First Holy Saturday Homily of Saint Photios the Great

Homily 11

HOMILY OF THE MOST BLESSED PHOTIOS, 

ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, 

DELIVERED ON THE BURIAL OF THE HOLY BODY 

OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, ON HOLY SATURDAY

From each work and deed of Christ, our Saviour, the magnitude of His love for us is apparent, and the graces of salvation are splendidly unfolded unto us; and as the abundant sweetness of joy is distilled into men’s souls, it wipes away the bitter pollution of ancestral sin. The memory and topic of the passion and the burial is, however, an awful and inexpressible matter, but inasmuch as it is the end of the Incarnation, and anchors us, so to speak, in the very harbour of re-creation, and sounds forth in clear trumpet tones the Creator’s providence concerning us, so the feeling it arouses is neither simple nor unmixed, but it both overwhelms us and revives us with courage; it grieves and gladdens, the former by the passion and the death, the latter by the destruction of the passions and the slaying of death—which things are marvellously wrought for our resurrection in a manner surpassing words.

Third Great Friday Homily of Saint Photios the Great

 

Homily 6

 

THIRD HOMILY OF PHOTIOS, 

THE MOST-BLESSED ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, 

DELIVERED FROM THE AMBO OF ST. IRENE 

ON GREAT FRIDAY, 

AFTER THE PERUSAL OF THE USUAL CATECHISM

When the devil’s might is being despoiled, when the sting of death is being blunted, when the trophy over Hades is set up, then the tablet of agreements is read out to us, then the document of the covenant is brought forward, then the written record of our promises is carried in triumph. Why so? In order that, as we see the common enemy vanquished and lying low, and the common Lord being praised in song for having through His own suffering and experience of death won victory and granted victory unto us, we should know clearly of what we stand in debt, and that we have made our life a contradiction of the hymns we sing, and that those of us who have departed from the covenant have deprived ourselves of every excuse. For when Christ fights for me as He is hanging on the cross, or rather awards me a brilliant victory, while the enemy of our kind is lying low helpless, and I not only do not exert myself against the prostrate one, but offer and dedicate myself entirely to passion- provoking indolence, breaking by my transgression the pact with God, and of my own free will handing to the enemy the power over me, what other refuge of excuse is left to me? What device will be found that I may not suffer an irrevocable and cruel punishment? For if those who set at nought imperial commands pay the unavoidable penalty when they render accounts for what they have been ordered to do, will not those who, not only disregard and pass by the commands of the King of kings and Lord of lords and Creator of all, but trample and spit upon the pacts they have made with Him, pay the ultimate penalty, and one which cannot be exceeded? Tell me, O man: Christ, fastened to the wood, is crucified for thee, and suffers the death of criminals; out of that, grace and victory over the foe accrue to us; the enemy fails, for the swords of the enemy have failed utterly; our free will has been liberated from the disabilities caused by the transgression; the pacts with God lie before us. Why do we not fulfill our promise? Why do we not repay at least a small part of our debt, but instead increase, and that every day, our obligation by heavy interest, having wretchedly forfeited’ our body and our very soul? Is it not out of negligence? Is it not from an indolent mind and an inclination prone to passions? If through indolence and negligence we are brought to barter away a wealth of so great and so many goods—the Lord’s victory, the foe’s defeat, the grace proferred to us, our free will, the covenant itself, then those who have betrayed all these things through the enjoyment of the passions, and considered their safeguarding and maintenance of no account, what room for forgiveness have they left themselves? Have they not shown themselves guilty of a multitude of evils? Are they not the enemies of their own salvation? Are they not the foes of the Cross? He saves, we destroy. Are we not fighting for the enemy? For by doing those things in which his strength against us lies, we are thereby proven to be fighting on his side and, worst of all, against our very selves. Are we not the denouncers of our liberty? For we have made it useless by remaining subservient to the pleasures. Are we not inconsiderate of the grace? Are we not ungrateful for the beneficence? For those who live contrariwise to the grace and the beneficence render a great insult and blasphemy both to that grace and to that beneficence.

