History of the Holy Orthodox Church
Part I - Early Christian Beginnings
- The Apostles of Christ
- Persecutions of the Church (Blood of the Martyrs)
- The Ecumenical Concils (The Unified Church)
The modern Christian Church traces its origin back to the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of Christ-the church day now universally observed as Pentecost. On that historic occasion, the disciples were gathered in Jerusalem; the Virgin Mary and other faithful followers of Jesus were with them.
As recorded in the Book of Acts in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit descended on this assembly, which included about 120 people, and gave those present the power to speak and teach in the different languages spoken in the world of that time.
Hebrew people from many countries, speaking many varied tongues, had gathered at Jerusalem to observe the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, commemorating the giving of the Ten Commandments of the Law to Moses by God and also celebrating the end of the harvest season. This day was celebrated fifty days after the Passover. Those assembled in Jerusalem were soon marveling at the ability of the disciples and apostles to speak many languages. Three thousand persons became believers and were baptized that day.
As the early church grew and the number of Christians increased rapidly, more spiritual leaders were needed and the Apostles asked the followers of the new faith to select seven worthy men to be ordained as the first Deacons of the church with those selected to be qualified by having Sub-deaconom and piety. Stephen, one of the seven selected, was later stoned to death by the Jews to become the first Christian martyr.
Under the leadership of the original twelve disciples, the growing number of Apostles set out to preach the gospel in all parts of the then-known world. The experiences of their missionary journey, notably those of Paul, comprise most of the books of the New Testament.
The Eastern Orthodox church traces an unbroken line back to the first churches founded by the Apostles themselves, and to the churches that derived their origin from the missionary activities of these first churches. The first Christian centers were the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and the Church of Cyprus. The various National Orthodox branches, such as the Russian and Greek Orthodox Churches, were established through missionary work.
The original twelve Apostles included John and James, the sons of Zebedee; Peter, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew (also known as Nathaniel), Matthew, Simon Zelotes, James, the son of Alphaeus; Judas Lebbaeus (also called Thaddeus) and Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Christ.
Judas Iscariot committed suicide by hanging himself after his betrayal of the Master. Matthias was selected to replace him as the disciples began their mission of preaching the Gospel. Later, the convert Paul became a very important Apostle and he made several long journeys to spread the new faith. Notably, he established the church in Greece.
These early Apostles laid the foundations for the beginning and growth of the Church of Christ. They provided for the ordaining of priests and deacons, preached the word of God, performed the Holy Sacraments and formed an Apostolic council to perfect the Christian doctrine.
At its inception, the church was undivided and it remained united for over a thousand years. Trials and tribulations, persecutions and violent death marked the early growth of the church unto the time of Constantine when Christianity prevailed and emerged triumphant.
The controversy over the separation of church and state marked the rise of Christianity from its very beginning. The uncompromising refusal of the early Christians to accord divine honors to the emperors was the cause of prolonged periods of persecution. Even when forced to work underground, however, these churches maintained juri Sub-deaconiction over themselves.
Constantine, a Roman ruler in the Fourth Century, established Christianity as the state religion and for a period of time that followed, the church maintained its independence. During the fourth century, the emperor became more and more important in religious affairs and the full fruit of this trend came during the sixth century under Justinian who ruled the church and state equally.
During the time of the Byzantine Empire, the Eastern Orthodox Church was in a status of confirmed subservience to the wishes of the state, a condition called Erastianism, after the theologian Erastus. When the empire began to fall apart the power of the state in regulating affairs of the church declined.
To properly background the beginning and growth of the early Christian church, it is pertinent to recount briefly the biographies of the first disciples. Their activities and experiences played a vital part in the development of Christianity.
The first and most illustrious of the Apostles was Peter who preached first in Jerusalem and later in Antioch, the city where Christ's followers were first called Christians. He also preached in many other cities of the Holy Land. It was he who spoke the first sermon after the Pentecost and he was the first of the Apostles to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. In Rome during the persecutions under the Emperor Nero, Peter was fleeing to safety when he met the Lord carrying the cross near the gates of the city.
Peter asked, "Which way, Oh Lord?" and Christ replied that he was going to Rome to be crucified again. On hearing this, Peter returned to the city, stood trial and was condemned to death by crucifixion. In about the year 65 A.D. he was crucified upside down, requesting this position as he considered himself unworthy of being crucified in the same manner as Christ.
