By Cornelia B. Horn* In this section of the Journal of Maronite Studies (JMS), we share with you documents or manuscripts that reflect the history of the Maronite people and Church. Whenever possible, we will feature a copy of the original record with an English translation. Should we not be able to do so, we shall rely on the integrity of the author(s) who first brought this record to our attention. The document or manuscript will appear in Italics (unedited). Whenever needed, the Editor's interpolations will appear in square brackets.
The following letters are rare documents about the Maronites in general and the monks of Saint Maron's Monastery or "Beit Maron" in particular. The two letters are from the correspondence between the monks of Syria Secunda and Pope Hormisdas (20 July 514 - 6 August 523). (1) The Latin and Greek texts of this correspondence are preserved in the collectio Avellana as letters 139 and 140, (2) edited in 1898 by Otto Günther as the second part of the collectio Avellana in the series Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum (CSEL) as volume 35. (3) The letters contained in the collectio Avellana were written between the years 367 and 553 A.D. The largest part of Pope Hormisdas' correspondence is contained in the collectio Avellana and is one of the main sources for studying the history of the papacy of Rome in the 6th century. Hormisdas was enthroned as pope in a time when the schism between Rome and Constantinople, which had begun under Bishop Acacius (471-489), was still continuing. (4) The Eastern Roman Emperor Anastasios I (491-518) and Pope Hormisdas made efforts at re-establishing the unity of the Church. Pope Hormisdas required that the Constantinopolitan bishops should: (a) accept the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (451); (b) agree to all the letters of Pope Leo I (440-461); and (c) condemn the heretics Nestorius (ca. 381-451) and Eutyches (fl. 450) and all their followers, including Acacius of Constantinople and Peter the Fuller, bishop of Antioch (471, 475-477, 485-488, died in 488). Pope Hormisdas also demanded that the bishops sign a document (the 'libellus') containing the so-called 'formula/regula fidei Hormisdae' (5) (the formula/rule of the faith of Hormisdas), which stated that it is in and through the Apostolic See that the Catholic faith is always preserved without fault. ... It is there that one finds the integrity and truth of the Catholic religion and its perfect stability (In Sede apostolica citra maculam semper est catholica servata religio... In qua est integra et verax christianae religionis et perfecta soliditas). At first, these efforts from both sides remained without success. Yet later on, when approximately 40 bishops from dioceses in the western Balkans and Syria approached the Roman side more closely, Hormisdas repeated his conditions in 517, yet again without full success. Only when the Emperor Justin I (518-527) had succeeded Anastasios I on 10 July 518 and contacts between Rome and Constantinople had been re-established, could the Acacian Schism be overcome on 22 April 519. (6) The metropolis of the region of Syria Secunda is Apamea. Around this large city a vast net-work of monasteries developed. The monastery of St. Maron held first rank among them. St. Maron's Monastery had played an important cultural, economical and theological role in the area around Apamea and beyond after it had become the main center for the Maronites.(7) For the supporters of the Council of Chalcedon it was a stronghold of orthodoxy. This monastery received high praise for the ascetic discipline which its monks observed.(8) The following letters 139 and 140, which were written in 517/518, allow us to date the founding of St. Maron's Monastery to at least the 5th century A. D.,(9) probably a few years after the construction of the large church dedicated to St. Maron. The list of subscribers to letter 139 clearly shows, that under the leadership of Alexander, the archimandrite of St. Maron's Monastery, the abbots of the region around Apamea wrote this letter. Thus the letter is also an important witness to the fact that already in the first years of the 6th century, the monastery of St. Maron was in full bloom and had taken up a leading role in the monastic milieu in Syria Secunda. Controversies with Monophysite believers, as letter 139 shows, ended in the martyrdom of 350 Maronite monks. Yet it was also at other occasions that members of the monastic community of St. Maron's Monastery engaged in doctrinal controversies on the Chalcedonian side.