The Controversial Canonization of Saint Photios the Great

There is evidence showing that the veneration of Patriarch Photios I the Great of Constantinople as a saint has origins going back to the 10th century, as we see also in his veneration in the West until the 12th century.

His official canonization as a saint, however, was accomplished by the Patriarchate of Constantinople under Patriarch Anthimos VI in 1848, in the context of acute opposition to the proselytism of Catholics and other Western confessions in the territory under Ottoman rule. Because Patriarch Anthimos VI had issued anti-Russian statements during the Crimean War and later proclaimed the Bulgarian Schism in 1872, the canonization was not accepted in the calendar of the Russian Church. On the 1000th anniversary of the death of Saint Photios, on February 6, 1891, an official celebration took place at the Theological School of Halki; the Russians were not invited.

There were three different views of Patriarch Photios among the Russians at the time: Slavists, who valued Patriarch Photios for his role in the Christian education of the Slavs; Graecophiles, who demanded that the name of Patriarch Photios be included in the Russian calendars; Anti-"Eastern Papists", who recognized the historical and theological merits of Patriarch Photios, but firmly stood on the non-recognition of his canonization because Constantinople instituted it.

A Portion of the Skull of Saint Photios the Great

 

 

A portion of the sacred skull of Saint Photios the Great is kept at Kykkos Monastery in Cyprus.

Replica of a 42 Foot Statue of Emperor Constantine the Great Reconstructed in Rome

According to the Associated Press (Feb. 6, 2024):

Emperor Constantine, the 4th century ruler whose embrace of Christianity helped spread the Christian faith throughout the Roman Empire, now has a reconstructed statue befitting his larger-than-life role in history.

Rome authorities on Tuesday unveiled a massive, 13-meter (yard) replica of the statue Constantine commissioned for himself after 312 AD. It was imagined using 3D modelling technology from scans of the nine giant original marble body parts that remain.

The result: An imposing figure of a seated emperor, draped in a gilded tunic and holding a sceptre and orb, gazing out over his Rome from a side garden of the Capitoline Museums. The reconstructed statue is located just around the corner from the museum courtyard where the original fragments of Constantine’s giant feet, hands and head are prime tourist attractions.

Reconstituted into its original whole, the statue inspires awe in the smaller viewers below – just as Constantine originally intended for his subjects, officials said at the unveiling.

“In this statue there’s not just beauty, there’s the violence of power,” said Salvatore Settis, an archaeologist and art historian who is on the steering committee of the Fondazione Prada, the cultural and educational arm of the Milan-based fashion house which financed the project.

Officials declined to say how much the initiative cost, but the actual replica was made by the Factum Foundation, a Madrid-based non-profit that creates high-resolution digital replicas of the world’s cultural patrimony.

“This whole dynamic about how you use technology to transform our understanding of and the importance of cultural heritage is the core mission of Factum Foundation,” said the group’s founder Adam Lowe.

The statue itself is made from resin, polyurethane and marble powder for the body, and gold leaf and plaster for the gilded tunic that drapes over it.

A second version of the statue is to be installed in northeast England, where Constantine guarded the Hadrian’s Wall fortification before being crowned emperor in Rome.

See also: Re-creating the Colossus of Constantine

 

On Spiritual Love (St. Theoleptos of Philadelphia)

 By St. Theoleptos, Metropolitan of Philadelphia (1250-1322)

1. I would like to praise the virtue of love, but its greatness cannot be described in words. Because this, the most important among all the other virtues, as the head of the good, can only be understood empirically, that is, when one operates it and experiences it as his personal possession. That is why this wonderful virtue of love is known to those who have been found worthy to walk its path.

Love is described by many in words, but only those who have made it the possession of their hearts, show it in their God-pleasing works. These latter are much more worthy of admiration. However, since the great value of the virtue of love exceeds the capacity of my speech, I will venture to extol it briefly, in order to motivate many to embrace it and practice it.

2. Love, my beloved sisters, is a work that takes place in the soul, it warms the heart, illuminates the nous, activates the intellect to study the word of God and stimulates all the psychosomatic forces to work on God's commandments.

