BY GOD’S MERCY

ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE – NEW ROME

AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH

TO THE ENTIRE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH:

GRACE, PEACE, AND MERCY FROM CHRIST, RISEN IN GLORY

* * *

Most honourable brother Hierarchs and blessed children in the Lord,

Having arrived, through fasting, prayer, and solemnity, at the radiant and all-festal day of Holy Pascha, we hymn and glorify the world-saving Resurrection of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, which marks the manifest victory of life over death, renews all creation, and opens to humanity the way of deification by grace. The Church of Christ preserves the paschal experience in her liturgical life, in the labours of the Saints and Martyrs of the faith, in the eschatological impulse of monasticism, in the proclamation of the Gospel “to the ends of the earth,” in theology and the ecclesial arts, in the good witness of the faithful in the world, in the culture of love and solidarity, and in the immovable certainty that evil does not have the final word in history.

The Resurrection of the Lord is lived as a Christ-bestowed freedom, which inspires, nourishes, and strengthens the creative powers of the human person and the good struggle for “whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable,” while reminding us all that the journey toward the Resurrection is inseparably bound to the Cross. The joy of the Cross and the Resurrection has preserved the people of God from identifying themselves with the spirit of this world, while at the same time safeguarding them from barren insularity and a spirituality devoid of dynamism and hope-bearing breath. The life of the faithful, in the crucified and risen Christ “for us men,” still today refutes every alien narrative of Christian ethos as a “morality of the weak,” supposedly embodied in humility, forgiveness, sacrificial love, asceticism, the Lord’s saying “but I say to you, do not resist the evil one,” and other principles and dispositions that belong to the very core of our identity. Nothing could be further from the truth than this reading of the ethos of Christianity — of sacrificial love that “does not seek its own,” a love interwoven with courage, boldness, and existential authenticity. Pascha is a hymn to this freedom, to faith “working through love,” which is not our own achievement but grace and a gift from above, and which is lived in the holy Sacraments of the Church and in the “mystery” of service to one’s neighbour. Indeed, “love for God does not in any way tolerate hatred toward one’s fellow human being.”

The Church of Christ — the “salt of the earth,” the “light of the world,” the city “set on a hill,” the lamp placed “on the lampstand” — bears active witness in the world, before the signs of the times, about the grace that has come and “the hope that is in us.” The message of the Cross and the Resurrection resounds today as a Gospel of peace, reconciliation, and justice. War, hatred, and injustice stand opposed to the fundamental Christian principles for whose realization and establishment the people of God pray and labour each day. In the light of the Resurrection, we beseech the Lord on behalf of the victims of wartime violence, the orphans, the mothers who mourn their children, and all those who bear in body and soul the effects of human cruelty and callousness. “Christ is risen” is a denial and condemnation of violence and fear and an invitation to a life of peace. War brings forth lamentation and death; the Resurrection conquers death and bestows incorruptibility.

Before the daily images of the cruelty of war, the Church raises her voice and proclaims the sacredness of the human person — of every concrete human being anywhere on earth — and the duty of absolute respect for that dignity; and she calls upon us to “know our own worth, honour the Prototype, recognise the power of the mystery, and understand for whose sake Christ died.” The Resurrection of the Lord is the restoration of the human being to his pre-eternal calling. As the “beginning of another eternal life,” it heals alienating relationships and establishes the peace “which surpasses all understanding” — a peace that encompasses worldly reconciliation and pacification.

Inspired by God, the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church — the tenth anniversary of whose convocation we honour this year — underlined the duty of the Church “to encourage whatever truly serves the cause of peace (Rom. 14:19) and opens the way to justice, brotherhood, true freedom, and mutual love among all the children of the one heavenly Father, as well as among all peoples who make up the one human family.”

Holy Pascha is the whole of our spiritual civilization, the very core of our piety. The Resurrection of the Lord is also our own resurrection in the present age, and at the same time a prefiguration and foretaste of the “common resurrection of all human beings” and of the renewal of the whole creation. Illumined by the all-radiant light of the face of the Risen Christ, and glorifying in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs His all-holy Name — the Prince of Peace, who is with us “always, unto the end of the age” — we wish you a blessed Resurrection, a paschal season filled with divine gifts, and every day of your lives likewise, crying out the universal proclamation of joy: “Christ is risen! Truly the Lord is risen!”

Phanar, Holy Pascha 2026

† Bartholomew of Constantinople

fervent supplicant for you all 

to the Risen Lord

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Beloved Fathers, Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

“This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!” (Ps. 117:24). “The day of Resurrection, let us be radiant, O peoples! Pascha, the Lord’s Pascha; for Christ God has brought us from death to life, and from earth to heaven, as we sing the triumphal song.” (Paschal canon, ode 1). Indeed, the day of Pascha fills our hearts with joy and gladness each year. But this jubilation does not simply stem from the celebration of a myth, nor of a past event, for the day of the resurrection is for us a present event that transports us toward the future, into the beatitude of the eternal Kingdom of God.

The resurrection of Christ is recounted in the four Gospels by eyewitnesses, the apostles, who, moreover, traced the historical life of our Lord Jesus Christ in their writings in light of their lived experience after the Lord’s radiant resurrection. Thus, all the historical events of our Lord’s life are interpreted and presented in the light of the encounter with the risen Christ, an encounter that marks the authenticity of the apostolic kerygma.