(10) Letter 139:(11) (written towards the end of 517) To Hormisdas, the most holy and blessed patriarch of the whole world, the holder of the See of Peter, the leader of the apostles, the earnest petition and humble prayer of the least (important) archimandrites and of other monks of your province Syria Secunda: The grace of Christ, the Redeemer of us all, has instigated us to take refuge to your blessedness as if from the winter storm to the stillness of an harbor and we are admonished to and indeed believe that even though disasters encompass us on all sides we are in no way caught in. For even if we suffer, we endure it with rejoicing, knowing that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy of the future glory, which will be revealed in us [Rom 8:18]. Since, however, Christ, our God, has appointed a leading shepherd, teacher, and physician of souls, it is right that we should lay open to your holy angel the sufferings which affect us, and make known the merciless wolves, which scatter the flock of Christ, so that through the scepter of his authority he may drive them out from the midst of the sheep, and through the word of his teaching he may heal the soul and appease it through the relief of his speech. But who those are and who he is who has armed them against us, you, most blessed one, you have certainly heard: That Severus and Peter, who have never been counted among the number of Christians, who on each single day have attacked and publicly anathematized the holy synod at Chalcedon and our most holy and blessed father Leo, who think nothing of God's judgment and trample under foot the venerable canons of the holy Fathers, bringing it about that bishops, indeed, are shown as holding the prime authority and forcing us to ridicule the aforementioned holy synod and humiliating us by worthless public prayers. Therefore also certain ones of those, who in no way endure the blows brought upon them have gone over because of this and our not so small number of people has in fact almost completely vanished. For when we were going to the pen of the Lord Simeon for the cause of the Church, they were lying in wait for us on the way as it had been announced, defiling us, and when they came upon us by surprise, they killed three hundred and fifty men from among us, certain ones they wounded; but others, who could take refuge to the venerable altars, they slayed there and set the monasteries on fire, inciting throughout the night a multitude of unsettled people and contractors and they were wasting all the poverty of the Church through destructive trouble makers of this kind. About the details, however, the writings may instruct your blessedness, which were brought over by the venerable brothers, John and Sergius, whom we had sent to Constantinople, because we believed that revenge might take place for those things which had been committed. Yet he did not think them worth a word, but rather he expelled them with great mistreatment and he violently threatened those, who would present these (things). Therefore it is from here that we, perhaps (too) late, know that all the depravity and recklessness of such evil people, which is committed against the churches, is arranged through his incitation. We pray, therefore, most blessed one, we go on our knees and ask, that you stand up with fervor and zeal and rightly have pity for the body that is torn to pieces (for you are the head of all) and that you avenge the faith that has been despised, the canons that have been trodden under foot, the fathers who have been blasphemed and such a great synod that has been attacked with anathema. To you God has given the power and authority to bind and to loosen [Matt 16:19]. Not the healthy ones have need of the physician but the sick [Matt 9:12]. Arise, holy Fathers, come to save us! Be imitators of the Lord Christ, who has come down from the heavens onto the earth to seek the sheep that is going astray, Peter, that leader of the apostles, whose seat you adorn, and Paul, who is the vessel of election, the ones who are going around and have illuminated the world. Great wounds, namely, are in need of greater remedies. For the hired shepherds, when they see the wolves come against the sheep, abandon them so that they are scattered by them [cf. John 10:12], but to you, the true shepherds and teachers, to whom the care for the well-being of the sheep has been committed, the flock come who know their shepherd when they have been freed from the pitiless wild animals and they are following the voice of the shepherd, as the Lord says: "My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me." [John 10:3] Therefore, do not despise us, most holy one, since daily we are being wounded by wild beasts. But so that your holy angel may have complete knowledge, we courageously anathematize with our very petition both all the ones who have been put forth in the libellus and the ones who have been excommunicated by your Apostolic See: We speak, however, of Nestorius, who was bishop of Constantinople, Eutyches, Dioscorus, and Peter of Alexandria, who also has the name Balbus, and Peter, who was named "the Fuller," of Antioch, and last not least Acacius, who was bishop