www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Random historical trivia involving Eastern Churches

Hey everyone,

Throughout the years, I have been internet surfing about Eastern Churches. One thing I personally find is that some of the best stuff are the more obscure ones. Because it would be a little too spammy to dedicate a thread for each, I thought of compiling them into this thread. However, I would be doing it one post at a time.

So my first post is about Athanasius II, (Orthodox) Archbishop of Achrida/Ohrid and Justiniana Prima from the 1650's to around the early 1660's.

Here are some wiki entries about him. However, these are no English version so you may need web translators:

• https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasio_II,_arcebispo_de_Ohrid
• https://cyclowiki.org/wiki/Афанасий_II_Охридский

He converted, and then consecrated future Catholic bishops. In particular, bishops of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church can trace their apostolic succession to him. I came across an online document which is basically a scan of an old book which discusses some of his correspondence with the Holy See. Once again, it is not in English. The book seems to be French but transcriptions of the letters are either in Latin, Greek, or Italian: https://biblioteca-digitala.ro/reviste/Balcania/08-balcanica-VIII-01.pdf

Another interesting thing about him is how the Holy See regarded him. I was not able to go through each line because of the languages. However, you can come across the following gems:

• From the Latin phrase "Venerabili Fratri Athanasio, Archiepiscopo Primae lustinianae,. Patriarchae Achrideno, etc." , this translates to "To my Venerable Brother, Athanasius, Archbishop of Justiniana Prima and Patriarch of Achrida"
• From the Italian phrase "Athanasio par misericordia di Dio arcivescovo della prima Giustiniana e patriarcha d'Achridonia, Servia, Bulgaria, Albania, seconda Macedonia, Ponte occidentale.", this translates to "Athanasius, by the Mercy of God, Archbishop of Justiniana Prima and Patriarch of Achrida, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia Secunda, Western Thrace?."

I've read from other sources that the Orthodox Archbishops of Achrida around the time loved to introduce themselves as Patriarchs when corresponding with foreigners. This was probably related to rivalries with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Serbian Patriarchate of Pec. It seems that in light of Athanasius' conversion, the Holy See was more than willing to recognize his claimed Patriarchal rank. Despite his Patriarchal see being ephemeral within the Catholic Church, it is fun to think that several modern "other church sui iuris" can theoretically be placed under it.

The relationship of the Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid with its neighbors has always been a roller coaster. Its modern day successor, the Macedonian Orthodox Church, had just gotten out of schism and reconciled with the Serbian Orthodox Church. Although now considered part of canonical Eastern Orthodoxy, it still has disputes with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The Ecumenical Patriarchate insists that the Tomos of Autocephaly granted by Serbian Orthodox Church is invalid. Yet, it refuses to give its own Tomos unless the Macedonian Orthodox Church removes "Macedonia" or derivatives from its name. Instead, they refer to them as the Orthodox Church of Ohrid. Just as with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, they also want the North Macedonians to give up their diaspora eparchies. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church refuses to recognize the current Primatial title (Archbishop of Ohrid) of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. Instead, they refer to the Macedonian Primate as the Archbishop of North Macedonia.

Interestingly, Macedonian Orthodox being caught between the conflicting interests of Greeks and Bulgarians had been going on since the Ecumenical Patriarchate vs. Bulgarian Exarchate feud in the late 1800's. it got so bad that there were considerations of union, initially with the Anglicans and then with the Holy See. Here is a Bulgarian document discussing supposed attempted union with the Anglicans: https://ebox.nbu.bg/hist15/index4.php?id=8.

The attempted union with the Holy See is more interesting. By then, the modern iteration of the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church had already been established. Yet, the Orthodox Metropolitan of Skopje, Theodosius, met directly with the Catholic Apostolic Delegate in Constantinople, Augusto Bonetti (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Bishop_Augusto_Bonetti_on_the_talks_with_Theodosius,_the_Metropolitan_of_Skopje). He sent a letter to the Pope (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Theodosius,_the_metropolitan_of_Skopje,_to_Pope_Leo_XIII), requesting his own church sui iuris led by him as Archbishop of Ohrid. This was to be separate from the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church, already led by Archbishop Nil in Constantinople (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:The_conditions_of_transfer_of_Macedonian_eparchies_to_Union_with_the_Roman_Catholic_Church). The Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith urged a wait-and-see approach (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:The_congregation_for_the_propagation_of_the_faith_to_Augusto_Bonetti) and long enough, Augusto Bonetti would tell them of Metropolitan Theodosius' deposition (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Augusto_Bonetti_to_the_Congregation_for_the_Propagation_of_the_Faith). The Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith would eventually decide to let the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church remain intact (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:The_congregation_for_the_propagation_of_the_Faith_to_Augusto_Bonetti_-_Second_letter), although funnily enough, its Archbishop Nil would return to Orthodoxy in a few years. Fast forward later, Eastern Catholic Macedonians would get their own church sui iuris on 2001.

I remember reading a thread here about another union attempt this time by the Macedonian Orthodox Church during its schism (https://www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/102896/all/Macedonian_Orthodox_and_Rome). The Holy See apparently has gotten the memo not to take advantage of inter-Orthodox feuds.