Saint Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles and the founder of the Church of Pisidia, was also worthy to encounter the risen Christ on the road to Damascus (Ac. 9:4). As he writes, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile” (1 Cor. 15:17). The resurrection of Christ is therefore not simply a historical event of the past, but an event that concerns our future, that concerns the ultimate purpose of God’s creation. Indeed, Saint Paul affirms: “if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised” (1 Cor. 15:13). According to him, the risen Christ appears as the head of the universal resurrection and subdues all evil powers under his feet, abolishing death forever (1 Cor. 15:23-26, 52-57). For this reason, our traditional Byzantine iconography represents the Resurrection of Christ as His descent into Hades and the liberation of Adam and Eve, personifying all of humanity, from the bonds of death.

And each of us, through our baptism, has become a witness and participant in the resurrection of Christ, as Saint Paul writes: “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:3-4). And this renewal which comes about in us through the holy mystery of baptism, through our personal participation in the Paschal Mystery, must transform our way of life, as the Apostle to the Gentiles exhorts us: “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above… for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. … Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed… get rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth” (Col. 3:1-9).

Indeed, the Lord’s resurrection introduces the believer into the eternal Kingdom of God, which is the ultimate goal of our lives, and allows us to share with him the banquet of his Kingdom right now through the holy mystery of the Eucharist. It is remarkable that during the forty days following his Resurrection, the risen Christ appeared and ate with his disciples, breaking bread (Lk. 24:13-35; Jn. 21:1-14). Similarly, the Acts of the Apostles emphasizes that early Church broke bread, that is, performed the holy mystery of the Eucharist, “with gladness” (Acts 2:46) precisely because the Resurrection manifested God’s victory over his enemies, thus announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God into human history.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, all of us who are baptized must have in our hearts the same feelings as the holy apostles Luke and Cleopas, who walked with the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus: “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was talking to us on the road, while He was opening the scriptures to us?” (Lk. 24:32). May our hearts also burn with joy at the presence of the risen Christ in our lives! “Come let us share in the new fruit of the vine, in divine joy, and in the Kingdom of Christ, on the glorious day of the Resurrection, as we sing his praise as God to all the ages” (Paschal canon, ode 8). Christ is risen!

Antalya, Pascha 2026

+ Job of Pisidia

The post Encyclical on Pascha Of His Eminence Metropolitan Job of Pisidia, Hypertimos and Exarch of Side and Antalya appeared first on Pisidia.

His communication entitled “The Akathist Hymn in the Liturgical Tradition of Other Orthodox and Christian Traditions” offered a special scientific analysis of the Akathistos Hymn in Latin and the Slavic tradition. The conference concluded with great success under the blessing of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

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+ BARTHOLOMEW

By God’s Mercy

Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome

and Ecumenical Patriarch

To the Plenitude of the Church:

grace and peace from God

✦  ✦  ✦

“To You, our Champion Leader, we, Your City, ascribe hymns of victory and thanksgiving, for having been delivered from calamities, O Theotokos!”

This year marks fourteen hundred years since, in honour of the Theotokos, the Kontakion now universally known as the “Akathist Hymn” was solemnly chanted in church, with all the faithful standing. It is an exalted and triumphant poem which, with singular richness and elegance of expression, refers both historically and theologically to the divine economy of the Incarnation and to the unique role of the All-Pure Mother of God within it.

Through this Kontakion, the faithful at prayer reverently greet the Panaghia with the repeated echo of the first salutation addressed by the Archangel Gabriel, herald of grace and joy, to the one full of grace: the word “Rejoice.” Through this word, the “mystery hidden from all ages” is made manifest, and “the sum of our salvation” is brought to fulfilment. The repetition in this hymn of the word “Rejoice” one hundred and forty-four times in address to the All-Blessed Virgin clearly bears a mystical meaning. It recalls the one hundred and forty-four thousand pure saints of the Revelation, who sing the “new song” with their harps before the throne of God and “follow the Lamb wherever He goes.” As the people of God are purified in both life and doctrine, wholly devoted to the incarnate Word of God and indissolubly united with Him, they hymn the saving divine economy and at the same time salute, in songs of praise and sacred melody, the All-Glorious Mother of the Lord and Mother of the Church, as well as her mighty protection over the Church’s devout flock.

The opening of the Kontakion, its Prooimion (prelude), was originally the well-known hymn, “Having mystically received the command in knowledge…,” which refers exclusively to the Annunciation of the Theotokos. This shows that the entire hymn properly belongs to that great feast, for which, even to this day, the whole service of the Salutations forms a beautiful and richly flowered crown of forefeast and afterfeast. In the course of time, a new introductory hymn became established — “To you, our Champion Leader, we ascribe hymns of victory” — in order to express the grateful thanksgiving of the people to her “through whom trophies are raised” and “through whom enemies are overthrown.”

The salvation of the City and of the whole Empire from the terrible assault of the Avars and the Persians, during the absence of Emperor Heraclius and his army, who were far away striving to recover the precious Cross of Christ, was rightly attributed to the mighty protection and help of the Most Holy Theotokos, to whom the founder, Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine the Great, had reverently dedicated New Rome. Receiving the unceasing and anguished supplication of clergy and people from the depths of their hearts, the Mother of God not only strengthened the resolve of the few defenders, but also wrought a great miracle: by the swirling of storm winds she brought about the total destruction of the besiegers’ fleet, after which they were driven into disorderly flight, and thus the City was saved. Rightly, therefore, “having been delivered from calamities,” the City of the Theotokos inscribed its hymns of victory to the Panaghia, whom it thenceforth named its “Champion Leader,” and as such it called upon her again and again throughout the turbulent history of Orthodoxy, each time tasting sweetly her love and her mighty protection.

