451 – 518

Emperors: Polkharia died in the year 453, and then Marcianus died in the year 457. They had no heir. Attention turned to Army Commander Asbar. He found an Arian Alanian, and the choice fell on Leo's agent, who ascended to the throne of Constantinople until the year 474. Leo created a rival to compete with Aspar, so he created an imperial guard from the Assyrians and brought their leader Zeno and married him to his daughter Aziathna in 467. Zeno oppressed Aspar and his guards in 471. A dispute broke out between Leo and Firouzshah of the Persians over The fate of the Emirate of Lazka on the shore of the Black Sea. The Ostrogoths flocked to the eastern shore of the Adriatic, so Leo returned to paying them the annual financial subsidy.

Leo I died in the year 474, and his grandson Leo II, the son of his daughter Ariadhanne, assumed the throne after him. He was still six years old, so the boy joined his father Zeno in power (474-491), and then he died a few months later. The authority of the Arians in the state became great.

In Italy, power became confined to the hands of the barbarian military. They installed emperors and removed them according to their whims. In the year 476, they deposed the last emperor and installed one of them, Odoacer, in his place. This man ruled independently and did not care about the legitimate holder of power, Zeno, Emperor of the East. Zeno turned towards the Ostrogoths in the Western Balkans, and his face towards Italy. Their king, Theodorics, marched on Italy and took control of Rabina, then Rome. He deposed Odoacer, and 493 kings sat in his place over a vast and extensive Ostrogothic kingdom.

Marcianus executes: On February 7, 452, Marcianus began implementation. He ordered the implementation of all the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon and forbade hesitation in accepting and applying them. Then he repeated these orders on the thirteenth of March of the same year. On the twenty-eighth of July, he announced the imperial dissatisfaction with Eutyches and his followers.

Confusion in Palestine: Evdokia, the widow of Theodosius II, had settled in Palestine since the year 442. After a dispute arose between her and a naughty Bolkharia, her husband also married her. She spent generously for the sake of religion in Palestine, gaining the sympathy of the monks and the majority of believers. Afdoukiya said of one nature because she imagined that true faith required that. Because her inner circle confirmed to her that the statement of one nature is the statement of Cyril of Alexandria. The same widowed empress was comfortable with the belief in one nature, because Bulgaria and her husband Marcianus believed in two natures.

A large number of ascetics and monks had come to Palestine who believed in one nature because they imagined that this was in line with the belief of the pure fathers and that the belief in two natures was a departure from tradition. The number of these people increased until in the year 451 they became an overwhelming majority among the monks, and most of the heads of the monks, such as Badios, Gerontius, Romanus, and Marcianus, became members of the Eutychians. In saying this, the monks followed half of the bishops. Eupinalius, Bishop of Jerusalem, was forced to declare before his arrival to Chalcedon in the year 451: “Whoever supports Thomas Leo, Bishop of Rome, let him take his seat near Simon the sorcerer and Judas the traitor, and let him be circumcised with the circumcision of the Jews themselves!”

Theodosius the monk: Theodosius, one of these Palestinian monks in Palestine, was destined to lead the claim of one nature and defend it. It is inferred from some primary references that this Theodosius was a first-class troublemaker and that he combined in his person two qualities that rarely came together in one person: flattery and insolence. The hardness of his face had prompted him to be impudent towards Dioscorus in Alexandria, so he ordered him to be flogged and ridden with a mangy man!

When the bishops were invited to Chalcedon in the year 451, Theodosius hastened his journey and resided in Chalcedon, awaiting news from the member fathers and sometimes spying on it. Upon the rejection of the council, Eubinalius went to Palestine and reported what had happened. He blamed the bishops and criticized them harshly, claiming that they had betrayed Cyril and supported Nestorius. The monks were angry, insulted, and denied, and then went on to blame after this opposition movement was led by the hypocrisy of the empress residing in Palestine.

Eupinalius returned to Jerusalem, and the opposing monks gave him a choice between agreeing to their position on the Chalcedonian Council or resignation and removal. Eupinalius refused, so the monks surrounded him from all sides, threatened him with death, and assassinated Severianus, Bishop of Pisan. Eubinalius fled to Constantinople, and some opposing bishops appointed Theodosius as bishop of Jerusalem. Theodosius and his assistants saw that it was necessary to dispense with the services of the Orthodox bishops and replace them with others who believed in one nature. They appointed Peter Al-Karaji as bishop of Mayuma and Theodotos as bishop of Yafa.

Emperor Marcianus paid attention to the matter and sent Commander Dorotheus to Palestine at the head of a military force to eliminate the opposition and bring Eupinalius to his seat in Jerusalem. Theodosius and the monks resisted and resorted to violence. There was a battle near Nablus in which a large number of monks fell. Theodosius fled to Sinai, as did Peter Al-Karaji. Theodosius fell into the hands of the police and was transferred to Constantinople and forced to reside in one of its monasteries. He continued until he died there on December 30, 457. His remains were transferred to the island of Cyprus.

