Thursday, March 14, 2024

Bp Constantine Kayyal: Meatfare

Arabic original here.

Meatfare

The topic of today's Gospel passage is love.

The Lord Jesus gives a parable about the Last Judgment and affirms to us that the standard of judgment is love, personal and tangible love for the people that God puts along our way.

Love that corresponds to our social, economic and political interests and concerns is good and useful, but it is not pure and uniquely Christian love.

It is true that we are called to establish a just society governed by equality and brotherhood, but the true Christian love to which the Gospel calls us and on the basis of which humankind shall be judged is "that we love one another" and reconcile with one another so that all may know that we are Christ's disciples.

This is the true Church, the living Church of Christ, not a social or national institution.

The sole standard of judgment is man's relationship to his fellow man, not only man's relationship to God. Our sole path to heaven is through our fellow man.

Yesterday we prayed for our departed loved ones. We pray for them because we love them and so that we may encounter them in Christ who is love and in whom there is no difference between living and dead because all are alive. When we love Christ, we also love His elect because He endured disgrace and crucifixion for the salvation of all humankind.

Today we also remove meat from our tables in order to prepare to enter into greater struggle through fasting, prayer and self-discipline in order to make the soul close to others in order to draw closer to God.

The purpose of refraining from meat and its derivatives is to make money more available to give to our brothers in need out of love for them. This is the most important expression of true love and of the communion that exists between the members of the Church, the body of Christ.

Let us pray that our mighty God may grant us the strength and love to pass through this holy forty-day fast and to bear love for our brothers in our hearts and minds every day and every moment, so that we might be worthy to attain the most sublime goal, the fullness of the stature of Christ Jesus.

Bishop Constantine

Abbot of the Patriarchal Monastery of Mar Elias Shwayya

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): Faith and Prayer in the Thinking of the Fathers

 Arabic original here.


Faith and Prayer in the Thinking of the Fathers

"Faith is the substance of things hoped-for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).

Faith is also perfect trust in Christ, a trust that comes from His love for us and from His love for all creation.

Prayer comes out of our faith in Christ.

Saint Seraphim of Sarov says:

Prayer can bring down the Holy Spirit who transforms the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and it can preserve the world's equilibrium.

Faithful prayer has an apostolic activity, in faith and through prayer we acquire great power.

All this results from our perfect trust in Christ.

We have said that faith is tied to prayer. Prayer leads one to God. At that point, grace leaks into one's heart.

Salvation is in Christ by His redemption and His love. "Your faith has saved you," said Jesus to the blind man of Jericho (Luke 18:42).

In the Bible there are many parables that reveal the power of faith which works miracles. All of them are tied to perfect faith in Christ.

The Lord Jesus said to the pagan Syro-Phoenician Canaanite woman (Mark 7:26): "'O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.' And her daughter was healed from that very hour" (Matthew 15:28).

Saint Gregory Palamas says, explaining this miracle: "Her tongue was moved by the Holy Spirit."

This means that her faith in Christ caused her to bring God's power to heal her daughter who was afflicted by the demon. Of course, all this was helped by her deep humility.

Faith in Christ only occurs and is active through one's liberation from the passions, especially through rejecting one's egoism.

The Canaanite woman also connected her faith to prayer when she cried out, "Lord, help me!"

Therefore, Saint Gregory Palamas says, "Humility is always tied to faith in Christ. Humility is fitting for the faithful and faith is fitting for the humble."

Faith in God grows and increases through repetition of the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!"

+Ephrem

Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies


Saturday, February 10, 2024

Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): St Ephrem the Syrian

 Arabic original here.

Saint Ephrem the Syrian

Repentance with tears inflames the hearts of the faithful in the spiritual writings of Saint Ephrem.

What first attracts attention is his call to contrition and repentance.

For him, repentance is connected to the judgment and tears, to remembrance of the judgment and  shedding of tears.

This is not in order to torture oneself, but to attain the kingdom, according to the commandment of the Gospel, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17 and 3:2).

He warns sinners about falling into despair and encourages us to repentance without losing hope in God's mercy. He tells them:

"I hope that all those whose consciences torment them on account of their sins will not despair...

but rather will approach God without fear and weep before Him. May they not lose hope, for the Lord is greatly delighted with those who repent and approach with the joy of their return to Him because He says by the Prophet Hosea, 'After all this, return to Me' and through the Evangelist Matthew:

'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest' (Matthew 11:28). So never despair, even if you have sinned."

But how do we repent?