of Constantinople, the one in communion with them and all, who defend any one of those heretics. The signatures: I, Alexander, through the mercy of God priest and archimandrite of St. Maron, have prayed. Symeon, through the mercy of God priest and archimandrite, as above. John, through the mercy of God deacon and treasurer, as above. Procopius, through the mercy of God priest and archimandrite, as above. Peter, through the mercy of God priest, as above. Eugenius, through the mercy of God priest, as above. Geladius, through the mercy of God priest, as above. Bassus, through the mercy of God priest, as above. Romulus, through the mercy of God priest, as above. Eusebius, through the mercy of God priest, as above. Malchus, through the mercy of God priest, as above. Leontius, through the mercy of God deacon, as above. Stephen, through the mercy of God priest, as above. Carufas, the deacon, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. Samuel, the deacon, as above. Theodore, the priest, as above. John, through the mercy of God priest, as above. John, the priest, as above. Thomas, the deacon, as above. John, the deacon, as above. Symeon, the deacon, as above. Saulinus, the archimandrite, as above. Eusebius, the priest, as above. Mucimus, the priest, as above. Symeon, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. James, the priest, as above. John, the priest, as above. Paul, the priest, as above. Priscus, the priest, as above. Antoninus, the priest, as above. John, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. Julian, the priest, as above. Symeon, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. Symeon, the priest, as above. Zaccheus, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. Symeon, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. Symeon, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. Sergius, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. Eusebius, the priest, as above. Paul, the priest, as above. John, the priest, as above. Sergius, the deacon, as above. Likewise, Sergius, the deacon, as above. Julian, the priest, as above. Sergius, the priest, as above. Ammonius, the deacon, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. Luke, the priest, as above. Thomas, the deacon, as above. Symeon, the priest, as above. Flavian, the archimandrite, as above. Monimus, the deacon, as above. John, the deacon, as above. John, the priest, as above. Anthony, the deacon, as above. Thomas, the deacon, as above. Eliseus, the priest, as above. Sergius, the deacon, as above. Isacius, the priest, as above. Sergius, the priest, as above. Thomas, the deacon, as above. John, the priest, as above. Philip, the deacon, as above. James, the priest, as above. Zenobius, the priest, as above. Maras, the deacon, as above. Isacius, the priest, as above. Ananias, the priest, as above. Sergius, the priest, as above. Symeon, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. John, the priest, as above. Symeon, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. John, the priest, as above. Symeon, the priest, as above. Davidthos, the deacon, as above. Thomas, the deacon, as above. John, the deacon, as above. Lemneos, the priest, as above. Daniel, the archimandrite, as above. Symeon, the archimandrite, as above. Abram, the priest, as above. David, the priest, as above. Dorotheus, the priest, as above. Antoninus, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. Barsumas, the priest, as above. Sergius, the priest, as above. Eusebius, the priest, as above. Symeonius, the priest, as above. Marcellus, the priest, as above. Priscus, the priest, as above. Maras, the priest, as above. Sergius, the priest, as above. James, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. Likewise, Thomas, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest as above. Saulinus, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. John, the priest, as above. Uarasaldas, the priest, as above. John, the deacon, as above. Marcellus, the deacon, as above. Symeonius, the priest, as above. Gennadius, the priest, as above. Thomas, the priest, as above. Symeonius, the priest, as above. Habramius, the priest, as above. Symeonius, the priest, as above. James, the priest, as above. John, the priest, as above. Isidor, the archimandrite, as above. Julian, the priest, as above. John(, the priest?,) and Romanus, the priest, and Thomas, the priest, as above. Antoninus, the deacon, and Habraam, the priest, as above. Maras, the deacon, and Habraam, the priest, as above. Zenobius and Stephen, the priests, as above. Symeonius and Demetrius, the priests, as above. Thomas and Domnus, the priests, as above. Symeonius and Helias, the priests, as above. Habramius and Pelagius, the priests, as above. Romanus and Abraam, the priests, as above. Symeonius, the priest, and Carufas, the deacon, as above. Symeonius and John, the priests, as