Why Did Christ at His Birth Allow Infants to be Slaughtered Because of Him? (St. Photios the Great)

By Saint Photios, Patriarch of Constantinople

(Amphilochia, Question 26)

Why did Christ at His birth allow infants to be slaughtered because of Him?

Your bewilderment is beautiful and compassionate, and perhaps the answer will be no worse, but even with a softer judgment. It was necessary for Herod's villainy to become clear and obvious to everyone, and therefore, if he showed it to people who had reached the age of maturity, then nothing would prevent the tribe of flatterers and henchmen from inventing some reasons that would make a criminal murder look more acceptable, and killed by the perpetrators of considerable evils, saying that it was not proper for the king to leave crimes unpunished. When applied to infants, even the most shameless lie can neither conceive nor invent anything like that, and in all things open and unreasonable misanthropy and unsurpassed villainy of the mind, language, and hand are exposed.

Homilies on the Ecumenical Synods - The Eighth Ecumenical Synod (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Homilies on the Ecumenical Synods

The Eighth Ecumenical Synod (879-880 A.D.)

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou 

The 8th century, beloved brethren, was a difficult century from the perspective of the State and the Church. On the one hand the western part of the Roman Empire began to separate from its eastern part, and on the other one begins to clearly see the alteration of western Christianity.

This was evident at the Eighth Ecumenical Synod, which convened in 879-880 in Constantinople during the reign of Emperor Basil the Macedonian. The President of the Synod was Photios the Great, and the representatives of the Orthodox Pope of Rome John VIII were also present.

This Synod is very important, as it is the last Synod between the Orthodox Church of the East and the Orthodox Church of the West, that is, between New Rome and Old Rome, because afterwards the Christians of the West by succession distanced themselves from the Orthodox Church.

Homily on the Nativity of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos (St. Photios the Great)

 

 

On the Nativity of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos 

Homily 9 of St. Photios the Great

Read here.

Saint Photios the Great Against the Augustinian Doctrine of Original Sin

 

 

 

Theodore of Mopsuestia (ca. 350-428) wrote a book titled Against the Defenders of Original Sin which Saint Photios the Great read and reviewed in his Bibliotheca (177). It is often said that Theodore was the only eastern bishop who not only spoke about but also against Original Sin as formulated in the West, but with this review we see that Saint Photios does as well.  The chief defender of the doctrine of Original Sin, according to Theodore, was someone named "Aram", which scholars today mostly agree refers to Saint Jerome. However, Saint Jerome defended the doctrine of Original Sin primarily as a reaction to the extremes of Pelagianism, following in the footsteps of Saint Augustine. In actual fact, it was Saint Augustine who formulated the doctrine of Original Sin, also as a reaction to the extremes of Pelagianism, which is why Fr. George Florovsky writes of this book, "Theodore wrote against St. Augustine’s doctrine of original sin." Saint Photios was clearly unaware of both Saint Augustine's and Saint Jerome's defense of this doctrine, which he views as an obvious heresy foreign to the teachings of the Church and an extreme reaction against Pelagianism. Seeing that he praises Saint Augustine elsewhere in his writings, one wonders what he would have said about him if he knew that it was he who formulated this heresy. For pointing out the errors of these anonymous defenders of Original Sin, which were primarily Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome, Theodore of Mopsuestia is praised by Saint Photios, however Theodore also takes a wrong turn at points and falls into Nestorianism and Origenism and Pelagianism, which Saint Photios also discerned and condemned. Further, Theodore clearly embellished some points about Jerome in particular to make him look worse and supplement his argument. Unfortunately, everything we know of Theodore of Mopsuestia's book Against the Defenders of Original Sin comes from this review of Saint Photios and some fragments that alone have come down to us. Below is the excerpt of Saint Photios's review dealing with this book against Original Sin, to show how he condemned without hesitation this "new" false doctrine as something foreign to the Church.