At the first Apostles Council, held in Jerusalem, the disciple James presided. He became the first Bishop of the church of Jerusalem. James gave to the church the order of Divine Liturgy and the liturgies now used in Eastern Orthodox churches are based on the order of service that he originated.
James was a relative of Jesus and was often referred to as the Brother of the Lord. He was one of the foremost organizers of the early Christian church. James was hated by the Jewish leaders who killed him by throwing him from the roof of a high building and then crushing his head in with blows from a club, at a time when the governor was away from the city. Among the disciples he was known as James, the son of Alphaeus. Later he became known as James the Less or St. James the Just. The other James, the son of Zebedee and brother of St. John the Divine, was called a "son of thunder" by Jesus because of his impetuous nature. He once made an ambitious request that he and his brother might sit beside Christ, one on either side, in-the kingdom of heaven.
James went to Spain as a missionary and became the patron saint of that country. The shrine of his relics is one of the most celebrated in all Europe. He was put to death by the sword on orders from Herd Agrippa, the son of the ruler who had sought to kill the Infant Jesus. He is now known as St. James the Greater.
Only one of the disciples, Matthew, was a rich man. He had been a publican (tax collector) in- Capernaum. After the crucifixion he remained in Jerusalem and wrote the famous Gospel that bears his name. Matthew's gospel is the most important in Christianity and makes the most allusions to the church. He suffered martyrdom in the Near East.
Simon Zelotes was a Canaanite who had been a member of a Jewish party called the Zealots, a group of the First Century who opposed Sirens when he attempted to take a census in the year 6 A.D. Simon spread the gospel throughout Egypt and may have carried his missionary work as far as Britain. He suffered death by martyrdom in Persia.
Judas, the brother of James, was probably a cousin to Jesus. He is called St. Jude to distinguish him from the other Judas who betrayed Christ. Judas was also known as Lebbaeus and Thaddeus. He became a missionary to Edema and suffered martyrdom in Persia with St. Simon.
Thomas, the doubting Apostle, was a carpenter and builder according to tradition. He is called the Apostle to the Indies because of his missionary work in Mesopotamia, Parthia and India and especially Malabar where natives have ancestors converted by Thomas and who call themselves Christians of St. Thomas.
Philip was a Galilaean of Bethsaida. He brought his friend Nathaniel to Jesus. Philip was known as an eager seeker after God and he died for his faith at Hierapolis of Phrygia.
Bartholomew, also known as Nathaniel, became a missionary in Northern India. He also preached Christianity in Arabia Felix. He met his death by being flayed alive and crucified with his head down, in Arminia.
John, the brother of James and the youngest of the disciples, long outlived all the others. After the crucifixion, John first lived in Jerusalem but later he went to Rome. He- was banished to the Greek island of Patmos and while there he wrote the final book of the New Testament, Revelation.
In his old age, John lived at Ephesus in Asia Minor where he founded many churches. Because of his teachings about God, he is known as St. John the Theologian.
Andrew, the first called of the disciples and a brother of Peter, played an important part in the earthly ministry of Jesus. He is known as the Apostle to Southern Russia and the Balkans. Andrew died as a martyr at Patras, Greece by crucifixion on an "X" shaped cross. He hung on this cross for two days before death released his pain and torture. The present-day X-shaped cross is known as St. Andrew's Cross in his honor.
Matthias, chosen to replace Judas Iscariot, spent the first period of his ministry in Judaea. He served as a missionary to Cappadocia and Ethiopia. According to tradition, Matthias was stoned to death in Jerusalem.
The Apostle Paul, while not one of the original disciples, is important in the early development of the church as he became the outstanding missionary of early Christianity. He is known as the Apostle of the Gentiles. Before his conversion, he was named Saul and was a disciple of a learned Pharisee and a bitter enemy of Christianity. Paul wrote fourteen epistles of the New Testament. During his lifetime he made five long missionary journeys. His final voyage was to Rome where he met death in the last of many persecutions. He was beheaded by the sword instead of being crucified because he was a Roman citizen.