above. Symeonius and Julian, the priests, as above. Eutychianus and John, the deacons, as above. Thomas and, likewise, Thomas, the priests, as above. Romanus, the deacon, and John, the priest, as above. Eusebius, the archimandrite, and Eustasius, the priest, as above. James and Eusebius, the priests, as above. Sergius and Maras, the priests, as above. John and Julian, the priests, as above. Paul and Isacius, the priests, as above. Thomas and Dasianus, the priests, as above. John and Daniel, the priests, as above. Zeuenas, the priest, and Azizos, the deacon and archimandrite, as above. Antoninus, the deacon and archimandrite, and Cyril, the priest, as above. Job, the priest, and Stephen, the deacon and archimandrite, as above. Bassus, the deacon, and Basilius, the priest, as above. Symeonius and John, the priests, as above. James, the priest, and Julian, the deacon and archimandrite, as above. Symeonius and Alfeus, the priests, as above. John, the priest, and Peter, the deacon, as above. Daniel, the deacon, and Nonnus, the deacon and archimandrite, as above. Alexander and Epiphanius, the priests, as above. Zoilus and Habramius, the priests, as above. Julian, the priest, and John, the deacon and archimandrite, as above. Carufas and Symeonius, the priests, as above. Timotheus, the deacon, and Peter, the priest, as above. Macedonius[, the deacon] and archimandrite, as above. Domnus, the archimandrite, as above. John, the archimandrite, as above. Symeonius[, the deacon] and archimandrite, as above. Menas, the deacon and archimandrite, and Barabsabas, the priest, as above. Sergius, the priest, and Theodorus, the archimandrite, as above. Benjamin, the archimandrite, and Isacius, the priest, as above. Daniel, the priest and archimandrite, and Abraam, the archimandrite, as above. Symeonius, the archimandrite, as above. Letter 140:(12) (10 February 518) Hormisdas, to the priests, deacons, and archimandrites of Syria Secunda. I have read your highly esteemed letters, by which the insanity of the enemies of God has been laid open and the obstinate fury of the unbelievers, who with revived spirit hate the Lord and thereby wickedly persecute his members, has painfully been exposed: To the extent that it pertains to the recognition of your perseverance, I praise God that he preserves the faith of his soldiers in the midst of adversities. Yet again with regard to the shaking of the churches and the troubles and toils of the servants of God, I meditated upon my sighs with the help of the prophet and cried out: "Arise, O Lord; judge your cause; think of the acts of injustice against your people, of these things which all day long are done by the fool!" [Ps 73.22 (LXX)] Freely, also, I am adding the words which follow: "Do not forget the voice of the ones who seek you; the arrogance of those, who hate you, always rises up to you." [Ps 73.23 (LXX)] For we guard the steadfastness of the faith, as it is right, (and) so it is not proper to despair of the justice of God's judgment. This toil of the Church, brothers, is nothing new, yet nevertheless, while she is humiliated, she is set up straight and through these crimes, by which they believe they can weaken her, she is enriched. It is of advantage for the faithful of God, that through the deaths of their bodies they should gain the lives of their souls: they lose, indeed, what is vain, but they acquire what is eternal, and, while persecution prepares the way for testing, testing becomes the cause of merit. The foolish ones and the ones who are furious in their blindness are ignorant, because they do not believe that some can withdraw themselves from the social interaction with men (and) lead people to the kingdom of God. Hence the joys and periods of sufferings are in dangers themselves: For he, who repays their great services, also expects their combats. For who would not be broken to pieces by the evil ones, unless the opposite would console him with rewards? That is hope which does not fall into despair; since in fact it excludes the bitterness of tribulations through the sweet taste of virtues. For who, knowing the present, has such a greatness to estimate the things to come? Who disapproves of the costs of life, if he thinks that some can be regained? Persevere, my most dearly beloved, while you keep the faith unchanged through the immovable virtue of your mind, anticipate the praise for perseverance, in which are the prosperity and prize of good deeds. Great are the things to which we unworthy ones are called: May weakness not slow us down, because he who calls is the faithful repayer and mighty helper. Let us not be deceived by the hope for fortunes or pleasures, nor let us set easy things before our eyes: Our Lord has not promised us delightful things, nor smooth ones; he has promised rewards, not leisure. Praise and rest do not go together. What place will there be for reward, if there is