Homily for Palm Sunday (St. Photios the Great)

 

 

 

Click on each page to expand image, or read here.

 

 

Two Homilies on the Annunciation to the Theotokos Delivered by Saint Photios the Great

 

Below are copies of two homilies delivered by St. Photios the Great in the ninth century on the Annunciation of the Theotokos. Right click on each page to expand, or read the text here.

 

When Roman Catholics Detested Photios the Great as One of the Greatest Enemies of the Church

 

 

If you read pretty much any Roman Catholic text dealing with Photios the Great, the Patriarch of Constantinople from 858 to 867 and from 877 to 886, before Francis Dvornik's The Photian Schism: History and Legend was published in 1948, it would appear that many Roman Catholics could hardly contain their utter contempt for him. One source of contempt that can be found online and yet you wouldn't expect to be so biased is the entry "Photius of Constantinople" in the 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia. Though this is somewhat more mild than most things written about Photios in the West at the time, which often styled him as one of the worst heretics in Church history, it still offers a veiled glimpse. Below are a few excerpts from this entry to show how much Roman Catholic scholars detested Photios even in this esteemed work of the early 20th century.

Saint Photios: The Miracle and the Primacy of Truth

 

By Dr. Stylianos G. Papadopoulos

The Miracle of Truth

Saint Photios was the chosen vessel of God in his times. He was, in other words, the outstanding, genuine bearer of Tradition and for that reason was the most famous and therefore the most significant theologian of the period. His outlook and his theology were an expression of the being of the Church and the result of enlightenment by the Holy Spirit.

This fact, which is not so common as we would like in the Church, has warmed the hearts of the faithful to Photios over all the centuries since, and has made him a symbol and beacon of the truth.

Saint Sergios the Confessor, Father of Saint Photios the Great

St. Sergios the Confessor (Feast Day - May 13)

Verses

How did you come to the end of your life my Sergios?
My end was a common death, and I lived for you.*

Saint Sergios was born around 795 to a wealthy nobleman of Constantinople named Zacharias, who pursued a career as a state official and evidently reached the rank of consul. Sergios received an education suitable for a future civil servant, and soon attained the rank of spatharios, an uncommon honor for such a young man. He is described as a man of large physical stature who had a great soul to match. He was married to an aristocratic woman named Irene, who was pious and virtuous, and whose brother was the patrician Sergios, who married a woman also named Irene who was the sister of the iconophile Empress Theodora. The uncle of Saint Sergios was the Holy Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople (Feb. 25, 786-806). Saint Sergios and Irene had five sons - Constantine, Sergios, Tarasios, Theodore and the renowned Holy Patriarch Photios the Great. Saint Sergios named his oldest son Tarasios after his uncle the Patriarch, while he named his second oldest son Photios after an eighth century iconophile martyr that may also have been related to him.

Saint Photios: The Miracle and the Primacy of Truth

By Stylianos G. Papadopoulos

The Miracle of Truth

Saint Photios was the chosen vessel of God in his times. He was, in other words, the outstanding, genuine bearer of Tradition and for that reason was the most famous and therefore the most significant theologian of the period. His outlook and his theology were an expression of the essence of the Church and the result of enlightenment by the Holy Spirit.

This fact, which is not so common as we would like in the Church, has warmed the hearts of the faithful to Photios over all the centuries since, and has made him a symbol and beacon of the truth.

Saint George, Bishop of Nicomedia, Composer of Canons and Troparia

St. George of Nicomedia (Feast Day - December 29)

Verses

Panegyrist of things beyond comprehension,
Now George applauds with the Angels.

Venerable George Of Nicomedia lived in the latter half of the ninth century, and was a deacon and keeper of the archives (chartophylax) of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. He was a close friend and correspondent of Patriarch Photios, with whom he shared mutual interests, and became Bishop of Nicomedia sometime before 867 till sometime after 877. He reposed sometime after 880.