PERSECUTIONS OF THE CHURCH
(BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS)It is symbolic of early Christianity that only one of the disciples of .Jesus, John, lived to an old age. The others met violent death in promulgating their faith. During the first three hundred years of its development, the Christian church underwent much hardship and was subjected to many persecutions. In this three-century span there were ten great persecutions.
At the time that Paul was beheaded in Rome and Peter met death by crucifixion in the same city, the first of the great persecutions was being conducted under orders of Emperor Nero. In the year 64 A.D. most of Rome burned and the destruction was blamed on the Christians. Nero ordered the annihilation of all Christians in Rome.
Nero, a demented ruler, had murdered his tutor, his brother and his mother. The fire in Rome had been set to satisfy a whim of obtaining a realistic impression of the burning of Troy by the Greeks. To save himself from the rag of the people, who discovered the origin of the conflagration, he threw the responsibility on the Christians who were already hated by the pagan Romans.
Under Nero's persecutions, some Christians were crucified, some were cut in two by saws, some were sewed up in skins and thrown to the dogs while others were cast to wild beasts as defenseless prey. Some Christians, smeared with tar and pitch, were impaled on stakes and lighted like torches to. illuminate Nero's imperial gardens.
In the year 95 A.D., the second persecution took place, ordered by the Emperor Domitian. This ruler considered a belief in Jesus Christ to be incompatible with a belief in the divinity of the Roman ruler so his persecution and purge was directed mainly against high officials of Rome who were suspected of being Christians.
During Domitian's persecutions, the Apostle John was thrown into boiling oil but miraculously he was not harmed by it. He was banished to Patmos. Domitian even sent to Palestine for certain kinsmen of Christ in order to condemn them but when they arrived as poverty-stricken men, he dismissed them as madmen. After this bloody proscription, Domitian himself was stabbed to death by a freedman.
A prolonged period of persecutions took place during the reign of Emperor Trojan. Trojan ordered that no deliberate measures should be taken to hunt out Christians but if they were once summoned before magistrates they were to be forced to choose between sacrificing to pagan gods and death. Prominent among the Christians martyred during this period, which began in the year 106 A.D., was St. Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch, who was a disciple of St. John the Divine. Ignatius was sent to Rome in chains and was thrown into the Coliseum to be torn to pieces and devoured by wild beasts for the entertainment of the Roman people.
Hadrian, a just emperor, was Trojan's successor. Two learned Christians, the Athenian philosopher Aristides and Quadratus, Bishop of Athens, addressed apologies for their brethren in the faith. As a result of this the Emperor issued orders that Christians should be punished only for crimes and not to satisfy public clamor.
Christian blood was shed in Palestine due to a revolt stirred up by a Jewish rebel, Simon Bar Kochba. Claiming to be a second Messiah, he first successfully defeated Roman armies but the tide of battle turned and he was killed. Many innocent Christians perished because Christianity was still popularly identified with Judaism. Hadrian even obliterated the name of Jerusalem, renaming the town. He raised a temple in honor of Venus on Golgotha and erected a statue of Jupiter on the Holy Sepulcher.
Sixty years elapsed between the third and fourth persecutions. The fourth persecution period began in 166 A.D. Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor at that time, had a strong prejudice against Christians, a prejudice founded mainly on false reports he received concerning their beliefs and way of life. He regarded Christians as natural enemies of the Empire because they gave their first allegiance to God.
Marcus Aurelius resented the calm and courageous attitude of Christians in the face of death as an insult to his own stoic virtue. He subscribed to the viewpoint of the people that Christians were responsible for plagues and other disasters by angering the pagan gods. Persecution of Christians for their Christianity alone became the order of the day under Marcus Aurelius. Among those put to. death under his orders was St. Polycarp, the 86-year-old Bishop of Smyrna who was burned alive in the arena at Smyrna.
In 177 A.D. violent persecutions broke out in Southem Gaul. One of the victims at Lyons was Pothinus, Bishop of the town, who succumbed to cruel tortures. Blandina, a slave girl, was gored to death in the bullring. The pagans burned the bodies of martyrs and scattered their ashes on the waters of the Rhone river, calling on the Christian God to cause them to arise from the dead.
The most violent of the ten persecutions was the fifth which took place ill the year 207 A.D., during the rule of Septimius Severus. So terrible and violent were the Christian persecutions during this period that many believers thought that the coming of the antichrist was close at hand.
