Letter
of Patriarch of Constantinople Germanos V
Concerning
the "Name-Worshippers"
December
11, 1913
Official
seal AdNs 1650 of Cons/ple, 1913.
The
Patriarchate. M of 9132 register
To the Very Holy Synod conducting the
Church of Russia,
Our beloved Sister in the Holy
Spirit, we give the fraternal kiss in Christ.
We have read and
re-read with the greatest attention, together with our Sacred Synod, the letter
dated 28th of this month N° 7664, that Your Greatness has sent to us about the
former monks of Mount Athos being now in Russia, who have fallen into the newly
appeared heresy of the onomatotheists, and who persist in it with bad will and
stubbornness, in spite of the many kinds of advice from the Church and the
announcement that was done to them, that they will be definitely and forever
expelled from Mount Athos and punished as per the Sacred Canons if they
continue to persist in the heresy, in the disobedience and in the impiety to
the Church, who has definitively condemned and disavowed their foolish doctrine
as heretical and stained with blasphemy.
But Satan, who is
the father of the lie and of the heresies, has to such an extent darkened their
minds and denatured their hearts, that, far from returning to reason in spite
of all kinds of advice that were given to them verbally or in writing, from
distance as well as proximity by the Church, they go as far as listening to
those who dare "insult" and "blaspheme" when the subject is
about things that they do not know, rather than listening to the motherly voice
of the Church, who called them with love and eagerness.
They were already
enough punished for the sin that they committed against piety, Church and
monastic discipline; one would wish that the loss that these men have suffered
would not go farther and that the damage suffered would remain external,
"so that the spirit would be saved on the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ".
But alas, as your
Greatness has made it known to us, Satan, the killer of men deviated the reason
and hardened the heart of those men, so that, even now, they refuse to come
back to reason and to acknowledge and confess their mistake. That is how, in
spite of being punished a first time already, they persist in the wrong way and
continue to blaspheme against piety and Church. It is thus necessary to take
new and rigorous measures against those recalcitrant men who refuse to repent.
The judgment and the action of the Church towards them must go farther, and the
penalties promulgated by the Sacred Canons against the hardened heretics must
be applied rigorously, so that the heresy is definitely punished and the
faithful are defended against the error and danger of being contaminated.
As those men are, at the present time, out of our All
Holy Ecumenical Throne, they are no longer under our ecclesial jurisdiction.
From the political and ecclesial points of view, they are under the
jurisdiction of our sister the Very Holy Church of Russia, as they came from
Russia and returned there. Applying all of the measures promulgated in the
circumstances by the Sacred Canon is thus facilitated.
The ecclesial
judgment to be taken and applied in the future towards those heretics, former
monks of Mount Athos, is now under the authority of our sister the Very Holy
Church of Russia and will be, from all angles, more effective, if the matter
would be pursued by her, as it is in her territory that the heresy of the
onomatotheists was born and still subsists.
Considering the
above, and after deliberating and judging attentively with the Metropolitans,
our dear brothers in the Holy Spirit, we have decided, during the session of
the Sacred Synod, to entrust to the direct care of the Ecclesial Authority of
Russia, all that concerns the ulterior lot of the onomatotheist monks that
settled in Russia, irrespectively of their ranks, so that, in her capacity of canonical
authority of which they depend, and with the whole power of our Great Church of
Christ, she decides and implements all that is necessary according to the
Sacred Canons, in inviting the leaders of the heresy and those most prominent
in it, to exonerate themselves, by applying to them the legal penalties and, as
far as their numerous supporters are concerned, by ignorance or by other
reason, by seeing to it that they return to the fold (of the Church).
The Russian
Ecclesial Authority is wholly allowed to admit to the Holy Office and to the
Holy Communion those who sincerely repented. It will be allowed to let the
monks vest themselves as priests and celebrate the liturgy, after a time of
probation, but also, conversely, to exclude from priesthood the monks and
priests who will persist stubbornly in the heresy and attempt to spread it
within the people.
She will be
allowed, as said above, with all the needed authority and in agreement with the
clauses of the Sacred Canons related to it, to take all decisions and to
proceed to all legal acts towards its leaders and supporters without any
exception. As it is not improbable that these men, after repenting, if they
return to Mount Athos, will cause worry and scandal there, we have decided that
none of these men will return to Mount Athos, which we consider just and
necessary.
Having taken the
above decisions, which we judge useful and in conformity with the circumstances
and the ecclesial order, these decisions being aimed at their punishment after
judging the adepts of the heresy and at the defense of the Orthodox, we hurry
to communicate them to Your Greatness by this fraternal letter. We doubt in no
way that, after this fraternal declaration, your Greatness will hurry to accept
and implement it, as he will deem necessary, everything that will contribute to
the prosecution and extirpation of the evil that threatens the Orthodox people
of the pious Russian Empire, and that will defend it against all contagion from
the fallen former monks of Mount Athos.
Your Greatness will deign to hold us informed
about everything that will be done on this matter.
+ Germanos V Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
(PFMA. 0. 797. On. 83. llomd. 3 cm. ft. 59. Jl. 193-195)