Repentance is returning to God. Does this path, the path of return require hating sin to the point of hating sinful life? Self-renunciation: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate ... even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26).

Accordingly, repentance requires keeping love for one's brothers, especially the weak ones, because he who has love has God. It also requires humility because one who is humble resembles God to the point that he sorrows and suffers along with the sinner and does not disdain him, thus revealing his own self.

All this is in accordance with what the Lord said: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40).

The issue, the issue of repentance naturally requires effort because the kingdom of heaven is taken by force and the violent bear it away. War is declared against the passions and lusts and against Satan's snares. Therefore the saint says:

"We have been tied to our lusts as though with iron chains and no one strives to become free of them, but rather sticks out his chest while he is bound by them. What wicked snares the filthy devil weaves! How was he able to darken our minds so that we would be concerned with what is contrary and prefer what harms us rather than the good things to come!"

Ephrem followed in the footsteps of his bishop, Jacob of Nisibis (302-338), and like him knew both culture and asceticism. When the passions are transformed, the heart is emptied of selfishness and wicked individualism and is oriented toward the unselfish love that does not ask anything for itself.

This struggle of repentance will make us worthy to see Christ risen in glory, either partially, as though in a mirror, through the prayer of the heart, the Jesus Prayer, or directly, after illumination.

This also causes us to have a foretaste of the kingdom while we are on earth. This is the glory of Christ and it is heaven for those who have attained sincere love. It is seen in the form of uncreated light, while those who remain in extreme selfishness see God's glory as an immaterial, burning fire. This is hell.

Indeed, sin is destructive and it is true what is said in the hymn, "Wicked is complacency, great is repentance."

He who digs his own grave in his heart shatters the man of sin and opens the door of the resurrection.

Saint Ephrem washes away his sins with his tears and makes his soul rejoice in God's grace.

+Ephrem

Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies  

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): The Mystery of Repentance

 Arabic original here.

The Mystery of Repentance

At the beginning of Jesus' preaching, He says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17).

We must receive every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord in a spirit of repentance, by confessing that we are sinners. This is what constitutes the foundation of our spiritual life.

The key to understanding the Gospel, the word of the Lord, is obedience.

Obedience to God's word is the key to our salvation and obedience requires denying our own will.

All this-- I mean, obedience to God's word and also self-denial-- constitutes the key to repentance, the key to the kingdom of God.

We cannot understand and live the mystery of repentance unless it is connected to God's word and self-denial.

Obedience to the words of the Lord is tied to denying one's own will. "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself" (Mark 8:34).

Every day of our life, the Lord commands that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, saying, "Repent! Obey My words! Deny yourselves!"

Obedience and self-denial is the key to the Gospel, the key to the kingdom. At that point, we possess power and light. This is the mystery of repentance.

The Prophet Isaiah says, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined" (Isaiah 9:2).

This darkness, the shadow of death, all this is the result of the sin that oppresses us and kills us in its shadow.

Confessing our sin is the door of repentance. The holy forty-day fast is the season of repentance.

Saint Isaac the Syrian says, "One who confesses his sins is greater than one who raises the dead."

The mystery of repentance and confession is a renewal of our baptism. Every day, the Lord brings good tidings of the kingdom of God. He speaks of "that baptism that I am baptized with" (Mark 10:38), by which he means baptism and death.

The word repentance, metanoia, means a change of mind, a change in thinking. At the beginning of the Beatitudes, the Lord says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3).

They are pure from every evil, sinful thought after confessing their sins and repenting of them.

+Ephrem

Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Open-Access Book: Arabic-Type Books Printed in Wallachia, Istanbul, and Beyond

 To see the table of contents and download the entire book for free, go here.

Arabic-Type Books Printed in Wallachia, Istanbul, and Beyond

First Volume of Collected Works of the TYPARABIC Project

Edited by: Radu-Andrei Dipratu and Samuel Noble

Volume 2 in the series Early Arabic Printing in the East
 

This first volume of Collected Works of the ERC Project TYPARABIC focuses on the history of printing during the 18th century in the Ottoman Empire and the Romanian Principalities among diverse linguistic and confessional communities. Although "most roads lead to Istanbul," the many pathways of early modern Ottoman printing also connected authors, readers and printers from Central and South-Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the Levant.

The papers included in this volume are grouped in three sections. The first focuses on the first Turkish-language press in the Ottoman capital, examining the personality and background of its founder, İbrahim Müteferrika, the legal issues it faced, and its context within the multilingual Istanbul printing world. The second section brings together studies of printing and readership in Central and South-East Europe in Romanian, Greek and Arabic. The final section is made up of studies of the Arabic liturgical and biblical texts that were the main focus of Patriarch Athanasios III Dabbās’ efforts in the Romanian Principalities and Aleppo.