The Writing Style of Saint Athanasius the Great

"I myself visited this same Abba Kosmas when he was in the Lavra of Pharan, and I stayed there for twelve years. He was talking to me once for my soul's health and mentioned something from the sayings of holy Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria.

'If you come across something from the works of Athanasius,' he said, 'and you haven't got any paper with you to write it down on, write it on your clothing.' This was typical of how great was the zeal which this old man had for our holy fathers and teachers."

Theodore the Presbyter's "On the Genuineness of the Works of Dionysius the Areopagite" (St. Photios the Great)

By St. Photios the Great

(Bibliotheca, Cod. 1)

1. [Theodore the Presbyter, On the Genuineness of the Works of Dionysius the Areopagite]*

Read the treatise of Theodore the Presbyter, in which he undertakes to prove the genuineness of the works of St. Dionysius. The following arguments against it are refuted: (1) If they are genuine, how is it that none of the later Fathers cites them or quotes any passages from them? (2) How is it that Eusebius Pamphilius, in his list of the writings of the Holy Fathers, does not mention them? (3) How is it that these treatises describe in detail rites and customs which only became established in the Church gradually and after a long time?

Saint Photios the Great on the Blasphemies of Origen

By St. Photios the Great

Bibliotheca (or Myriobiblon)

8. [Origen, On First Principles]

Read Origen's four books On First Principles.1 The first deals with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this his statements are often blasphemous; thus, he asserts that the Son was created by the Father, the Holy Spirit by the Son; that the Father pervades all existing things, the Son only those that are endowed with reason, the Holy Spirit only those that are saved. He also makes other strange and impious statements, indulging in frivolous talk about the migration of souls, the stars being alive, and the like. This first book is full of fables about the Father, Christ (as he calls the Son), the Holy Spirit, and creatures endowed with reason. In the second book he treats of the world and created things. He asserts that the God of the Law and the Prophets, of the Old and the New Testament, is one and the same; that there was the same Holy Spirit in Moses, the rest of the prophets, and the Holy Apostles. He further discusses the Incarnation of the Savior, the soul, resurrection, punishment, and promises. The third book deals with free will; how the devil and hostile powers, according to the Scriptures, wage war against mankind; that the world was created and is perishable, having had a beginning in time. The fourth book treats of the final end, the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and the proper manner of reading and understanding them.

Saint Photios the Great Resource Page

St. Photios the Great (Feast Day - February 6)

 

About 

 

Saint Photios the Great, Patriarch of Constantinople 

 

Saint Sergios the Confessor, Father of Saint Photios the Great 

 

Saint Photios the Great as a Model for our Lives 

 

Saint Photios the Great in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church 

 

Saint Photios: The Miracle and the Primacy of Truth

 

Saint Photios: The Miracle and the Primacy of Truth 

 

Two Monasteries Associated With St. Photios Recently Discovered

 

A Portion of the Skull of Saint Photios the Great

When Roman Catholics Detested Photios the Great as One of the Greatest Enemies of the Church

 

The Reasons for the Anger of Westerners Against Photios (An Article by St. Nektarios of Aegina) 

 

The Controversial Canonization of Saint Photios the Great

Teachings and Writings 

 

Homily on the Nativity of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos (St. Photios the Great)

 

The Purity and Triumph of Orthodoxy (St. Photios the Great) 

 

Two Homilies on the Annunciation to the Theotokos Delivered by Saint Photios the Great 

 

Homily for Palm Sunday (St. Photios the Great)

 

Third Great Friday Homily of Saint Photios the Great

 

First Holy Saturday Homily of Saint Photios the Great

 

Why Did Christ at His Birth Allow Infants to be Slaughtered Because of Him? (St. Photios the Great)

Patristic Studies Requires Both Study and Practice 

 

St. Photios the Great on Exposing the Sins of Others 

 

Saint Photios the Great on the Blasphemies of Origen

 

Saint Photios the Great Against the Augustinian Doctrine of Original Sin

 

Saint Photios the Great's Encyclical to the Eastern Patriarchs (867)

 

Are Depictions of Jesus Christ With Characteristics of Other Races Allowed? (St. Photios the Great)

 

 

Eighth Ecumenical Synod

The Myth of Only Seven Ecumenical Councils

What are the Criteria for an Ecumenical Synod?

