Pope John II of Alexandria | |
---|---|
Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of the See of St. Mark | |
Papacy began | 29 May 505 |
Papacy ended | 22 May 516 |
Predecessor | John I |
Successor | Dioscorus II |
Personal details | |
Born | |
Died | 22 May 516 Egypt |
Buried | Saint Mark's Church |
Nationality | Egyptian |
Denomination | Coptic Orthodox Christian |
Residence | Saint Mark's Church |
Pope John II (III) of Alexandria, was the 30th Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.
He is counted as John III by the Eastern Orthodox Church, which acknowledges John Talaia as John I, but as John II by the Copts who reject Talaia. He is sometimes called John Niciota after his birthplace of Nicius.
He was a monk who lived a solitary life in the desert until he was consecrated Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria on 29 May 505.
He was famous for authoring many hagiographical writings and sermons.
He was a contemporary of the Roman Emperor Anastasius I, who favoured the non-Chalcedonian churches, and of Severus of Antioch, the champion of Miaphysitism in Syria. The latter wrote a message to John regarding the nature of Christ, which reads:
Jesus Christ, after the union with flesh, has become of one Nature with one Will without separation, and I believe in the same faith of Pope Cyril and Pope Dioscorus.
John replied with a message that testified to the union of the essence of God, and the trinity of His characters. He also proclaimed that by the incarnation of the eternal Son of God, the Divine and the human nature have become one and no longer two natures, without separation, mingling, or confusion. He anathematized those who separate the two natures, those who confuse them and those who said that the suffering crucified Christ was only a man, and those who say that His Divine nature also suffered and died. He said that the Orthodox faith was to profess that God the word suffered by the flesh with which he was united.
The Council of Chalcedon was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bithynia from 8 October to 1 November 451 AD. The council was attended by over 520 bishops or their representatives, making it the largest and best-documented of the first seven ecumenical councils. The principal purpose of the council was to re-assert the teachings of the ecumenical Council of Ephesus against the teachings of Eutyches and Nestorius. Such doctrines viewed Christ's divine and human natures as separate (Nestorianism) or viewed Christ as solely divine (Monophysitism).
Theotokos is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are Dei Genitrix or Deipara. Familiar English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-bearer" – but these both have different literal equivalents in Greek, Μήτηρ Θεοῦ and Θεοφόρος.
Pope Leo I, also known as Leo the Great, was Bishop of Rome from 29 September 440 until his death.
Monophysitism or monophysism is a Christology that states that in the person of the incarnated Word there was only one nature—the divine.
Monothelitism, or monotheletism, is a theological doctrine in Christianity, that holds Christ as having only one will. The doctrine is thus contrary to dyothelitism, a Christological doctrine that holds Christ as having two wills. Historically, monothelitism was closely related to monoenergism, a theological doctrine that holds Jesus Christ as having only one energy. Both doctrines were at the center of Christological disputes during the 7th century.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in sub-Saharan Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates back to the acceptance of Christianity by the Kingdom of Aksum in 330, and has between 36 million and 49.8 million adherents in Ethiopia. It is a founding member of the World Council of Churches. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is in communion with the other Oriental Orthodox churches.
Eutyches or Eutyches of Constantinople was a presbyter and archimandrite at Constantinople. He first came to notice in 431 at the First Council of Ephesus, for his vehement opposition to the teachings of Nestorius. At the 448 Synod of Constantinople and the 451 Council of Chalcedon, Eutyches was condemned for having adopted an equally extreme, although opposite view. He himself, however, would reject this interpretation of his thought.
Acacius served as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 472 to 489. He was practically the first prelate in all of Eastern Orthodoxy, and was renowned for his ambitious participation in the Chalcedonian controversy.
In Christian theology, divinization, or theopoesis or theosis, is the transforming effect of divine grace, the spirit of God, or the atonement of Christ. Although it literally means to become divine, or to become God, most modern Christian denominations do not interpret the doctrine as implying an overcoming of a fundamental ontological difference between God and humanity; for example, John of the Cross indicated that while "God communicates to it [the individual soul] His supernatural Being, in such wise that it appears to be God Himself, and has all that God Himself has", yet "it is true that its natural being, though thus transformed, is as distinct from the Being of God as it was before".
Dioscorus I, also known as Dioscorus the Great, was the pope of Alexandria and patriarch of the See of St. Mark who was deposed by the Council of Chalcedon in 451. He was recognized as patriarch by the Coptic Church until his death. He died in Gangra, Paphlagonia, in September 454. He is venerated as a saint by the Coptic and other Oriental Orthodox Churches.
The East–West Schism, also known as the Great Schism or Schism of 1054, is the ongoing break of communion between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches since 1054. It is estimated that, immediately following the beginning of the schism, a slim majority of Christians worldwide were Eastern Christians; most of the rest were Western Christians. A series of ecclesiastical differences and theological disputes between the Greek East and Latin West preceded the formal split that occurred in 1054. Prominent among these were the procession of the Holy Spirit (Filioque), whether leavened or unleavened bread should be used in the Eucharist, the Pope's claim to universal jurisdiction, and the place of the See of Constantinople in relation to the pentarchy.
Miaphysitism is the Christological doctrine that holds Jesus, the "Incarnate Word, is fully divine and fully human, in one 'nature' (physis)." It is a position held by the Oriental Orthodox Churches and differs from the Chalcedonian position that Jesus is one "person" in two "natures", a divine nature and a human nature (Dyophysitism).
Pope John IV of Alexandria, 48th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.
In Christian theology, the doctrine of incarnation teaches that the pre-existent divine person of Jesus Christ, God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, and the eternally begotten Logos, took upon human nature and "was made flesh" by being conceived in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos. The doctrine of the incarnation then entails that Jesus was at the same time both fully God and fully human.
Pope John I of Alexandria, 29th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.
Coptic history is the part of the history of Egypt that begins with the introduction of Christianity in Egypt in the 1st century AD during the Roman period, and covers the history of the Copts to the present day. Many of the historic items related to Coptic Christianity are on display in many museums around the world and a large number is in the Coptic Museum in Coptic Cairo.
In the 5th century in Christianity, there were many developments which led to further fracturing of the State church of the Roman Empire. Emperor Theodosius II called two synods in Ephesus, one in 431 and one in 449, that addressed the teachings of Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius and similar teachings. Nestorius had taught that Christ's divine and human nature were distinct persons, and hence Mary was the mother of Christ but not the mother of God. The Council rejected Nestorius' view causing many churches, centered on the School of Edessa, to a Nestorian break with the imperial church. Persecuted within the Roman Empire, many Nestorians fled to Persia and joined the Sassanid Church thereby making it a center of Nestorianism. By the end of the 5th century, the global Christian population was estimated at 10-11 million. In 451 the Council of Chalcedon was held to clarify the issue further. The council ultimately stated that Christ's divine and human nature were separate but both part of a single entity, a viewpoint rejected by many churches who called themselves miaphysites. The resulting schism created a communion of churches, including the Armenian, Syrian, and Egyptian churches, that is today known as Oriental Orthodoxy. In spite of these schisms, however, the imperial church still came to represent the majority of Christians within the Roman Empire.
The Eastern Orthodox Church is opposed to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy. While not denying that primacy does exist for the Bishop of Rome, Eastern Orthodox Christians argue that the tradition of Rome's primacy in the early Church was not equivalent to the current doctrine of supremacy.
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