This volume will be of interest to scholars of the history of printing, Ottoman social history, Christian Arabic literature and Eastern Orthodox liturgy. 

 

Monday, January 15, 2024

Met Santiago (El Khoury): Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!

Arabic original here.

Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" With these words, beloved, Jesus declares the beginning of His evangelical ministry.

The call here is a call of repentance and an invitation to the kingdom.

Christ teaches us here, from the very beginning, that repentance is our path to the kingdom and there is no other path apart from it.

Last Sunday, the Evangelist Mark told us about how the Baptist went ahead of the Lord, preaching repentance.

This Sunday, Christ follows up and approves the Baptist's preaching, confirming his teaching and presenting more in order to reveal the purpose of repentance: the kingdom.

Starting off, we might wonder, what is repentance?

Repentance, beloved, is living every moment of our life with vision of the kingom, living in this world in the hope of eternal life.

This means for our heart to be liberated from the pleasures of this life, from its enticements, and for us to cast out worries and troubles out from it and to cling to God.

People today often strive for God, seeking repentance, but their repentance often falters. The question is: why?

Why are we unable to truly repent?

The repentance that seizes the kingdom by force is supposed to be perfect or have a quality of perseverance, but we usually repent verbally and in a truncated manner, or only a little or for a few moments.

Repentance is not achieved when we offer an aspect or moments of our life to God.

Repentance such as this is Pharisaical repentance, something dry and barren that God deplores because through it one attempts to justify himself before God, rather than striving for God to make him righteous.

Repentance is not a collection of religious duties, laws or canons and having a relationship with God is not based on rights and duties.

What is required is for us to surrender ourselves wholly to our Father, to God. "O my son, give me your heart," in the sense of "give me your whole self" at every moment, not only in times of hardship or temptation or just occasionally.

The final question that arises is: how do we live repentance in the midst of this turbulent world?

The malady that our contemporary world is suffering from  is forgetting God.

The world today is stuffed with various luxuries, pleasures and means of relaxation that appeal to people and attract their attention.

In their great abundance and availability, God is usually forgotten and the affairs of life are ordered and priorities are defined according to them.

Because they take up a lot of time and effort, life is spent in vain and in this way people are cut off from the purpose of their existence as "citizens of heaven" and these means are cut off from their purpose, so instead of using them as tools and means for service and love, their purpose is inverted and they become and end in themselves.

Therefore, repentance comes as the cure to the ailment of forgetting God.

Repentance today requires us to bring back the proper order of priorities in this life according to the standards of the kingdom. That is, it requires us to opt for everything that is useful to and serves the kingdom and for us to cast aside everything that is vain and not useful, everything that is entirely bad.

This calls for us to be watchful and to test everything around us, lest our hearts become attached to any "earthly care" to the point that it becomes an obsession that distracts us from our greater concern, which is God.

What is required, then, is for us to seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness in every concern.

In short, repentance is for us to undertake every activity by praying, "Our Father who art in heaven..." before we do it and to refrain from any activity that we cannot pray before doing.

+Santiago

Archbishop of Argentina and Buenos Aires

Friday, January 5, 2024

Asad Rustom on the Era of Patriarch Cyril al-Za'im (IV): Cyril's Relations with Rome

Translated from: Asad Rustum, Kanisat Madinat Allah Antakya al-'Uzma [The Church of the Great City of God Antioch], Jounieh: Editions St. Paul (1988), vol. 3, pp. 119-125. 

Arabic original online here.

Part I here.

Part II here.

Part III here.

Cyril and the Catholics

Euthymius mentioned that Patriarch Cyril of Antioch was firm and unbending in his position, so he discussed and debated with him about the issue of union, to no avail. He then insisted that the French consul in Sidon, Monsieur Boulard, speak to the patriarch about this issue and he did so. Father Laurentius, the head of the Franciscans in Jerusalem, wrote a long letter to Cyril, informing him about what had been done in the name of the pope to return the patriarch of the Maronites, Ya'qub Awwad, to his see and to return all of his rights and dignity.  He then pointed out what the popes of Rome had done of this sort for the Eastern patriarchs and bishops. He reminded Cyril how his grandfather Macarius had complained to Pope Alexander VII about the oppression and arrogance of the Turks.