The historic Church of Blachernae, where, according to ancient tradition, an all-night vigil was celebrated each week in honour of the Mother of God, often in the presence of the Emperor, received on the night of 7 August 626 the crowds of the God-fearing people who had been saved. Deeply moved and with tears of gratitude, they offered her veneration and chanted the Kontakion with its new prooimion, as fitting thanksgiving and a debt of glorification to God and to her who, in the words of Saint Andrew of Crete, “holds the second place after the Trinity” — the Deliverer and Protectress of the City and of the whole realm.

From that hour, the “Akathist Hymn” — this radiant masterpiece of ecclesiastical poetry, this incomparable monument of the Greek language and most intricately woven work of art of God-inspired theology — became the most beloved hymn of our liturgical life, the Christians’ sweetest delight. Long ago, it was translated into many languages. Bishops and priests chant it with compunction. Monastics recite it daily, and the faithful often throughout the year. Theologians analyze its lofty dogmatic ascents. Scholars of language and literature plunge into the beautiful depths of its expressive refinement and poetic grandeur. Poets and painters draw inspiration from its luminous lyrical images. Iconographers depict lovely scenes from its abundant content. Masters of ecclesiastical music clothe it in elaborate sacred melodies. Yet the “Akathist Hymn” always remains, above all, the God-befitting prayer of the Church — the voice of the devout heart of Christians, at once glorification, thanksgiving, supplication, and entreaty to Him who “for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man”; and at the same time, an appeal to her who possesses maternal boldness before God and who, in manifold ways and at all times, abundantly bestows her mighty help and protection upon the devout Orthodox faithful.

The Akathist Hymn calls every believer to vigilance, to remain upright and steadfast, in humility and prayer, before the great challenges of our age, in these grievous days of upheaval and war through which humanity is now passing. Let us pray fervently that the Mother of the “Peace of God,” moved by the prayerful offering of her “Akathist Hymn” by all the faithful in compunction and reverence, may once again act as “Champion Leader” of all who are wronged and endangered, and as the mighty Protection of the children of the Church throughout the world, granting to the human race the true Peace of her Son, that peace “which surpasses all understanding.”

On the 27^th day of the month of March 2026 A.D.

Indiction III

Bartholomew of Constantinople

supplicant in Christ

+ Emmanuel of Chalcedon, supplicant in Christ

+ Ambrosios of Karpathos and Kasos, supplicant in Christ

+ Apostolos of Miletus, supplicant in Christ

+ Joseph of Proikonnesos, supplicant in Christ

+ Meliton of Philadelphia, supplicant in Christ

+ Athanasios of Koloneia, supplicant in Christ

+ Theoleptos of Iconium, supplicant in Christ

+ Joseph of Buenos Aires, supplicant in Christ

+ Cleopas of Sweden and All Scandinavia, supplicant in Christ

+ Kyrillos of Imbros and Tenedos, supplicant in Christ

+ Constantine of Denver, supplicant in Christ

+ Grigorios of Ankara, supplicant in Christ

The post Patriarchal and Synodal Encyclical on the occasion of the celebration of the 1400th anniversary of the solemn chanting of the Akathist Hymn while standing for the deliverance of the Queen of Cities from the siege of the Avars and the Persians appeared first on Pisidia.

The liturgical service in honor of Saint Leontios of Antalya was likely composed by Seraphim Kykkotis, the Attaliates, Metropolitan of Ancyra in the 18th century. A church dedicated to Saint Leontios once existed in Antalya, but it was destroyed in the great fire of 1895. A chapel was then dedicated to him on the ground floor of the Antalya Girls’ School, where the holy relics of the saint, which secreted myrrh, were kept until the population exchange. Furthermore, the ruins of a 9th-century monastery, abandoned in the 13th century, have been discovered in the mountains near Lake Doyran, 15 km from Antalya, undoubtedly the place where the saint carried out his ascetic practice. May he protect us and intercede for us!

Life of our Venerable and God Bearer Father Leontios the Myrrhbearer, who carried out ascetic practice on Mount Kontobakion in the Antalya region

Originally from Athens, in the 9th century, our Father Leontios was entrusted at a young age by his parents to his grandfather, who had built a church dedicated to the Holy Archangel Michael. It was there that the boy spent all his time, learning the holy books and the Church’s offices by heart. When he reached the age of twenty, he was adopted by the local lord, who had noticed his virtues and had him ordained a priest, despite his reluctance. Shortly afterward, Leontios abruptly renounced his parents, his possessions, and the promising future that had been prepared for him, to take up the Cross. He devoted himself entirely to a renowned ascetic, Nicholas, who lived in the region of Athens. After being clothed in the holy angelic habit and instructed for a year in the principles of monastic life, he took leave of his spiritual father to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with one of the brothers named Clement. As he gave him his blessing, Nicholas said to him: “Know, my son, that the Holy Spirit has chosen you to be the pastor of the city of Antalya.”

Once in Palestine, after venerating the Holy Places, the two young monks went to the monastery of Saint Theodosius the Cenobiarch and placed themselves under the guidance of a venerable ascetic named Barnabas, who had attained the pinnacle of virtue. When Leontios went one day to the Mount of Olives with Barnabas, he saw, like a second prophet Isaiah, the Lord seated on his throne of glory, surrounded by myriads of angels who sang: “Save, O Lord, your people and bless your inheritance…” In Bethlehem, he repeatedly beheld the bright star that shone above the cave and, as a result of these visions, obtained the power to perform miracles and cast out demons.

