The Syrian Orthodox Church

By H.H. MOR IGNATIUS YACOUB III (1980+)

OUR CHURCH'S APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION

The Syrian Orthodox Church, as well as the majority of the vast province of the Holy See of Antioch, rejected from the very beginning the council of Chalcedon. This caused the resignation of Patriarch Maximus in 455, and the fall of the Chalcedonian Patriarch Martyr and the installation in 468 of Peter II who is known as Fuller. This Church called those who were separated from her in accepting the council of Chalcedon, "MELKITES" which means in Syriac "the followers of the king". Our scholar Bar Ebraya calls them "Melkite Syrians". Our Church maintains firmly one person and one nature for Christ after the union, and the crucifixion of god, and the expression of Theotokos or God-bearer, after the example of St. Cyril of Alexandria and the third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus. Its Holy Fathers emphasised these teachings against both the Chalcedonians and Nestorians.

In 476 a general council was held at Constantinople by the order of the Emperor Basiliscus. Five hundred bishops took part in it under the presidentship of the above-mentioned Patriarch Peter II of Antioch and Timotheos II of Alexandria (477+) and condemned the council of Chalcedon and restored to the Church the same doctrine maintained formerly by it. Consequently, the Emperor issued a significant edict concerning this fact signed by 700 bishops under the leadership of the Patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria and Jersualem. This council was followed by another in 482 which was convened by the Emperor Zeno. In the following year Zeno issued his famous Henoticon, against the Formula of the Council of Chalcedon, which was confirmed by all the bishops in the East, under the leadership of the Patriarchs : Peter II of Antioch, Peter Mongos of Alexandria, Acacius of Constantinople and Anestas of Jerusalem. In 488 Patriarch Peter II of Antioch died and he was succeeded by Palladius who was succeeded by Flavian in 498. In 508 Emperor Anestas convened a council at Constantinople which condemned the council of Chalcedon and burned its original decision along with the Tome of Leo of Rome. When Flavian inclined to the Chalcedonians, a council was held in Sidon in 512 by the order of Anestas which excommunicated Flavian and elected St. Severius the Great in his place. In his time all the province of Antioch with its Archbishops and bishops (except three) and the faithful were against the council of Chalcedon. In the autumn of 518, only after the demise of Anestas, the adherents of this council appeared on the stage. It was then that Emperor Justin I stirred up a persecution against the Syrian Orthodox Church and exiled about forty bishops. Severius, its Patriarch, moved to Egypt on 25th of September to continue, with his utmost strength , the work for the welfare of the faithful and the elevation of the truth, and the preservation of the church and deliverance of its trampled honour. In 519 Justin appointed Paul in Severius" place, whom the Antiochians surnamed "the Jewish". When his Nestorianism was disgraced and the Emperor realized his crimes against the unity of the Church he deposed him in 521, and appointed Auphrosius, son of Mallah, who died accidently on 29th of May 526, during the dreadful earthquake which turned Antioch to ruins. He was buried under the ruins. In the following year the Chalcedonians appointed Ephraim, the ex-governor of Antioch to succeed him.

These three chalcedonian patriarchs assumed the throne of Antioch while St. Severius the legitimate patriarch was still alive in Egypt. On Feb. 8, 538 he passed away. The Divine Providence elected and encouraged St. Yacoub Burdaana one of the heroes of the Church, to defend the persecuted Church. In 543 he was consecrated a Metropolitan of Edessa in Constantinople by Theodosius of Alexandria in response to the desire of the Queen Theodora, who was a Syrian, and Hareth, son of Jabla, the Arab king of the Ghassanites. In the same year he was declared as Ecumenical Metropolitan and was authorised to look after the affairs of all the presecuted orthodox Churches in Asia and Africa and to furnish the widowed dioceses with bishops and clergymen according to their need. In 543 itself he consecrated with the cooperation of some bishops, Sergis, as a Patriarch for Antioch. After the death of Sergis he consecrated Paul II in 550. In the same time he visited most of the churches in Asia and Africa and consecrated for them 27 bishops and more than one hundred thousand priests and deacons and a Catholicos for the East called Ahodemeh in 559. Hence, the orothodox Church which obtained through him its triumph came to be unjustifiably called by its enemies "Jacobite" after his name. It is also called "Monophysite" by its opponents.

In this connection, it is important to distinguish between the teaching of St. Cyril concerning the nature of Christ "in one incarnate nature or one compound of Divine and human natures", without their qualities' mixture or confusion or change, and that of Eutyches in one mixed, confused and changed Divine nature. The Syrian Orthodox Church maintained, as we mentioned above, the teaching of Cyril and not that of Eutyches. It accepted the Henoticon of Zeno which contained a clear condemnation to Eutyches and his heresy, defending it through her Patriarchs Peter II and Severius the Great, and her Scholars : Mar Ishac the Antiochian, Mar Philoxenus of Maboug, Mar Peter the Kurgian, Mar Yacoub of Sroog, Mar Simon of Arsham, Mar Zakaria the Rhetorician and others. Further, the council of Antioch, which was convened and presided over by the above-mentioned Peter II in 485, clearly excommunicated Eutyches and his adherents. this Patriarch ordered that the Nicene Creed should be read in the Church during the Holy Eucharist in order to oppose both Eutyches and the Council of Chalcedon.

The other denominations also admit that our Church not only has no connection with the heresy of Eutches, but also it condemns it along with its master. It is true that a small group from Constantinople, Alexandria and Palestine sided with Eutyches at the beginning but that vanished after a short period due to the influence of the orthodox scholars.

© 1995 - 2008 Syrian Orthodox Church

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