In 1716, the pope of Rome himself addressed Cyril inviting him to union. He said, "It has reached us that Your Brotherliness has a strong inclination toward union and we rejoiced and saw fit to exhort you in our paternal voice not to ignore this good inspiration. May you realize that so long as you are separated from the Roman Church, you remain in great and certain peril. You must exhort your brother bishops and your people to do like you. When it has been confirmed to us that you intend to firmly accept the faith of the pope of Rome, we will then explain to you what you must do."

Cyril explained to the head of the Franciscans: "The Eastern Church has held fast to her canonical conditions and obligations since ancient times. After a time, when rituals and customs not found in the seven greater or seven lesser councils, such as azymes, the filioque, purgatory and the merits of the saints appeared, the Eastern Church saw these things and that it was His Holiness our brother the pope who innovated them-- though they are not recorded in the law, the canons of the fathers, or the seven councils-- the Church renounced the Western Church. From the seventh council until now, the Eastern Church has held fast to her conditions and what she has received from the holy fathers, as they retain their ancient rituals and canons. As for what you say about the inclination of our late grandfather the Patriarch Macarius, in that his handwritten letter is in the archive in Rome, it is not that he wrote seeking confirmation. Rather, we understand that he wrote to inform our dear brother His Holiness the pope about the consul Picot and to testify to the good he had done in the year of hardship that occurred in Aleppo, because he spent seventy sacks of dirhams for the poor and destitute. We ask the Creator, may He be exalted, to inspire him [i.e., the pope] to bring together his brothers and his spiritual children and make the devil ashamed of both groups."

Then, in August 1716 Cyril sent a long letter to Clement XI, which some Catholic historians have regarded as an explicit confession of the authority of the See of Rome and a clear acceptance of all its teachings. We only see in it a confession of Rome's primacy on the condition that it holds to the canons of the seven ecumenical councils. Perhaps Cyril went overboard in his expression and his words were taken in a wider sense than he intended. Here it is to be noted that his letter to the head of the Franciscans must be taken into account because it is very close in time to the letter to the pope. Here is the text of Cyril's letter to Clement:

"Glory to God, may He be exalted, always. Cyril, by the grace of God, may He be exalted, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East to His Holiness brother Pope Clement XI, overseer of the great and ancient Church of Rome, may God protect him for a long time.

To His Holiness, the Father of Fathers, the Master of Masters, receiver of grace and giver of blessing, head of righteous hierarchs, successor of the Apostle Peter, chosen vessel, unique in his age, whose renown spreads to the corners of the earth, model of pure ascetics, treasury of teaching, pole of the four climes, Abraham in his pardon, Isaac in his meekness, Jacob in his obedience, Joseph in his chastity, the Prophet Elijah in his zeal, Isaiah in his eloquence, Daniel in his purity, Solomon in his wisdom, Zacharias in his priesthood, John the Theologian in his words, John the Baptist in his preaching and Chrysostom in his exegesis and admonishment.

Moreover, what we submit to Your Holiness is that your letter to us arrived and we read it, praising God, may He be exalted, for your good health and that Your Holiness is well. It has reached you from the missionaries that we strongly admire you and mention of you is constant among us at every prayer and divine liturgy. We ask the Lord to realize spiritual love between the elites and the common people, since without love there is no peace, for God knows our purpose is love. For it has reached us from the disciples of Your Holiness that your aim is for there to be love and peace with the brothers and spiritual children to one, holy, universal and apostolic Church, but the hater of good things never ceases and never calms from causing confusion in the Church, to the point that among his deeds he created the name of the eastern and western church. But at the first ecumenical council, in the presence of Pope Sylvester of Rome, they established "we believe in one God", the second ecumenical council was in the presence of Pope Damian of Rome, the third ecumenical council was in the presence of Pope Celestine of Rome, the fourth ecumenical council was in the presence of Pope Leo of Rome, the fifth ecumenical council was in the presence of Pope Vigilius of Rome, the sixth ecumenical council was in the presence of Pope Agatho of Rome, and the seventh ecumenical council was in the presence of Peter and Peter, the legates of Pope Adrian of Rome... an ecumenical council did not occur without the assent of the pope of Rome.