Septimius Severus was at first favorably disposed towards Christians because he had been cured of a chronic disease through the prayers of a Christian slave named Proculus. He had a sudden change of heart in 202 A.D. and issued a decree giving the death penalty to those confessing Christianity.
During this era of persecution, St. Leonidas was beheaded in Egypt and a noblewoman of Carthage named Perpetua was exposed to goring by a mad bull with her baby in her arms. A young girl was thrown into burning pitch but her fortitude was so great that her executioner confessed Christ and followed her to martyrdom.
In 235 A.D. the sixth persecution, directed mainly at the clergy of the church, took place under Maximin. He had succeeded to the throne by murdering Alexander Severus who had been well-disposed towards Christians and had set up a bust of Christ in his chapel beside those of his pagan gods. This persecution was aimed at exterminating the Priests and Bishops in a move to swing the people back to paganism. Severus had maintained friendly relationships with the Christian bishops and Maximin vented his hatred particularly on them.
Called the Bloody Persecution, the seventh persecution was ordered by the Emperor Decius in 249 A.D. Previous persecutions had been localized with the more fanatical enforcing the decrees ruthlessly and the tolerant governors of provinces finding methods of evading them. -Under Decius, the persecutions became widespread, severely systematic, and ordered against Christians throughout the entire Roman Empire.
Decius set a time limit for Christians to present themselves to authorities to sacrifice to the pagan gods and receive a certificate of recantation. Many Christians, yielding to torture, were forced to sacrifice against their conscience while others bought certificates to circumvent the pagan worship. Many, however, preferred martyrdom to hypocrisy, including Alexander, the Bishop of Jerusalem; Babylas of Antioch and Fabian of Rome.
The eighth persecution began with a decree issued by Emperor Valerian in 257 A.D. Under this decree, any person found practicing the religion of Christianity was sentenced to death. Valerian also attempted to render Christian communities leaderless by exiling their Bishops. The Bishops, however, not only communicated by letter with their followers but also spread the Gospel to the places of their exile.
Among those martyred during the reign of Valerian were St. Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage and Sixtus of Rome. The deacon Laurence, according to tradition, was roasted on a red-hot gridiron in Rome after he had pointed to the widows and orphans as the treasures of the church when the governor had demanded the surrender of the Church's treasure.
In 275 A.D. the ninth persecution took place. This was a brutal period but a short one. The tenth and final persecution occurred in 303 A.D. under the Emperor Diocletian, who hoped to weld together the disintegrating empire by restoring uniform religion.
In the earlier persecutions, the target had been the Christians themselves but Diocletian ordered the churches destroyed and had sacred books and Holy Scriptures burned. Bishops and priests were put to death. He published an edict against Christianity in 303 A.D. at Nicaea and followed it with three other edicts in rapid succession. Christians in public office were deposed, the prisons bulged and the blood of martyrs flowed.
Despite all of these persecutions, Christianity grew stronger and continued to spread to all parts of the Roman Empire. Those embracing the faith included many among the nobility. It remained, however, for Constantine the Great to become the first Emperor to become a Christian.
At the beginning of the fourth century, the Roman Empire was divided into an Eastern and a Western division. The top rulers held titles as Augustus and Caesar, respectively.
In the year 311 A.D., Constantine, who held the title as Caesar, was acclaimed as Augustus by his soldiers, following the death of the Emperor who held that title. The right to the title was disputed and Constantine went to war against Maxentius, the military leader who held Italy and who intended to become the ruler of the Western part of the Empire independent of Constantine.
Making war a his adversary in 312 A.D., Constantine came out of his tent on the eve of battle and gazed at the sky. In the heavens he saw a miraculous vision. A cross appeared with a bright light around it and the inscription "By This Sign Conquer."
Constantine interpreted the flaming cross as a vision that his victory depended on faith in the powers of the crosses. He immediately ordered that crosses were to be inscribed on all of the army's banners. In the battle of Milvian Bridge which followed, his army was victorious.
Shortly after, in 313 A.D., Constantine, ruler of the West, and Licinius, ruler of the East, held a conference at Milan which resulted in the Edict of Milan which gave tolerance to Christianity throughout the Empire. Under this edict, the freedom of worship for Christians was proclaimed, punishment by crucifixion was abolished an(f Sundays and other Christian holidays were acknowledged. Just before his death, Constantine became a Christian.