Forced to leave Palestine, which was oppressed by barbarians, Leontios embarked on the road to exile with his spiritual father and three other companions. After a long and arduous journey, they arrived in Antalya, whose inhabitants lived immorally, like wild beasts, without fear of God in their hearts. But from the day the holy monk began to preach repentance, supporting his words with striking miracles, the people of the region began to change their way of life, and all those who were not Christians were soon baptized by the saint.

After completing this missionary work, Saint Leontios withdrew to Mount Kontobakion, which was not far from the city. From this arid place, exposed to the harshness of winter and the scorching sun of summer, he made a center of attraction for all those seeking God. His disciples became so numerous that he had to build seven churches, many cells, and large guesthouses to accommodate the pilgrims. The saint provided his disciples with everything they needed for their sustenance and was in all things their master, their counselor, and their father. In accordance with the prophecy of Nicholas, he became for the entire region the living image of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through his prayer alone, he saved the city of Antalya from flooding, repelled invaders, rescued ships in distress, and healed many sick people. He fell asleep in peace on 22 February and, after his death, continued to spread divine mercy through the holy myrrh that flowed from his relics, thus bearing witness that he had acquired God’s favor for eternity.

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By God’s mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome

and Ecumenical Patriarch

To the Plenitude of the Church

May the grace and peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ;
and from us, prayer, blessing, and forgiveness.

Most honorable brother Hierarchs and blessed children in the Lord,

Filled with sacred emotion, we enter once again, by God’s goodwill, into Holy and Great Lent, the arena of ascetic struggle, the time of fasting and repentance, of humility and prayer, of spiritual vigilance and love, with the eyes of our heart directed to the life-giving Cross of the Lord, which guides us all toward Holy Pascha that opens the gates of Paradise to the human race.

This blessed period now opening before us constitutes an opportunity to comprehend once more the truth of asceticism according to Christ and its inseparable association with the Eucharistic realization of the Church, whose every expression and dimension is illumined by the light and joy of the Resurrection. The spirit of asceticism is hardly a foreign element introduced into Christianity, nor is it the result of influence by dualistic ideologies outside the Church. Asceticism is another word for the Christian existence, connecting it with absolute trust in Divine Providence, with the inexhaustible spiritual gladness of a life dedicated to Christ, with self-transcendence and self-offering, with charitable love and respect for all creation.

Asceticism is not a matter of self-willed choices and subjective particularities, but of submission to the rule and the “catholic experience” of the Church. It has been described as an “ecclesiastical” rather than an “individual” event. Life in the Church is indivisible. Repentance, prayer, humility, forgiveness, fasting, and philanthropic deeds are interconnected and interwoven. In the Orthodox tradition, there is no asceticism as an end in itself, for that only leads to an overestimation of individual effort and feeds tendencies of self-justification.

Great Lent is the appropriate time to experience the Church as the place and the manner in which the gifts of divine Grace are revealed, always as a foretaste of the joy of the Lord’s Resurrection, the cornerstone of our faith and the all-radiant horizon of “the hope within us.” It is by divine inspiration that the Church honours on Cheesefare Saturday the sacred memory of saintly men and women who have shone brightly in asceticism, for they are the supporters and companions of the faithful in the long course of asceticism. In the arena of spiritual struggle, we have the benevolence of the Triune God with us, the protection of the All-Holy Mother of God and Mother of us all, and the intercessions of the saints and martyrs of the faith.

Healthy Christian asceticism is the participation of the whole human being—as a unity of spirit, soul, and body—in the life in Christ, without undervaluing matter and the body, and without a Manichaean reduction of spirituality. As it has been written, Christian asceticism is ultimately a struggle “not against, but for the body”; as the Gerontikon affirms: “We have been taught not to destroy the body, but to destroy the passions.”

Unfortunately, and inaccurately, Christian asceticism has been labelled by contemporary thinkers as a denial of the joy of life and as a restriction of human creativity. Nothing could be further from the truth! As release from “having” and from attachment to the possession of things, and especially as liberation from the ego, from “seeking one’s own,” and from the “having of our being,” asceticism is the source and expression of genuine freedom.

What can be more truthful than the exodus from the captivity of “individual right” and the openness and love for our fellow human beings, the inner “good change” and steadfastness in fulfilling God’s commandments? What could be more creative than fasting, when it is a holistic attitude of life and expresses the ascetic and Eucharistic spirit of the Church, when it is a “common struggle” and not an “individual feat”? What could be more existentially striking than repentance and internal conversion, as a vital direction toward the truth and a renewed discovery of the power of divine Grace, of the depth of life in Christ and the hope of eternal life?

It is truly impressive that, when the early Christian character of Holy and Great Lent as a period of preparation for Holy Baptism in the Divine Liturgy of the Resurrection was replaced by the “ethos of repentance,” there nevertheless remained its experience as a “second baptism.” For this reason, the period of fasting and repentance is not sorrowful. Our hymnology speaks of the “spring of fasting,” while theology calls Great Lent a “spiritual spring” and a “period of joy and light.” All of this assumes special timeliness and significance in the face of the anthropological confusion of our time, as well as the new alienations rooted in contemporary civilization.