no concern for virtue? Narrow is the gate, but the kingdom is wide, access is for a few, but (only) for the tested ones. Are not these the first words to the ones whom he taught: "They will persecute you and whip you in the synagogues" [Matt 10.17]? Through patience, as it has been written, let us be owners of our souls, so that we do not grieve their loss through impatience. [cf. Lk 21.19] First, our Lord and teacher of patience itself ascends onto the Cross and will be teaching the ones whom he supported with his help by his own example. He himself holds in check the balance between virtues and toils, while he is standing up against the destructions of the ones who are raging, so that according to the furies of the persecution he himself may give the crowns of eternal rule. Read again, how the old story of the Maccabees describes with praise their steadfast deaths, where Judas and that deadly phalanx of faithful brothers is reckoned with honor, how much it is talked about that the persistent people are worn out on the mountain. And all these virtues for guarding the law, forms and shadows of the future events; they have merited such great examples: In the Fathers we have seen, we have touched, we have approved, whom we would follow. What may not be granted in an event? What has to be denied to the truth? What is not owed to the Redeemer? Gladly do we share with you these teachings; for the most wise Solomon says: "Blessed is he who preaches the word to the ear of the one who is obedient." [Ecclesiasticus 25.12 (Vulgate)] It is a joy since, indeed, they want to address and encourage to a proper life the ones who do not resist. For we hold as a guaranty the firmness of your faith in its profession up to the individual letters, by which you hurry back from the separative infection through contact with the transgressors to the teachings and instructions of the Apostolic See: Late, indeed, that you enter on the way of truth, but blessed be God, who does not forget even toward the end, who seizes and heals and does not suffer that the sheep of his flock are continuously torn apart by the rapacity of the wolves which lie in wait; he, who through moderation in punishment neither neglects the right to punish his own nor their well-being. But is it a surprise if, after that one and true shepherd has been left behind, the shrewd, bloodthirsty and rapacious one throws the sheep that have been scattered about into confusion with his traps? These, who abandon his protection, expose themselves to the dangers, by which they are torn to pieces. Therefore, now, at least pursue closely with firm steps the way of the Fathers, to which you are returning. The compassion of God will be powerful, also the correction of others for your reward, if they, guided by you toward what is right, enroll. But in all pull yourselves away from the mud, where the heretics are held immersed, and shaking off the impurity of the dust that sticks to all in general who deviate from the apostolic teachings, speak out a condemnation by a pious curse. There is no communion between shadows and light nor do those, who walk on the right paths join their steps with the error of the ones who deviate. [2 Cor 6.14] The bond of faith has to be held and contact with a treacherous group of people has to be avoided, because, according to the Apostle, just as "he who joins himself to the Lord, is one spirit (with him)," [1 Cor 6.17] so also "he who clings to a prostitute is made one body (with her)" [1 Cor 6.16]. The virtues love their colleagues and cling to them; impiety submerges with itself into the depth. In view before the eyes, in the mouth, on the hands themselves are the teachings of the Fathers, about which we command that they have to be guarded: they fetter us daily to preserving their venerable councils. It would be loquacious to repeat all of them one by one: the synod of Chalcedon which has the respect of all; but also is it fitting that we both know and defend the advancements of the venerable Leo which have been set up from the hearts of the apostles themselves. In these the banner of faith, in these the ramparts of truth, in these Christ is recognized, in these the hope and cause of our redemption is preserved. This is the foundation, about which we read in the Apostle that he deceives himself, whoever has attempted to build upon something (else) because wood, hay, and stubbles have to be consumed by fire. Through these councils the poisons of Eutyches and Nestorius have been destroyed, who while they strive against the salvific mystery of the dispensation of the Lord in a conflicting dispute among themselves, agree with a certain sacrilegious smoothness, even though they are different in their statements and of one mind regarding their impiety: one of them does not want the virgin Mary to be the mother of God and therefore he divides in our Lord, what has been