Karmiris, Athens
1967.
At dpxcucu 'Avnx^KrjSoveLoi, 'EKKXTJ-
olat, TTJs 'AvaroXyjs KM r/ /Sacns rfjs
eTravevcvaecas avrcav fxerd -rfjs 'Opdo$o£ov
KadoXiKrjs 'EKKXrjatas (The non-Chal-
cedonian Churches of the East and the
Basis of their Reunion with the Ortho­
dox) by John Karmiris, Athens 1966.
'Opdo8o£[a Kal 'Paip.aioKadoAiKi.criJLOs
(Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism) by
John Karmiris, Athens 1966.
'Op9o8o^a Kal IJaXaioKaBoXiKiaixos
(Orthodoxy and Old-Catholicism) by
John Karmiris, Athens 1966.
Kaslik: Bibl. de l'Universite' du Saint-
Esprit:
Organisation Monastiquedans I'Eglise
Maronite, by Georges-Joseph Mar-
foud, Beirut, 1967, n.p.
Melanges Mgr Pierre Dib (special
number of Melto), 1967.
C. W. Leske Verlag: Patriarchen aim
Goldenen Horn: Gegenwart und Tra­
dition des Orthodoxen Orients, by
F. W. Fernau, 1967, 19.80 DM.
Mowbrays: Concelebration in the
Christian Church, by Archdale A.
King, 1966, 30s. 6d.
Nelson: A Catholic Dictionary of
Theology, vols. I and II, 1962, 1967,
42s. and 105s.
A. and J. Picard: Byzance avant
I'lslam, vol. II, Rome, Byzance et
Carthage, by Paul Goubert, SJ, 1965,
n.p.
Oxford University Press: Castles and
Churches of the Crusading King­
doms, by T. S. R. Boase, photographs
by Richard Chase, 1967, 75s.
S.P.C.K.:
Anglican Initiatives and Christian
Unity, ed. by E. C. R. Bill, 1967,
27s. and 18s. 6d.
Roman State and Christian Church,
ed. by P. R. Coleman-Norton, 3
vols., 1966, 9 i gns.
Christianity in its Social Context,
ed. by Gerard Irvine, 1967, 19s. 6d.
The Seal of the Spirit, by G. W. H.
Lampe, 2nd ed., 1967, 35s.
Ordination Prayers of the Ancient
Western Churches, by H . B. Por­
ter, Jr., Alcuin Club, 1967, 25s.
CONTRIBUTORS
A. H. ARMSTRONG
Gladstone Professor of Greek, Liverpool University. Editor of the recently
published Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy.
DOREEN BERRY
Rumanian Department, BBC.
BOJAN BUJIC
Serbian Orthodox, musicologist, studying at Lincoln College, Oxford.
Revd DERWAS J. CHITTY
Anglican Rector of Upton, Berks., author of The Desert a City and other
studies on early monasticism.
Revd J. D. CRICHTON
Catholic parish priest of Pershore, editor of Liturgy.
Revd EDWARD EVERY
Canon of St George's Anglican Cathedral, Jerusalem, and an expert on
Eastern Churches.
Brother GEORGE EVERY, SSM
House of the Sacred Mission, Kelham, author of The Byzantine Patriarchate,
etc. Associate Editor of ECR.
E. J. B. FRY
Editor of ECR.
Dr GEORGE GALAVARIS
Professor of Fine Arts, McGill University, Montreal.
Revd SERGEI HACKEL
Russian Orthodox priest, lecturer in the University of Sussex.
MARGARET M. HARVEY
Lecturer in History, Durham University.
Dr KONSTANTINOS D. KALOKYRIS
Professor in the faculty of Theology, University of Thessalonica.
Revd ALLEN MALOOF
Priest of the Melkite Church of the Virgin Mary, Brooklyn, New York.
Revd GERVASE MATHEW, OP
Lecturer in Byzantine Studies, University of Oxford, author of Byzantine
Aesthetics, etc.
Dr THEODORE D. MOSCHONAS
Librarian of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, editor of Pantainos.
Revd ROBERT MURRAY, SJ
Professor of Ecclesiology, Heythrop College, Oxon.
SUSAN MURRAY
Historian, wife of Keith Murray, church architect.
Revd ALEXANDER NADSON
Priest of the Byelorussian Catholic rite, headmaster of the Byelorussian school
in North Finchley, translator of The Office of Vespers in the Byzantine Rite.
455
 ■ /

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EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW /
■/

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W. H. C. Frend: The Winning of the Countryside. India: Revd M. M. Mathew, SJ, Christu Rajan, Kanjirapally P.O., Kottayam DT.,
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The remainder of the issue is taken up by 38 book reviews continuing
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EASTERN CHURCHES REVIEW
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Among contributors to the next issues of ECR:
Subscription price per volume of 2 parts is 50s. net. Orders may be George Every, SSM, Edmund Gemayel, George Florovsky, Bede Griffiths, W. J.
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