With these sentiments and thoughts, reminding all the children of the Holy Great Church of Christ throughout the Lord’s dominion, that on the day of the Akathist Hymn, the festivities will culminate, marking the 1400th anniversary of the year 626—when, in expression of gratitude to the Theotokos for the deliverance of the City of Constre from a perilous siege, the Akathist Hymn was chanted standing in the sacred Church of Blachernae—we wish you all a smooth course of the Fast, with asceticism and patience, with thanksgiving and doxology.

May we all, speaking the truth in love and being sanctified in the Lord, travel this way toward the fullness of joy in His radiant Resurrection.

Holy and Great Lent 2026

✠ BARTHOLOMEW of Constantinople

Your fervent supplicant for all before God

The post Catechetical homily for the Opening of Holy and Great Lent appeared first on Pisidia.

The next day His Eminence went to the Holy Great Monastery of Vatopedi, where he was warmly welcomed and received by the Abbot Archimandrite Ephraim and the Brotherhood of the Monastery. Elder Ephraim, in the refectory of the monastery, before the brotherhood and a hundred of pilgrims from various parts of the world referred to the Metropolitan of Pisidia of blessed memory Sotirios Trampas and his zeal and dedication to the missionary work that continues in the Holy Metropolis of Pisidia.

On the third day, Metropolitan Job of Pisidia went to the Holy Monastery of Simonos Petra where he was received by the Brotherhood of the Holy Monastery and his Holy Abbot, Archimandrite Elisaios. There, His Eminence presided over the Divine Liturgy of the Leave-taking of the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord. His three-day pilgrimage visit concluded there.

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Great Lent Lectures of His Eminence Metropolitan Job of Pisidia

Wednesdays from 19:00 to 20:00

25 February The Human Being as an Image of God

4 March The Human Being “Participant of the Divine Nature”

18 March The Great Mystery of Repentance

1 April The Resurrection as the New Creation

Hall of the Metropolis of Pisidia
Kılınçarslan mah., Kurtuluş sok. No: 4, 07100 Kaleiçi, Muratpaşa-Antalya

And on the YouTube Channel of the Metropolis

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January 21, 2026

Metropolitan Job of Pisidia

1054 in the Christian imaginary

The year 1054 remains a tragic year in the Christian imaginary. For many it represents the dramatic moment of the division between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, often identified as the “Great Schism of 1054”. This is what we can read in most encyclopedias and dictionaries as well as in the catechisms of our Churches. For centuries, unfortunately, we have long sought to nourish this imaginary and to blame the culprit.

In the 19^th century, Father Wladimir, born René-François Guettée, a French Catholic priest converted to Orthodoxy, in one of his numerous works of religious history, under the evocative title: The Schismatic Papacy, published in 1863, soon after his conversion, describes the tragic events of 1054:

“Patriarch Michael refused to communicate with the legates. He undoubtedly knew that the emperor wanted, out of bias, to sacrifice the Greek Church to the papacy, to obtain some help for his throne; the letter he had received from the Pope informed him sufficiently of what was meant in Rome by the word union. The legates went to Hagia Sophia at the time when the clergy was preparing for mass. They complained aloud about the obstinacy of the patriarch and placed on the altar a sentence of excommunication launched against him. They left the church shaking the dust from their feet and pronouncing anathema against those who would not communicate with the Latins. All this was done with the consent of the emperor; which explains why the patriarch did not want to have any relationship with the legates. The people, convinced of the emperor’s connivance with these envoys, had rioted. At the moment of danger, Constantine made some concessions. The legates protested that their sentence of excommunication had not been read as it stood; that the patriarch had had the most cruel and perfidious designs towards them. Whatever the case, and even if Michael had been guilty of these evil designs, their way of acting would have been neither more worthy nor more canonical. Another reproach was made against Patriarch Michael: that of having made unfounded accusations against the Latin Church. Many, in fact, were exaggerated; but one did not want to notice that, in his letter, the patriarch was only the echo of the Churches of the East. Since the papacy wanted to impose its autocracy, a strong reaction had taken place in all these Churches. Under the impulse of this feeling, one sought everything that could be blamed on this Roman Church, which, in the person of its bishops, presented itself as the infallible guardian of sound doctrine. Michael Cerularius was only the interpreter of these reproaches; he would never have had enough influence to impose his true or alleged grievances on the Christian East, and those who wanted to portray him as the consummate of the schism begun under Photius only appreciated the facts in a superficial way.”

Despite the polemical tone, it is remarkable that Guettée recognizes in this passage that on the one hand, many accusations made against the Latin Church by Patriarch Michael Cerularius “in fact, were exaggerated”, and on the other, “those who wanted to portray him as the consummate of the schism begun under Photius only appreciated the facts in a superficial way”.¹

A century later, we have yet another reading of the facts by the illustrious French Catholic Assumptionist and Byzantinist Martin Jugie. In his no less polemical work published in Paris in 1941 and entitled The Byzantine Schism, which he judges to be the “Cerularius’ schism” and of which he attempts to trace distant causes, among which he mentions “the ambition of the patriarchs of Constantinople, which pushed them to want to equal themselves at all costs with the bishops of Rome”, the author finally lists among the direct causes of the schism “the antipathies of race, national pride and political rivalries” between Greeks and Latins and recognizes as indirect causes of this “schism” the diversity and mutual ignorance of the Greek and Latin languages, as well as the autonomous evolution of the two Churches in the theological, canonical and liturgical domain, where the most important point according to him was the addition of the filioque to the Nicene Creed, introduced in Rome at the beginning of the 11^th century, and never recognized by the East. Beyond the polemical tone of the time, Jugie’s merit is to have called into question, by showing its inaccuracy, the point of view perpetuated over the centuries according to which “the schism of Michael Cerularius” of 1054 would have been the definitive schism between the East and the West. Jugie writes:

“In the hindsight of history, the mutual excommunications of July 1054 have been considered as the fatal end of the Schisms which, for many centuries, periodically separated the Byzantine Church from the Western Church, where one saw in Michael Cerularius the author of the definitive schism. In fact, when we examine the documents closely, we realize that these anathemas did not have the general scope that one wanted to attribute to them. The Roman legates did not launch theirs against the Byzantine Church, but against one of its patriarchs and some of its clerics. Their sentence itself appears, from a canonical point of view, devoid of any value and has never been approved by the Holy See. As for the excommunication of the legates by Michael Cerularius and his permanent synod, it affects neither the pope nor the entire Western Church; it is a simple measure of reprisal against insolent foreigners, who dared to raise the most fanciful accusations against Cerularius and his clergy and in whom one only wanted to see emissaries of the Duke of Italy, Argyros. Instead of speaking of a definitive schism, it would undoubtedly be more accurate to say that we are in the presence of the first aborted attempt of reunion.”²

Regardless of his bias, the merit of Jugie’s study is to have underlined that the anathemas of 1054 did not target local Churches, but concrete persons; that the bull of excommunication placed on the altar of Saint Sophia by the French Benedictine cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida had no canonical validity since Pope Leo IX had died three months earlier, and above all, that the events of 1054 should be considered not as the accomplishment of a schism, but rather as an unsuccessful attempt to restore communion between the Churches.

These judicious remarks made it possible in the years that followed in the 20^th century to “demythologize” the so-called “schism” of 1054. This is what the French Dominican Yves Congar did in his work entitled Nine Hundred Years After, Notes on the “Oriental Schism”, where he considers the excommunication placed on the altar of Hagia Sophia on 16 July 1054 as a “monument of an unimaginable incomprehension” and a gesture tainted with invalidity, underlining that it was only an episode of secondary importance in a long evolution, begun well before and continuing well after, which he qualified of progressive “estrangement”³. Thus, “the great schism of 1054” resembles more of a crude construction of historiographers and polemicists in the Christian imaginary than of a historical fact.

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¹  M. l’abbé Guettée, La Papauté schismatique ou Rome dans ses rapports avec l’Église orientale, Paris, Librairie de l’Union chrétienne, 1863, p. 363-364.
² Martin Jugie, Le schisme byzantin, aperçu historique et doctrinal. Paris, P. Lethielleux, 1941, p. 230.
³  Yves Congar, Neuf cents ans après, Notes sur le « Schisme oriental », Éditions de Chevetogne, 1954, p. 77.

Commit these excommunications to oblivion

The sequal of the work of theologians not only contributed to “demythologizing” the “schism of 1054” but went even further: to erase these anathemas from the memory of the Church. Just as the cause of these excommunications had been the incomprehension of concrete persons, the lifting of these anathemas was made possible by the meeting, the sincerity and the commitment of two people who believed deeply in the unity of the Church: Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras.

On the one hand, this was made possible thanks to the opening of the Roman Catholic Church towards other Churches, and particularly to the Christian East, during the Second Vatican Council which declared in its decree on ecumenism Unitatis redintegratio, promulgated in November 1964: “For this reason the Holy Council urges all, but especially those who intend to devote themselves to the restoration of full communion hoped for between the Churches of the East and the Catholic Church, to give due consideration to this special feature of the origin and growth of the Eastern Churches”, recalling that “from the beginning the Churches of the East have had a treasury from which the Western Church has drawn extensively – in liturgical practice, spiritual tradition, and law”, before concluding: “The very rich liturgical and spiritual heritage of the Eastern Churches should be known, venerated, preserved and cherished by all. They must recognize that this is of supreme importance for the faithful preservation of the fullness of Christian tradition, and for bringing about reconciliation between Eastern and Western Christians”⁴.

On the other hand, this was also made possible by the interest of the Orthodox Church in the Christian Churches of the West during the Pan-Orthodox Conferences convened in Rhodes by Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in the 1960s which gave the green light to the establishment of dialogues with these Churches and to the sending of Orthodox observers to the Second Vatican Council.

A significant historical event took place sixty years ago precisely at the end of the Second Vatican Council: the lifting of the regrettable anathemas of the year 1054. During a ceremony simultaneously celebrated in Rome in St. Peter’s Basilica and in the patriarchal church of St. Georges at the Phanar on 7 December 1965. In their joint declaration, Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras observed that: 

“Among the obstacles along the road of the development of these fraternal relations of confidence and esteem, there is the memory of the decisions, actions and painful incidents which in 1054 resulted in the sentence of excommunication leveled against the Patriarch Michael Cerularius and two other persons by the legate of the Roman See under the leadership of Cardinal Humbertus, legates who then became the object of a similar sentence pronounced by the patriarch and the Synod of Constantinople.”⁵

Furthermore, they rightly recognized the personal and exaggerated character of these anathemas which over the centuries resulted in the “estrangement” of the Churches:

“Today, however, they have been judged more fairly and serenely. Thus it is important to recognize the excesses which accompanied them and later led to consequences which, insofar as we can judge, went much further than their authors had intended and foreseen. They had directed their censures against the persons concerned and not the Churches. These censures were not intended to break ecclesiastical communion between the Sees of Rome and Constantinople.”⁶

Therefore, the two primates not only affirmed to “regret the offensive words, the reproaches without foundation, and the reprehensible gestures which, on both sides, have marked or accompanied the sad events of this period”, but even decided prophetically “remove both from memory and from the midst of the Church the sentences of excommunication which followed these events, the memory of which has influenced actions up to our day and has hindered closer relations in charity”, and even, “commit these excommunications to oblivion”. ⁷

This constitutes a strong and courageous statement. But what does this mean concretely in practical terms? It means that there is no consummated schism between the two Churches, as is still unfortunately widely believed in the Christian imaginary. It means that the regrettable events of 1054 are forgotten and erased from the memory of the two sister Churches.