united; the other one, while he mingles together what is proper and certain of the appropriate natures, annuls the mystery of our redemption; one comes into contact with the sect of Photinus,(13) the other one touches at the madness of Mani with his impious association. Against these, most beloved brothers, defend with the strength of the spirit the provided remedies against which, as you see, the heretics fight in their impiety for their (own) destruction. May the declaration of truth not come reluctantly. With what zeal should well-being be valued when you see that deadly ruin is thus loved? It is shameful that one asserts the laws of truth sluggishly, when errors are so tenaciously defended. And the authors, indeed, of inventions of evil things which we have mentioned beforehand, are reproached by the synodical ordinances with just condemnations; but we, so that you may also avoid their followers, in like manner admonish the ones whom the Apostolic See both detected as equal to their authors and has connected with their bondsmen: Dioscorus and Timothy, the parricide, Peter of Alexandria, Acacius of Constantinople with his followers, also Peter of Antioch, like to the one mentioned beforehand as much in error as in name, but also Severus just the same of the same place and poison, Axenaias of Hierapolis, Cyrus of Edessa, and Peter of Apamea; they are no longer to be condemned only for their own but also for the destruction of others, these who, while they get continuously all wrapped up in the filth of their own opinions, also have defiled others by teaching things which it is evil to pursue. I advise you by the soundness of a general command: throw away whatever is against the rules of the Fathers, from no matter what commentaries it is brought forth. Nothing may move you by inharmonious assertions or by new practices: For if they are worldly, they cannot have control of the churches, because it is proper for them rather to learn than to teach. For it is a crime that they offer alien libations on sacred altars, because God has determined certain boundaries for his own worship by pious disciplines also among the sacred rites. He has divided the office between the Levites and his own people; one is the power of men, the other are the ministries of the priests. He has rather aroused the Lord than appeased him, who as violator of the sacred has brought fire from without into the sanctuaries of God. Who is the one who can take up for himself the authority of giving orders for alien practices, even though there is no ambiguity as to whether he is offering the due honor or has been punished only for anticipating the office? Uzziah would have remained in royal respect and government, if he, having been warned through the example of such a great punishment from pious practices would have been moderate by being full of fear rather than by taking up better things. But as long as the obstinate violator does not withdraw, even though the worshipers of the temple are hindering (him), he is killed by the abomination of a skin disease in between the altars and loses the very offices of the kingdom, while he invades the ministries of the priesthood. [2 Chronicles 26:16ff.] Let them know, therefore, that it has not been accepted by God, what is taken on by anticipators from his commands; when he has preserved one by punishment for showing the lively sentence of disgrace, the swift flame has consumed others. But if there are things which have been taken on by some color of religion, they cannot have strength, because they resist such great authorities. The Apostle Paul calls out: "Should it be us or an angel from heaven who would proclaim to you a gospel other than the Gospel which we have proclaimed to you, let him be anathema." [Gal 1.8] And it is not enough that he has said this once; he repeats the beneficial command: "As I have said beforehand, and now I say it again: If anyone proclaims to you a gospel other than the one which you have accepted, let him be anathema." [Gal 1.9] Let him therefore keep the widespread statement for preserving the faith, whoever follows the apostolic discipline. And indeed we did not fail in care, for we have granted to the office of the double mission whatever is humble through prayers, whatever is reasonable by missions, whatever is beneficial by commands. But does therefore the way of justice have to be neglected, because someone loves his own errors at the same time that he loves determinate perfidy ? One must not join the ones who have fallen with the ones who are falling: May they perish without infecting us, those who do not parry from their impieties nor the error after it has been reproved. Given the fourth of the Ides of February, after the consulate of Agapitus. It is worth noting that the Maronite Church celebrates the feast of
the Three Hundred and Fifty martyred monks each year on July, 31.