Homilies on the Ecumenical Synods - The Eighth Ecumenical Synod (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Photios the Great and the Eighth Ecumenical Synod (1 of 7)

Photios the Great and the Eighth Ecumenical Synod (2 of 7)

Photios the Great and the Eighth Ecumenical Synod (3 of 7)

Photios the Great and the Eighth Ecumenical Synod (4 of 7)

Photios the Great and the Eighth Ecumenical Synod (5 of 7)

Photios the Great and the Eighth Ecumenical Synod (6 of 7)

Photios the Great and the Eighth Ecumenical Synod (7 of 7)

Critique of Francis Dvornik's "The Photian Schism"

An Official Recognition of the 8th and 9th Ecumenical Synods

Serbian Church Proposes for the Recognition of the 8th and 9th Ecumenical Synods

The Ecclesiology of the Holy and Great Synod


Other

Saint Ignatios, Patriarch of Constantinople (+ 877)

Saints Cyril and Methodios, Enlighteners of the Slavs

Saint Joseph the Hymnographer

Synaxarion of Saint Tarasios, Patriarch of Constantinople

Saint Nicholas I Mystikos, Patriarch of Constantinople

Saint Stephen I, Patriarch of Constantinople

Deposition of the Honorable Robe of the Theotokos in Blachernae

Photios the Great and the Eighth Ecumenical Synod (7 of 7)

...continued from part six.

6. The Personality of Photios the Great

When one studies the historical events that preceded the convening of the Eighth Ecumenical Synod, as well as those during and after the Synod, they will recognize the great personality of the sacred Photios. He was the dominant figure of that time and the most pensive, discerning and a great leader, who was able to see the urgency of the state of his time, and to have a sober and sensible mind. We can see this from three vantage points.

Photios the Great and the Eighth Ecumenical Synod (6 of 7)

...continued from part five.

4. The Self-Consciousness of the Synod as Ecumenical

The Synod was convened by Emperor Basil the Macedonian, was chaired by Patriarch Photios of Constantinople, was attended by representatives of the Pope and representatives of all the Patriarchates. The issues the Synod faced were doctrinal and ecclesiological, and therefore it can be safely assumed that it deemed itself to be the Eighth Ecumenical Synod. Indeed this is how it is recorded in the consciousness of the Church.

Photios the Great and the Eighth Ecumenical Synod (5 of 7)

Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (867-886)

...continued from part four.

c) The Primacy of the Pope

Previously we showed how the West expressed the Primacy of the Pope. He was not viewed as having primacy of honor, but as the Primate of the Pentarchy system, a primacy of jurisdiction, with the attempt of the Pope to impose his views throughout the Church, considering himself to have canonical management and responsibility over it.

The legates of the Pope at the Synod tried to pass on the view that only the Apostle Peter and his successors have received the authority from Christ to "bind and loose", and they have the primary responsibility over the entire Church. Within this perspective the Pope is the only source of the priesthood, and this is why Patriarch Photios had no authority as a pontif, unless it came from the Pope. In the Minutes of the Synod it shows that the Pope viewed himself above the Synod, and he was the one to specify the decisions and ratify them. Even in the letter which the Pope wrote in Latin addressed to the Synod to put forward the issue of Photios, he gave a mandate for Photios to ask forgiveness for the problems he created in the Church, and in this way the Pope truly put himself above the other Patriarchs.