Afdoukiya remained in Jerusalem and continued her activity in the opposition. The crowd of monks remained dissatisfied and dissatisfied. So the Emperor resorted to peaceful means, and he and the Empress were released to the monks of Sinai, the monks of Jerusalem, the nuns in Jerusalem, and the Holy Synod, pleading for peace for the church. Bishop Leo the Great of Rome followed suit and wrote to Avdochia urging her to save the monks from error.

Turmoil in Egypt: Marcianus instructed the election of a successor to Dioscorus and recommended Proterius, Dioscorus' agent in Alexandria. He was elected, handed over the staff, and was considered an Orthodox successor to Mark the Evangelist. A strife arose, and the soldiers intervened and were forced to resort to the Serapeum, so they were burned alive. The government banned the distribution of wheat and closed bathhouses and amusement parks.

Dioscorus died on September 4, 454, and no significant incidents occurred. But when Marcianus died on January 26, 457, Timothy considered himself sent from heaven and called for the deposition of Proterius. He was ordained a bishop, and he and his gangs attacked Proterius, killed him, displayed his body, mutilated it in the streets, and ordered it to be dragged to the horse racing place, where it was burned. After his confirmation in the chair, he gathered a council and excommunicated the Fourth Ecumenical Council and cut off the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, and Antioch.

In Antioch: In Antioch, Maximus was deposed in the year 455 and was succeeded by Basil I, then Acacius and Merterius (458-471). The saying of one nature spread in the Euphrates Valley and spread through the mouths of hermits and monks and filled the ears, and Zeno of Assyria assumed command of the army in the east. So he came to Antioch, dragging behind him a group of people, including a Chalcedonian monk who believed in one nature and annulled the vow, called Peter the Short. This palace had hardly settled in Antioch when it formed a group of the remnants of the Apollinarians and attacked Merterius. So he went to Constantinople to complain about Zeno and his short friend. Zeno put pressure on some of the bishops, so they appointed Peter as bishop of Antioch and handed him the custodianship of the coastal town of Salafakia. When Merterius returned, winning the Emperor's favor, the palace disappeared and waited for a second chance. Then he returned to the riot, and Merterius despaired and resigned, so Al-Qassar sat again at the helm of the Apostles in Antioch. The Emperor became angry because of his dignity and the dignity of the law. He issued an order to deport Peter, so he moved away and Julian occupied the Holy See.

At the beginning of the year 475, Basiliscus, the commander, defeated Zeno and assumed the throne of Constantinople. He listened to the words of the monks in Egypt and Asia, and returned Timothy to the leadership of Alexandria and Peter the Short to the leadership of Antioch. Then, with their opinion, he issued his famous encyclical and forced a hundred bishops to support it. The statement of one nature became the statement of the state, and the statement of the Council of Chalcedon and Thomas Leo became an outcast statement. Basiliscus's rule did not last more than twenty months. Zeno returned to his former glory in 477 with the help of the Chalcedonians, and he was forced to please them, so he abolished the laws of Basiliscus, removed Peter the Minor from the see of Antioch, and installed his friend John II. This was still true in Antioch since his ordination because his diocese refused to recognize his leadership. It was cut off in the year 478 by a decision of a Roman council held under the chairmanship of Simplicius, Bishop of Rome. In this same year, temporal authority returned, ousting John and placing Stephen II in the presidential seat (477-481). Eutyches' followers were not satisfied with Stephen's orthodoxy, so they attacked him on his way to the Church of the Forty, because he suspected him of using a sharp-shorn cane. The capital intervened and selected Kathlandion and appointed him bishop of Antioch and sent him there (481-485).

Union book: The excommunication of Marcian and Leo did not bear fruit, and discord continued in Egypt, Palestine, and in the Church of Antioch as well. The people became unified. Zeno was troubled by this diversity of opinions and the difference in doctrine, so he consulted Acacius, the bishop of the capital, about it. He suggested that we should become lax by adopting a middle path. In the year 482, Zeno issued the Enoticon, “The Book of Union.” It is an imperial Sunni decree addressed to the bishops, clergy, monks, and believers in Alexandria, Egypt, Libya, and the Five Cities. In it, Zeno denounces the teachings of Nestorius and Eutyches together, approves of Cyril's opinion, and avoids talking about one nature and two natures in order to tactfully reject what had been approved by the last Chalcedonian Council.