From that time until now, the Eastern Church always petitions and says, 'for the universal, holy, apostolic Church, let us ask of the Lord.' And we do not say 'eastern' and 'western' church, but rather we always ask for peace for the entire world, even those who hate us and those who oppress us. All of this is printed in the priests' books you have. And we thank God, may He be exalted, that our Church is according to our faith, which we hold from the seven ecumenical councils. And we pray for mercy for Pope Eugene, who sought peace and love in the time of the late Emperor John Palaiologos and held the eighth council, by which he sought love, peace and calm. But the hater of good things stirred up strife and the Greeks, who by nature are stubborn, did not accept. Afterwards the grace of the Holy Spirit moved Pope Nicholas,  everything in which Pope Eugene had toiled and labored having been destroyed by the Greeks, to sail himself toward Constantinople and to send his messengers to the emperor and clergy, but they did not accept his words and what had happened to us because of them happened to them.

We ask Christ God in every language and tongue that the Lord God may grant you to bring together the brothers and spiritual sons, whom our Master Jesus Christ purchased with His precious blood, into His true sheepfold. Then, our grandfather the late Patriarch Macarius, after having visited Moscow, his aim was to visit Rome to work love and peace. He kept saying "if brothers fight each other, than no one among them remains of sound mind. If we go to Rome, then the Greeks will say that the Patriarch Macarius has become a Frank. And previously, they treated the late Givalas[?], archbishop of Cyprus as a Frank for having visited Rome. May our Lord destroy all those who innovated these heresies and divided the brothers from their elder brother, since all people say that the larger container fits the smaller, but everyone who draws near to you openly is treated as an unbeliever by the western nations. Perhaps news has reached you of the Syriac patriarch [Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Gregory Peter IV Shahbaddin, d. 1702], how his community of heretics did him harm and he died in exile, though he was doubtless one of the saints, and only a few of the bishops and priests were saved. We have always sent letters to our disciples who are there to treat them with charity while they are in prison and to serve them in order to honor the Roman Church, and if the French consul in Aleppo had given five hundred qurush, this would not have happened to them.

But by the power of the Crucified, when the kapuji came to us in Damascus and the sultan's decree was read to us and he asked us about the followers of the pope among us, we replied for all and by the power of God we prevented him and did not let him abuse any monk, priest or Catholic, in so doing losing a large sum from our purse. God knows how much evil we kept away from them, fearing the bad treatment that occurs in other countries. But at this time their group is miserable. May God have mercy on consul Picot, in whose time Andrew became patriarch of the Syriacs, who stood by his campaign and in that year spent around seventy purses on the poor, because it was a year of great hardship. When they saw the great charity he [i.e., Picot] had done, my grandfather Patriarch Macarius, Patriarch Andrew of the Syriacs and the Armenian patriarch wrote to His Holiness the late pope, informing him of the good he had done. If the consul is well, may our Lord add to him blessings from your pure lips. And if he has reposed, may the Lord place his lot with the holy fathers. In this way, the consuls did good, people inclined toward them and their reputation was glorious.

Moreover, when it came between the late king of France and the English and they said to him, "We follow the Eastern Church," he wrote requesting the creed of the Eastern Church, so our grandfather the Patriarch Macarius wrote twenty chapters about the belief of the Eastern Church, during which time he died and Our Modesty was elected in his place. The letters had not yet been sent, so they wrote to us, so we sent them, confirming his statement.

God-willing, may the Eastern Church not deny the Church of Rome nor take her for being an innovator. This is recorded in our church books, and that the pope of Rome is the elder brother and there are commemorations of popes in their particular feats that exist in the Eastern Church.

Nevertheless, these issues that exist today at this time did not exist in ancient times. For when there appeared astronomers, these ten days [i.e., the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars at that time] became a cause for great division, since one Christian fasts while another does not fast. Likewise, the Maronites submitted to you that they are few in number and the Rum do not marry them, nor do the nations [i.e., the Muslims]. Because you are blessed and do not know the lie, you believed them, so they say, "His Holiness the pope has given us permission to marry within the fourth degree [i.e., first-cousin marriage]." Moreover, if a layman's wife dies, he marries another and they can make him a priest. For these reasons and others, we have become naked before the nations and the heretics, since one Christian remains fasting while another breaks the fast and one Christian marries at the seventh degree while another at the third degree. They lie to you and, because you are blessed people, you believe what they say and carry out their suggestion. They say, "The pope has given us permission for that." But we do not believe that this is issued from you. All of this has become a cause for division and for referring to the Western and the Eastern church.

However, we believe and affirm that the Church of Rome adheres to the seven great councils and the seven lesser councils and honor it for being the mother of the world's churches. We confess one Church and one baptism, and we bless what they [i.e., the councils] bless and anathematize what they anathematize. But when the nations see such unbelievable things-- and you have no report about them-- for this reason they flee from that and doubts occur, fulfilling the words of the Holy Gospel, 'Woe to the one through who doubts come!'