(14)
*Ms. Cornelia B. Horn is a graduate student in the Early Christian Studies
Program at The Catholic University of America. Her field of research is
Oriental Patrology. Bibliography: Abbot Paul Naaman, La Maronite' Theologie et Vie: Des Montagnes de Cyr aux Plaines de L'Apamène [in French and Arabic], Kaslik, Lebanon (1992). Amann, E. "Hormisdas (Saint)," in: Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique 7.1 (1927) 161-176. Aßfalg, Julius and Paul Krüger. Kleines Wörterbuch des christlichen Orients, Otto Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden (1975). Camelot, P.-Th. "Hormisdas," in: Catholicisme - Hier - Aujourd'hui - Demain, Encyclopédie publiée sous la direction de G. Jacquement du clergé de Paris, vol. 5 (1962) 942-943. Caspar, Erich. Geschichte des Papsttums: Von den Anfängen bis zur Höhe der Weltherrschaft, Part II: Das Papsttum unter byzantinischer Herrschaft, J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck): Tübingen (1933). On Hormisdas, see pp. 129-183; on the correspondence above see especially pp. 146-149. Di Berardino, Angelo (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Early Church, produced by the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, 2 vols., Oxford University Press: New York (1992). Dib, Pierre. L'Église Maronite, Paris (1930). English translation (History of the Maronite Church) by S. Beggiani. Ferguson, Everett (ed.) Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, Garland Publishing, Inc.: New York & London (11990, 21997). Günther, Otto. Epistulae imperatorum pontificum aliorum inde ab a. 367 usque ad a. 553 datae Avellana quae dicitur collectio, CSEL 35 (1898) 565-585. Nau, F. "Opuscules Maronites," in: Revue de L'Orient Chretien 4 (1899) 175-226, 318-353, 543-571; 5 (1900) 74-89, 293-302. idem. "Les Maronites Inquisiteurs," in: Bulletin de l'Association de Saint-Louis des Maronites, n. 97 Paris (January, 1903) 343-350, 367-381. Patriarch Istephan al Duwaihi, Tarikh at-Taifa al-Marouniat (History of the Maronite Community), [in Arabic]. Edited by R. Chartouny, Beirut (1890). Prinzing, Günther. "Hormisdas," in: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 5 (1996) 279-280. Vööbus, Arthur. History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient, t. II, CSCO vol. 197, Subsidia, t. 17, Louvain (1960). Voicu, S. J. "Cyr d'Édesse," in: Dictionnaire Encyclopédique
du Christianisme Ancien, Les Editions du Cerf (1990) 608.
(1) For a convenient overview of the life and summaries of the activities of Pope Hormisdas, consult the articles cited in the bibliography. | Back to text | (2) We are not aware of any previous translation of letters 139 and 140 into any western modern language. The two letters were translated into Arabic in Patriarch Istephan al Duwaihi, Tarikh at-Taifa al-Marouniat (History of the Maronite Community), [in Arabic]. Edited by R. Chartouny, Beirut (1890). | Back to text | (3) Günther, Otto (ed.), Epistulae imperatorum pontificum aliorum inde ab a. CCCLXVII usque ad a. DLIII datae Avellana quae dicitur collectio, CSEL 35 (1898). | Back to text | (4) The Acacian schism had its origins in bishop Acacius' support of the henoticon of the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno (474-475, 476-491). The henoticon, written in 482, attempted to formulate an agreement between Monophysites and Orthodox believers. When bishop Acacius had also confirmed Peter Mongus (477-490) as Monophysite patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Felix II (III) (483-492), then the bishop of Rome, considered it necessary to excommunicate bishop Acacius (in 484). This is seen as the beginning of the Acacian schism. | Back to text | (5) Latin cited from P.-Th. Camelot, "Hormisdas," 943. | Back to text | (6) Letter 168 in the collectio Avellana, where Pope Hormisdas expresses his thanks to the Emperor Justin I. See Prinzing, "Hormisdas," 280. | Back to text | (7) Arthur Vööbus, History of Asceticism, 251. Pierre Dib, L'Église Maronite, 43. | Back to text | (8) Arthur Vööbus, History of Asceticism, 253. | Back to text | (9) Pierre Dib, L'Église Maronite, 45. | Back to text | (10) Pierre Dib, L'Église Maronite, 44. He refers to another exchange of letters between Maronites and Jacobites at the end of the 6th century. F. Nau published a French translation of this correspondence in: Bulletin de l'Association de Saint-Louis des Maronites, Paris (1903) 343-350, 367-381. | Back to text | (11) Latin text in CSEL 35 (1895) 565-571. | Back to text | (12) Latin and Greek text in CSEL 35 (1895) 572-585. | Back to text | (13) Photinus was bishop of Sirmium from ca. 344-351. His deposition was caused by his Christological views, yet, because of the loss of his writings, we are not able to identify his errors more precisely. | Back to text | (14) Pierre Dib, L'Église Maronite, Paris (1930). | Back to text | |