But the Enotekon, instead of bringing hearts together and uniting ranks, kindled the fire of discord and division because it did not satisfy the Orthodox or those of one nature. A section of his group split from Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, in Egypt. They formed a sect that they called the Akifli, meaning the headless. The Orthodox wrote to Acacius blaming him for conforming to Peter of Alexandria. He did not care, but insisted on saying the book of the union. So they wrote to the Bishop of Rome, Felix III. But instead of writing to his fellow Constantinople for clarification according to the ancient custom and brotherly love, he held a local council and excommunicated Peter and Acacius. When Acacius learned of this, he erased the name of the Bishop of Rome from the excavation. A schism broke out that lasted more than thirty-five years.

Clementine, Bishop of Antioch, was not satisfied with the letter of union and did not sign it. Despite his orthodoxy and his success in ending the Ephesian schism by transferring the remains of Ephestheos to Antioch, he was accused of conspiring against the safety of the emperor and supporting the leader Leondius, the candidate of the penguin Aelus for the throne. He was removed from the Holy See and exiled to the Great Oasis at the end of the year 484 and the beginning of the year 485.

Boutros Al-Qassar: (485-490) Peter the Short returned to the throne for the fourth and final time. He had assumed the presidency during the absence of Merterius, and then after his resignation during the rule of Basilicus. Peter signed the letter of union and called the Council of Antioch and sent messages of peace, especially to Peter, the bishop of Alexandria. He tried to return the Church of Cyprus to obedience to Antioch, but he did not succeed.

He was the first to require the recitation of the Creed during the Divine Liturgy, and he established the rite of consecrating water on the eve of Epiphany, in addition to blessing it on the day of the feast itself. He added to the Trisagion the phrase: “You who were crucified for us,” as if to say: Holy is God, Holy is the Strong, Holy is the Immortal, Who was crucified for us, have mercy on us. .

The Church entered into a period of chaos in which bishops were often ordained in pairs, Orthodox and Monophysite, at the same time. Hands reached out to the chairs to remove this person and install that person. One of the most important reasons for this chaos was the emperors’ efforts to appease those who believed in one nature in Egypt and Syria, due to their large numbers and the weakness of the authority’s prestige, as it was embarrassed by other concerns. The situation remained like this until independent Monophysite churches appeared in Egypt, Syria, and Armenia.

Emperor Anastasius I: (491-518) Zeno had sought to place his brother Longinus on the throne after him, but his wife, the Empress Ariadne, did not see in Longinus the necessary competence, so she chose Anastasius, an official in ceremonies, and elevated him to the ruling podium. Anastasius was sixty-one years old and a devout man. Despite his tendency to claim one nature, the people responded to his rise by chanting: “Let your reign in rule be like the reign of Marcianus and yours be like that in your personal life.” Euphemius the Reasonable, Bishop of Constantinople, stipulated that the Emperor not deviate from the Orthodox faith and that he write a pledge to that effect before the coronation. So he did so and accepted his crown from the hands of the Bishop of Constantinople.

Bladius and Philoxenus: Peter Al-Qassar was succeeded as head of the church by Platheus (490-491), one of the priests of Saint Thecla in Assyrian Salafism, who believed in one nature and included the sympathy of Emperor Anastasius. When the matter settled for him, he called on his subjects to accept and support the Book of Union. He found in the person of Philoxenos, Bishop of Manbij, the best help to carry out this mission.

It is stated in some references that this Philoxenos was a Persian slave named by Xenaeas. He fled from his master's house, dressed as a priest, and entered the Diocese of Antioch during the days of the Calendians. He taught about removing icons from churches. He was not baptized, so the Calendians expelled him. As for Peter Al-Qassar, he named him bishop of Manbij and named him Philoxenos. He knew that he was not baptized, but he said: “There is no problem, as Shartouniyyah saves him from baptism!” Philoxenus was famous for his attachment to one nature, and he traveled throughout the world preaching and publishing Monophysite works wherever he went.

And this same Philoxenus is, in the eyes of the Syriac Church, “a scholar of the mystics and poles of time, with religion, maintenance, apparent asceticism, and well-known piety, a search for the foundations of religion that was truly complete and far-reaching.” Read his book on the Trinity and the Incarnation and you will see the eloquent book, and browse through his letters and learn what a steadfast soul this great man carried within him. He appointed Peter II as a priest and then a bishop. He exerted his utmost care in protecting the Orthodox faith and went to great lengths to oppose the Nestorians and Chalcedonians.

Anastasius' fickleness: As Anastasius grew older, he became more attached to the belief in one nature. His clinging led to successive problems in the capital, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. His problems began when he tried to retrieve the pledge that he had written before his coronation and delivered to the Bishop of Constantinople. But Euphemius, the bishop, refused, so the Emperor convened a local council in the year 496, and this council interrupted and exiled Euphemius. Macedonius II assumed the presidency of the Church of Constantinople. This man was pure in conduct, upright in faith, and loved. He tried to reconcile some of the monks who had separated from his church since the advent of the Enoticon, but he was unable. He held a local council in which the decisions of the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon were confirmed. He intended to write about this to the Church of Rome. The Emperor prevented him and tried to convince him of the necessity of denouncing the decisions of this Chalcedonian Council. Macedonius did not respond to his request.