Constantine moved the capital of the Empire eastward to the little city of Byzantium on the Bosphorus. He rebuilt the city and renamed it Constantinople. The city was dedicated in 330 A.D. and no pagan religion was permitted in it. Several churches were built in the city by the Emperor and Constantinople became practically the capital of all Christianity.
Helen, the mother of Constantine, also became a devout Christian. She went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem when she was eighty years old and there she helped to find the cross upon which Christ was crucified. After it was found she had a great church built on Mt. Calvary in its honor. Pieces of the wood from the cross were sent back to Constantinople. Helen died in 328 A.D. and Constantine died in 337 A.D.
THE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS
(THE UNIFIED CHURCH)Following the recognition of Christianity by Constantine, differences of opinion developed regarding the exact and correct doctrines which Christ had given to the church. Discord over these differences developed.
A firm believer in systematic standardization, Constantine called a meeting of the Bishops and Clergy for the purpose of settling the differences in beliefs and doctrines. Known as the First Ecumenical Council, this meeting was held in Nicaea in 325 A.D. It was attended by three hundred and eighteen men of the clergy including every Eastern Bishop of importance and four Western Bishops. Subsequently, six other Ecumenical councils were convened.
At the First Ecumenical Council, the preeminence of Bishops of the three main centers of the Roman Empire (Rome, Alexandria and Antioch) was approved. As a mark of honor, the Bishop of Jerusalem was added. This council also condemned the heresy of Arius who denied the Divinity of Christ.
This first council proclaimed the true teaching concerning God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ. The council formulated canons regulating the church and drew up the first seven articles of the Creed.
At the Second Ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople in 381 A.D., the last five articles of the Creed were composed. The completed creed of twelve articles, which is the symbol of our faith and which is still being used, is called the Nicene Creed.
The second council also rejected the teachings of Macedonius, condemning these teachings as a heresy against the Holy Spirit. Macedonius falsely taught that the Holy Spirit was created by God similarly to angels, being a spirit of a higher degree or order than the angels. The '5o Bishops who attended also granted preeminence to the Bishop of Constantinople.
The reason for the preeminence granted to Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem & Constantinople in the first two councils was due to the fact that the cathedrals of the Bishops in those cities were established by the Apostles themselves. Rome was looked upon as the former capital of the world and Constantinople as the new seat Of empire.
In 431 A.D. the Third Ecumenical Council was held in Ephesus. This council condemned the heresy of Nestorius who taught that our Lord was only a man with the divinity abiding in Him like in a temple. Nestorius called the Virgin Mary the Mother of Christ and not the Mother of God. Two hundred Holy Fathers attended this council.
The Fourth Ecumenical Council was held 451 A.D. in Chalcedon with 630 Holy Fathers attended. This council's great work was its definition of Jesus Christ as the Second Person in the Trinity as True God and True Man with His divine and human natures distinct without confusion and inseparably united in One Person.
This council condemned the Eutychian party who taught that Jesus was God only and that His divine nature absorbed the human one. This council also decreed that the Patriarch of Constantinople was the single head of the church in Eastern Europe.
In 553 A.D. the Fifth Ecumenical Council convened at Constantinople with 160 church leaders attending. At this meeting the followers of Nestorius were excommunicated and their writings condemned. Nestorius taught that the Virgin Mary's tide as Mother of God was erroneous.
The Sixth Ecumenical Council, with 170 Holy Fathers attending, also met in Constantinople, in the year 680 A.D. This council condemned the teachings of the Monothelists who acknowledged only the divine will of Christ while denying the human one. This council adjourned and reconvened in 691 A.D. at the Trula Palace. The council approved the canons of preceding councils.
The Seventh and last Ecumenical Council was convened by Empress Irene and was held at the site of the first council, Nicaea. This council took a stand against iconoclasm and defined the doctrine concerning images and their veneration (not worship) and ordered the images restored in churches. The personnel at this counsel was composed almost entirely of Byzantine representatives but Papal legates were 367 attending. In the seven council meetings, about 2,000 representatives of the undivided Christian church participated. There was growing disagreement between Rome and the other Patriarchates but the separation of Rome did not take place until 1054 A.D. with the final break due to a breach over Filioque dogma.