If a decree was issued by Your Holiness to eliminate these issues that exist and they were eliminated, then the Holy Spirit would truly be present with you, because we have become naked before the nations and the heretics. Even if the heretics are heretics, they have not changed their fasting, their ritual and their marriage rules, but rather they are according to the holy law. We ask Christ in every language and tongue that the Lord God may grant you to bring together the brothers and spiritual sons, whom our Master Jesus Christ purchased with His precious blood into His true sheepfold, and that the Lord God will grant to everyone who desires peace and love, as the Master said: "My peace I give to you, My peace I leave with you." He did not say strife, stubbornness and evil, and people say you have done this and people say that we are right and you are not right and so the words of the Holy Gospel are fulfilled in us: we leave the log that is in our eyes and tell our brother to remove the speck that is in his eye.

When we read the holy scriptures, we shy away from hearing them, as when the Evangelist John says, "If anyone loves God yet hates his brother, he is a liar, for how can you hate the one you see and love the one you do not see?" And our Lord, glory to Him, said, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you." And now all what we do is contrary to what He, may He be exalted, commanded us to do.

We ask for His tender mercies, by the blessing of your prayers, to cause us to listen obediently to what pleases Him and gives you reason to rejoice at the coming together of brothers and spiritual children, that you may say, "Those are the children that God has given me. Enter into the joy of your Lord." May this be for you by the intercession of the Virgin, the Apostle Saint Peter and all the saints, amen. This was written and issued on the twentieth day of the blessed month of August in the year 1716 in the God-protected city of Damascus by your brother in Christ, Cyril, patriarch of Antioch and all the East.

Furthermore, the patriarch of Antioch calls down God's wrath upon all those who add or remove [from this letter]. Sent with the Padre Blasius and the priest Seraphim was a humble present: a shell cane. If you hold it during the divine liturgy, you will remember Our Modesty and two vessels in which is a ratl of pure balsam-oil."

One should notice here that the patriarch of Antioch addresses the pope of Rome as a brother and indicates the patriarchs with the word "brothers" and that he confirms the adherence of the Orthodox church of which he is the head to the seven councils and its persistence in praying every day for the universal Church. He then alludes to the strife stirred up by the devil at the Council of Florence and the effect of that on the Greeks who are by nature stubborn. He thanks his brother the pope for his effort for union and points delicately and precisely to the position of his grandfather Macarius with regard to union, favoring the role he played as a reconciling mediator between the pope of Rome and the other primates. He then prays for "all" who desire love and peace and offers a cane made of shell as a gift to the pope. So where is the confession of Rome's authority and entrance into obedience to it? Especially if we read all of this in light of what is found in the letter of the very same patriarch to the head of the Franciscans. One should also notice that there is a very great difference between this patriarchal letter and the text that Athanasius prepared, which we have discussed above, as well as the one prepared by Gersasimus, bishop of Seidnaya in mid-July of 1716.

In our view, it cannot be said that Cyril entered into obedience to Rome merely because this story is stated in some of Euthymius' letters, since Euthymius had his own interests in what he recounted and so he cannot be regarded as a reliable witness. It can be deduced from Clement XI's letter to Cyril dated May 21, 1718 that was not satisfied with what was reported to him in Euthymius' accounts and Cyril's letters and he says, in Constantine Basha's translation: "We ask you to display openly to all in clear, continuous letters that you are united with this apostolic see with a sincere heart 'without hypocrisy' and that you have pledged submission to it and to the pope of Rome." Euthymius' statement that Cyril signed the confession of faith of Urban VIII, sealed it by his own hand, and sent it remains improbable until we come across this document in the archives of Rome. We must not forget that it is stated in the report sent by the priest Gabriel Finan  to the secretary of the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide on July 11, 1719 that he contacted Cyril, presented him with the pope's gift and stayed with him, speaking with him repeatedly about "the holy Roman faith" and sometimes he would yield to it and sometimes he would "argue with it lightly." He complained about "the Roman Church not having fulfilled his request to print the Euchologion and raised the issue of the harm caused by [Livornese and Maltese Catholic] pirates and the return of those following the Roman See to the Eastern calendar in calculating Easter." Finan goes on to state that what Cyril sent to Rome was either out of avarice on his part for worldly things or out of fear of troublemaking by Catholics in his diocese and that the patriarch "consecrated a schismatic for the See of Bayas," conceding to the wishes of the Patriarch of Jerusalem.