God has given the gift of love to man since the moment of his creation. Man received it and wore it as a beautiful and dignified garment, but the robber of our souls, the devil, tore it and left man naked and ashamed.

Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday of Matthew (St. Luke of Simferopol)

On the Insufficiency of Good Deeds Alone

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on July 4, 1948)

Among the people around us, there are people who do not believe in God, but who are nevertheless kind and do many good deeds. We often hear the question: “Well, isn’t this enough, won’t they be saved by their good deeds?” I have to give an answer. No, they will not be saved. Why won't they be saved? Because this is what our Lord and God Jesus Christ said when “the lawyer, tempting Him, asked, saying: 'Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?' Jesus said to him, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart. ...This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself'” (Matthew 22:35–39).

If faith in God, if love for God is the first and most important commandment in the law, and the second commandment about love for one’s neighbor follows from this first, receives its strength from love for God, then in order to be saved, one must love God with all one’s heart, for this is the first and greatest commandment of the law.

Gospel Commentary for the Fifteenth Sunday of Matthew (St. John Chrysostom)

Homily 71 on Matthew

By St. John Chrysostom

"But when the Pharisees had heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together; and one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" (Matt. 22:34-36)

Again does the evangelist express the cause, for which they ought to have held their peace, and marks their boldness by this also. How and in what way? Because when those others were put to silence, these again assail Him. For when they ought even for this to hold their peace, they strive to urge further their former endeavors, and put forward the lawyer, not desiring to learn, but making a trial of Him, and ask, "What is the first commandment?"

For since the first commandment was this, "You shall love the Lord your God," thinking that He would afford them some handle, as though He would amend it, for the sake of showing that Himself too was God, they propose the question. What then says Christ? Indicating from what they were led to this; from having no charity, from pining with envy, from being seized by jealousy, He says, "You shall love the Lord your God. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37-39).

Fifteenth Sunday of Matthew Resource Page

Fifteenth Sunday of Matthew
 
(Matthew 22:35-46)

 
Fifteenth Sunday of Matthew: Gospel Reading

 

Gospel Commentary for the Fifteenth Sunday of Matthew (St. John Chrysostom)

Gospel Commentary for the Fifteenth Sunday of Matthew (St. Theophylact of Ochrid)

 

On Spiritual Love (St. Theoleptos of Philadelphia)

Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday of Matthew (St. Luke of Simferopol)

On the Two Important Commandments in the Law (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 

 

Saint Ignatios, Metropolitan of Mariupol (+ 1786)

By Monk Moses the Athonite

He was born at the beginning of the 18th century on the island of Thermi. This is probably Kythnos, in the Cyclades, which was also known as Thermia, because of the healing hot springs there. He was the scion of the well-known and devout Yezedinos family.

As a young man he went to the Holy Mountain, where a relative was a monk at the Monastery of Vatopaidi. Because he loved the monastic state with his whole heart, he abandoned every worldly vanity and was tonsured a monk with the name of Ignatios. Later he was ordained priest.

Because of his virtue, he was invited to be the shepherd of a far away flock, which was under the harsh yoke of the Tartars. In 1769, he was consecrated Bishop of Gothia and Caffa [Готфейский и Кефайский] in the Crimea. He was known as a kind-hearted and indefatigable bishop, who won the love and respect of his downtrodden flock. As a reward for his great service, the Patriarch of Constantinople gave him the title of Archbishop and made him a member of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

The Justinianic Bubonic Plague of 542 and the Establishment of the Feast of the Reception of Christ

By St. Dimitri of Rostov

The celebration of the Reception of the Lord was established in the reign of Justinian,1 but earlier, although the Reception of the Lord was commemorated in the Church,2 it was not solemnly celebrated. The pious Emperor Justinian established that this feast should be celebrated as a feast of the Lord and the Theotokos, along with other great feasts. Special circumstances motivated the establishment of this festival. During the reign of Justinian in Byzantium and its environs, for three months, starting from the last days of October, there was a strong plague, so that at first five thousand people died a day, and then ten thousand; the bodies of even rich and high-ranking people were left without burial, for the servants and slaves all died and there was no one to bury the masters themselves.