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| Saint Mark the Eugenikos, the Pillar of Orthodoxy [Church of Saint Nicholas in Kato Patision of Athens - Painted by Photios Kontoglou, 1962-63] |
By Photios Kontoglou
“To the superstition of our common people (if superstition ever produced any good) we Greeks of today owe our existence. Without this most fortunate stubbornness of our predecessors, superstition would have increased even more, and the numerous orders of Western monks would have devastated the territory of suffering Greece, and the Nero-like criteria of the Holy Inquisition would have inflamed the Greeks." - Adamantios Korais
Of a thousand and two things and people, most of them insignificant, we remember and talk about. But who can remember some venerable people who saved our race from spiritual tyranny. The fear of spiritual slavery comes to us from the West just as our material slavery came to us from the East.
Such a spiritual warrior, most brave, stood Mark the Eugenikos, Metropolitan of Ephesus, a true lion of Orthodoxy, who fought bravely against its enemies. But we, the Orthodox of today, are called only by the name Orthodox and do not even know what Orthodoxy is, how great a thing it is and what we would lose by losing it. And this would have happened if Mark the Eugenikos had not existed. But we are always intent on praising and commending people who betrayed Orthodoxy and wanted to subordinate us to the Pope, like that lover of foolish ambition Bessarion, who denied the faith of his fathers, dishonoring Orthodoxy, in order to become a cardinal. We honor such miserable people and write great books about them. But we write nothing about Mark the Eugenikos or George Gennadios. We leave them forgotten under the tombstone, among their overgrown monuments where forget-me-nots have sprouted, instead of our people kneeling before and venerating their honorable coffins. This is not the people's fault. It is the fault of our literate people, these letter-blinded people, who praise only those who are spiritual slaves of the West, as they themselves are.
Mark the Eugenikos can truly stand as the leader of those spiritual warriors to whom the Apostle Paul says the following words when writing to the Ephesians: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age.” Yes, Mark the Bishop of Ephesus heard these words of Paul well and nailed them firmly to his heart. And he went to war against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spirits of wickedness, armed as Paul commands the Ephesians. I think I see Saint Mark reading and rereading these instructions of Paul. He read them with greater fervor on the day he was leaving for Florence with the retinue of Emperor John Palaiologos.
At that time, because the state was in danger, Emperor John decided to go to Italy and hold a Synod with the Latins for the union of the Churches together with the Patriarch and the high priests. Mark was appointed exarch of the Synod.
How can anyone write about the sad things that happened then? It is written in the old book: “The emperor nurtured vain hopes in his unthinking soul and sought to reach like a thirsty deer the murky spring of Italy.”
Almost everyone bowed their heads to the Latins. Mark, as Scholarios writes, “defended the glory of the fatherland alone among the Latins. For we sought from them to be allies, instead, upon our departure, we found them to be enemies.” He did not hesitate to conflict with the emperor, who was the first to sign the decree of the Union at the Synod of Florence and after him many high priests signed, even some of those who had endured until then. Saint Mark did not even want to hear such an unholy thing. And the Pope himself attached so much importance to his signature that he said when he saw that Eugenikos' signature was missing: "And so we have accomplished nothing!"
Thus Orthodoxy was saved! Fortunate are the peoples who keep in memory such fighters, such Cynaegirus' of the faith. And woe and thrice-woe to those peoples who forget such honorable memorials while "they are troubled about many things"!
Source: From an article in ELEFTHERIA 1/19/1954. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
Such a spiritual warrior, most brave, stood Mark the Eugenikos, Metropolitan of Ephesus, a true lion of Orthodoxy, who fought bravely against its enemies. But we, the Orthodox of today, are called only by the name Orthodox and do not even know what Orthodoxy is, how great a thing it is and what we would lose by losing it. And this would have happened if Mark the Eugenikos had not existed. But we are always intent on praising and commending people who betrayed Orthodoxy and wanted to subordinate us to the Pope, like that lover of foolish ambition Bessarion, who denied the faith of his fathers, dishonoring Orthodoxy, in order to become a cardinal. We honor such miserable people and write great books about them. But we write nothing about Mark the Eugenikos or George Gennadios. We leave them forgotten under the tombstone, among their overgrown monuments where forget-me-nots have sprouted, instead of our people kneeling before and venerating their honorable coffins. This is not the people's fault. It is the fault of our literate people, these letter-blinded people, who praise only those who are spiritual slaves of the West, as they themselves are.
Mark the Eugenikos can truly stand as the leader of those spiritual warriors to whom the Apostle Paul says the following words when writing to the Ephesians: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age.” Yes, Mark the Bishop of Ephesus heard these words of Paul well and nailed them firmly to his heart. And he went to war against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spirits of wickedness, armed as Paul commands the Ephesians. I think I see Saint Mark reading and rereading these instructions of Paul. He read them with greater fervor on the day he was leaving for Florence with the retinue of Emperor John Palaiologos.
At that time, because the state was in danger, Emperor John decided to go to Italy and hold a Synod with the Latins for the union of the Churches together with the Patriarch and the high priests. Mark was appointed exarch of the Synod.
How can anyone write about the sad things that happened then? It is written in the old book: “The emperor nurtured vain hopes in his unthinking soul and sought to reach like a thirsty deer the murky spring of Italy.”
Almost everyone bowed their heads to the Latins. Mark, as Scholarios writes, “defended the glory of the fatherland alone among the Latins. For we sought from them to be allies, instead, upon our departure, we found them to be enemies.” He did not hesitate to conflict with the emperor, who was the first to sign the decree of the Union at the Synod of Florence and after him many high priests signed, even some of those who had endured until then. Saint Mark did not even want to hear such an unholy thing. And the Pope himself attached so much importance to his signature that he said when he saw that Eugenikos' signature was missing: "And so we have accomplished nothing!"
Thus Orthodoxy was saved! Fortunate are the peoples who keep in memory such fighters, such Cynaegirus' of the faith. And woe and thrice-woe to those peoples who forget such honorable memorials while "they are troubled about many things"!
Source: From an article in ELEFTHERIA 1/19/1954. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