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⁴ Second Vatican Council, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis redintegratio, 14-15.
⁵  Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration of His Holiness Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I, December 7, 1965, 2.
⁶  Ibid., 3.
⁷  Ibid., 4.

The beginning a new chapter of Christian history

After the lifting of the mutual anathemas of 1054, the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church find themselves in the similar state of broken communion that the Churches of Rome and Constantinople experienced at the beginning of the 11^th century. To correct this problem, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras had previously initiated, during their historic and prophetic meeting in Jerusalem in January 1964, a dialogue of love.

This dialogue of love was intended to lead to a dialogue of truth through the creation, in 1979, of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, on an equal grounds, by mutual agreement between Pope John Paul II and Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios. The purpose of this commission, from the beginning, was very clear: the restoration of full communion between the two Churches, based on the unity of faith according to the common experience and tradition of the early Church, the common tradition of the first millennium, as one can read in the plan of the commission drawn up in Rhodes in 1980. For over forty-five years, the Joint International Commission has worked tirelessly, undisturbed nor distracted by ignorant, obscurantist or fundamentalist people. And today we are able to reap some fruits from this work.

Having begun by considering what the two Churches have in common – that is, a common understanding of the sacraments of the Church and a common understanding of the sacramental nature of the Church – the Commission was then able to consider the issue of synodality and primacy. The genius of the Ravenna document of 2007 lies precisely in its emphasis that the thorny issue of Roman primacy could not be separated from the question of synodality, because primacy and synodality are interdependent. Indeed, on the one hand, no one can be first alone, without the others, and on the other, there can be no assembly, synod, without a presidency. And the document of Ravenna clarified that this is true at three levels of ecclesial experience: at the local level of the eparchy, at the regional level of the episcopal synod, and at the universal level, in the communion of the patriarchal and autocephalous Churches. The document of Chieti of 2016 then delved into the issue by looking more closely at the shared tradition of the first millennium, which is considered normative for both Churches. And more recently, the Alexandria document of 2023 studied the developments of ecclesial administration both in East and West during the second millennium and concluded that: “The Church is not properly understood as a pyramid, with a primate governing from the top, but neither is it properly understood as a federation of self-sufficient Churches.”⁸

Personally, I am convinced that the work of the Joint International Commission has inspired the renewal of synodality within the Roman Catholic Church in recent years, during the tenure of Pope Francis: a renewal that inspires a certain “decentralization” of the Roman Catholic Church, thus challenging the so-called “universal jurisdiction” of the Pope, and which, in this sense, looks promising to careful Orthodox Christians. At this point, Pope Leo XIV seems to wish to continue the approach of his predecessor.

Having made progress in the dialogue about truth, the commission seems ready at this point in history to confront and discuss, in a climate of scientific objectivity and mutual trust, the issues that have long divided the Churches. The issues such as infallibility or filioque, the later often regarded as the major cause of the rupture of communion between Roma and Constantinople at the beginning of the beginning of the 11^th century, are now being studied by the Commission.

Regarding this second question, it is worth recalling that the 2003 document of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation entitled: “The Filioque: A Church Dividing Issue? An Agreed Statement” which recommended “that the Catholic Church, as a consequence of the normative and irrevocable dogmatic value of the Creed of 381, use the original Greek text alone in making translations of that Creed for catechetical and liturgical use” that is, without the Filioque. ⁹

As a matter of fact, the same was repeated in 2024 in the Common Statement of the Joint International Commission on Theological Dialogue between the Lutheran World Federation and the Orthodox Church on the addition of the Filioque clause to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan symbol of faith, which suggested “that the translation of the Greek original (without the Filioque) be used in the hope that this will contribute to the healing of age-old divisions between our communities and enable us to confess together the faith of the Ecumenical Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381).”

In this regard, a recent event gives us particular joy: during the ecumenical commemoration of the martyrs of the faith of the 21^st century, presided over by His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV, in the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls, in Rome, on 14 September 2025, the Creed of Nicaea-Constantinople was recited, in Italian, without the Filioque. An important detail that demonstrates that things are moving forward and that the theological dialogue is bearing fruit and this gives us great hope for the future restoration of Christian unity on the basis of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed which was considered by the Church, at least since the 5^th century, as a universal symbol of faith.

In the same spirit, even more recently, on the eve of his visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the celebration of the 1700^th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, Pope Leo XIV quotes the phrase from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed without the Filioque in his apostolic letter (encyclical) In Unitate Fidei, promulgated on 23 November 2025, noting in footnote 10 following this quote that: “The statement ‘and proceeds from the Father and the Son (Filioque)’ is not found in the text of Constantinople; it was inserted into the Latin Creed by Pope Benedict VIII in 1014 and is a subject of Orthodox-Catholic dialogue.” This remark, in a papal encyclical, is of paramount importance because the official recognition of this addition by the Pope himself puts an end to a millennium of controversy that has contributed to deepening the abyss of division between the two Churches.

