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Photios lived up to his apostolic responsibilities by making every attempt to spread the word of Christ to the surrounding areas who were yet unaware of Christianity. He sent two brothers, Cyril and Methodios, to instruct the people of the Slavic lands. In time they converted many pagans and baptized them into the faith, thus spawning the dawn of Russian Orthodoxy. St Cyril had formed the Cyrillic alphabet and translated the Bible into the Slavonic language in order to ease the education of the people. Their struggles were many as they endured conflicts and imprisonments, but their mission proved to change the course of Christianity. The actions of Photios, with the aid of Cyril and Methodios, caused Christianity to spread far throughout those lands. In time, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was formed. While this is a very laudable thing, Pope Nicholas only found his jealousy fueled by it. After a short time, Prince Boris-Michael requested of Photios that the Bulgars be given their own Patriarch. Photios, feeling that this was premature, did not agree to this but agreed to continue to send missionaries. This is when Nicholas seized the opportunity to over-step Photios by imposing his assertions as to the primacy of Rome. He sent representatives who coaxed Boris-Michael into pledging his faithfulness to the Church of Rome. In a short time, Nicholas had saturated Bulgaria with his own clergy and carried out persecutions of the clergy who had been sent there by Photios. Likewise, he uprooted the true dogma of the church and replaced it with his own thoughts and rules. Among these were the idea that clergy should not be married, the lightening of the rules of fasting which are critical to the true Christian; the criticism of the Epiklesis and the use of leavened bread and, in time, the defilement of the Creed with the addition of the Filioque. All of these false ideas conflicted with the canons of the Church. Now, the humble and God-fearing Photios always guided with words of truth, never acting out of self-interest but rather considering only the salvation of others and the unity of the Church. But the time had come where silence had to be broken, for it was his duty to reveal heresy when he saw it, lest the Church be guided away from the truth. He sent out letters firmly rebuking the actions of the Pope and calling for a council to settle the many conflicting issues forming between the East and West Thereby, the Ecumenical Council of 867 formed and was attended by about 1,000 bishops, members of the clergy and monastics. The canonical judgment of this council was to excommunicate Pope Nicholas. Ironically, Nicholas died before the news could reach his ears. He was succeeded by Pope Hadrian II. In addition, Emperor Michael III was murdered and Basil I took the throne. Basil, acting out of self-interest, removed Photios and brought Ignatios back to the Patriarchal position. Likewise, he took up ties with West and Pope Hadrian. He agreed to form a council in Constantinople in 869. He and Ignatios agreed to acknowledge the Pope's primacy and helped to convene what came to be known by the West as the Eighth Ecumenical Council, which the West still recognizes to this day. The Eastern Church, however, has never acknowledged this council as it consisted only of 110 hand-selected bishops and did not fully represent the Church. In fact, some bishops had not even been made aware of the council. At this council, all truthful papers from the previous council were burned. Continued on page 4 |
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Amid the struggles we have mentioned above, there
also occurred, around the year 860,a horrific invasion of the
Byzantine Empire by yet uncivilized, Russian barbarians . They killed
ruthlessly everyone in their path, spilling innocent and pious
Christian blood everywhere. They slew babies and women alike,
young and old, with unfathomable coldness of heart. They pillaged
the empire and took much. Photios, seeing this invasion as a sign of
the empire's own sins, gathered the people to pray fervently and confess
their wrongdoings. Their prayers were heard and the invasions
ceased. Photios gave services of thanks to God and the Theotokos for
their aid.