At the common prayer of 28 November 2025, celebrating the anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, on the very site where it took place, presided by Pope Leo and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in the presence of the Patriarch of Alexandria, official delegates of the ancient Patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem, and representatives of all the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Protestant World Christian communions, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed was recited together without the addition of the Filioque. Of course, this also did not happen for the first time. Already in 1987, during the official visit of the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios to Rome, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed was recited in the original Greek without the Filioque by both Pope John Paul II and the Ecumenical Patriarch. The same happened with Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis at several similar official liturgical occasions. This proves that the Filioque is not a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church: otherwise these three popes ought to be considered as heretics by their own Church – and this is fortunately not the case!

As indicated on various occasions by Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, has the official mandate of both Churches to work for the restoration of full ecclesial communion between the two Churches. In affirming in his address to Pope Leo on 30 November that “we can only pray that issues such as the “filioque” and infallibility (…) will be resolved such that their understanding no longer serve as stumbling blocks to the communion of our Churches”, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew did not ask the Pope for more than he can give, but gave hope that the restoration of communion between the two Churches, interrupted a millennium ago, could soon be re-established provided that the divided Christians grant their goodwill to this end.

Shall we see the restoration of full communion between our two Churches before 2054? The theological dialogue undertaken between the two sister Churches has this concrete goal, not by seeking to reach a compromise nor to betray the orthodoxy of faith, but, on the contrary, to restore it on the ground of the common tradition of the first millennium. Several important theological agreements have been made towards this direction in the recent decades. To this end, theologians work hard with all scientific objectivity and truth. But it is still necessary that the fruits of their work be received not only by the episcopate and the clergy, but also by the entire pleroma of the Church, in order to purify the Christian imaginary. Hence the importance of making these declarations and documents better known. For this reason, we shall work on the reception of the agreements. This is the only way for our desire of Christian unity to become a reality in the near future.

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⁸ Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, “Synodality and Primacy in the Second Millennium and Today”, Alexandria, 2023, paragraph 5.1.
⁹  North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation entitled: “The Filioque: A Church Dividing Issue? An Agreed Statement”, IV.

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Of His Eminence Metropolitan Job of Pisidia,

Hypertimos and Exarch of Side and Antalya

Unto the Reverend Clergy and the Pious Faithful of the Holy Metropolis of Pisidia.

Beloved Fathers, Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The Lord has made us worthy once again to celebrate a historic event that forever transformed not only the course of human history but also the world: the nativity according to the flesh of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, of the Son and Word of God. An event that the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian admirably summarizes in one sentence: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14).

An event that many struggle to grasp, since it defies understanding. How, indeed, can the Transcendent become immanent; how can the Eternal become mortal; how can the Creator become a creature? And yet, quite rightly, the Church sings on this day: “Today the Virgin gives birth to Him who is above all being, and the earth offers the Cave to Him whom no one can approach; Angels with Shepherds give glory, and Magi journey with a star; for us there has been born a little Child: God before the ages.” (Kondakion of the feast)

Indeed, since time immemorial, humankind, consciously or unconsciously, has been searching through religion or philosophy for the origin of that tiny spark within it: the origin of the divine image and likeness in which it was created (Gen. 1:26). Alas, the limitations of nature prevented it from transcending them and encountering God the Creator. Indeed, being itself created, humanity could not transcend the limits of creation.

And for this reason, it is God himself who comes to meet humanity, who becomes man through the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit, and dwells among us. “A strange and wonderful mystery I see, the Cave is heaven, the Virgin the Cherubim throne, the Manger the Place in which Christ, the God whom nothing can contain, is laid. Him we praise and magnify” (Hirmos, Ode 9). This great “mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints” (Col. 1:26) grants humanity not only the possibility of knowing God, but also of participating in divine life, and thus, of acquiring the fullness of life, of inheriting eternal life. As Saint John the Theologian writes, “to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God” (Jn. 1:12).

Thus, we are certainly celebrating an event from the past, but one that already introduces us to the future, to the coming Kingdom of God. Indeed, the Kingdom of God awaited in the future comes to us in the person of the Son and Word of God, born today of the Virgin in Bethlehem. Through this cosmic event, Christianity certainly distinguishes itself from all other religions, and in a certain sense, ceases to be a religion, because no religion has ever witnessed the incarnation of God, nor can any claim to provide access to the divinization of the human being.

All of this was made possible by the nativity according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and subsequently, through the Passion and Resurrection in the flesh of the Son and Word of God, who inaugurated a new stage in human history and granted humanity the possibility of entering from now the Kingdom of God. This is accomplished through our union with Christ at our baptism and chrismation, and through communion with His Body and Blood in the mystery of the Eucharist, which sustains our life in Christ.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

With these thoughts, I cordially congratulate you with the Nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and encourage you not to neglect this great gift we have been given: the ability to participate in divine life. Let us hasten and drink from this fountain of immortality! Let us not neglect the opportunity given to us to participate in the liturgical services and sacraments of the Church and to receive Holy Communion regularly, to deepen our knowledge of God through the study of Holy Scripture, and to bear witness to our new life in Christ through our love, our sharing, and our solidarity with each of our fellow brothers and sisters. May He who for our salvation was born in Bethlehem bless the crown the new year with His goodness (Ps. 64:12)!

Antalya, Christmas 2025

+ Job of Pisidia

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