Severus of Antioch: In April 505, Anastasius ended the Persian war after putting down the Assyrian revolt and arranging the affairs of the Huns, so he was able to follow a positive policy in dealing with the religious situation. So he sought help from Severus and Philoxenus of Antioch.

Severus was born in Sozopolis in the year 459 AD and studied Greek literature and rhetoric in Alexandria and Roman jurisprudence in Beirut. He received the blessing in the monastery of the martyr Leontius near Tripoli in the year 488. He chose asceticism for himself, so he took refuge in the wilderness of Beit Jibrin, then joined the monastery of Romanos, where he was imprisoned in Mayouma. He established a private monastery and resided there for a long time. He accepted the priesthood at the hands of Epiphanius, Bishop of Magidos in Pamphylia. He had been expelled from his diocese for his belief in one nature.

Severus was one of the most distinguished scholars of his time. He was well-versed in rhetoric and linguistic sciences, and delved into jurisprudence and law. Then he delved into researching the Holy Scriptures and delved deeply into tradition to refute Thomas Leo and deviate from the decisions of the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. Thus, he disperses the ranks of the believers and divides the Church, not caring about the inherited constitution of faith and the text of the pure and blessed Gospel, “that they may be one as we are one.”

Attack on Flabian II: Anastasius had hardly ended the Persian war in the spring of the year 505 when he instructed Philoxenus to flirt with Flavianus, his superior, to embarrass him and expel him. Flavianus had spent a long period in Constantinople, representing the Pontiff of Antioch there before the higher authorities. In the year 498, he was elected bishop of Antioch. He works with honesty and integrity. He was an Orthodox of upright opinion, so some understanding and cooperation took place between him and his colleague Macedonius, Bishop of Constantinople, and Elijah, Bishop of Jerusalem. When circumstances dictated the work of one nature, Philoxenus declared a relentless war on Flavianus, claiming that he was still professing Nestorianism. Flabian disavowed and cursed Nestorius and Nestorians. But Philoxenus was not satisfied with this and insisted on the necessity of retracting the statement about the two natures. Philoxenus wrote all of this to Maron Anagnostos of Ain Zarba. He claimed jihad and entered into a war against Nestorius and all the scholars of Antioch, Diodorus, Theodorus, Theodoritus, and Gibba. He was assisted in this by Fecinus, Bishop of Sassimo of Cappadocia, Niqas, Bishop of Latakia, and others. Philoxenus prepared a treatise on the elements of true faith and submitted it to the imperial court, so Anastasius ordered that he must appear in Constantinople. He complied and appeared before the emperor, but Macedonius did not allow him to appear before him to kiss his hand, so Philoxenus was forced to flee the capital under the wing of darkness.

Severus visits Constantinople: (508-511) Philoxenus had barely left the capital when Severus entered it at the head of two hundred Palestinian hermits fighting Nevalius and other monks who believed in two natures. Severus' request was quickly answered, but he remained for three consecutive years in the state's capital, preaching, arguing, and writing for the sake of saying one nature. He responded to the Chalcedonians with the Philaeta, indicating that what they attributed to Cyril was incorrect. He sent a letter to Ebion and Paul, the two penitents, denying the Manichaeism and other things attributed to him, and a significant number of those attributed to him of Manichaeism and other things gathered around him. A significant number of opponents of Macedonius, the bishop of the capital, gathered around him. They fabricated words and actions and attributed them to Macedonius, while he was innocent of them. Then they dared to do more than this, and they made the monks of Severus praise the Trisagians, adding to it their phrase, “He was crucified for us.” This led to a great popular uproar that made Anastasius fear bad consequences and prepare to flee. The Emperor began preparing to depose and deport Macedonius. He persuaded some of the clerical elements and ordered the doors of the capital to be closed in the face of monks entering it, and distributed gifts to the army. On August 6, 511, he ordered the deposition and deportation of Macedonius. This was done without resistance. Then the Emperor ordered the appointment of Timothy I (511-518) as bishop of Constantinople.

Sidon Complex: (512) Philoxenus returned to Manbij, the center of his diocese, to resume the dispute against his superior, Flapianos. He tightened the screws on Flabian and forced him to sign a statement denouncing the teachings of Didorus, Theodorus, Ebba, and other Antiochian fathers. As soon as he received this amount from the peaceful president, he demanded more. He stressed that it is necessary to denounce the actions of the Council of Chalcedon and to denounce everyone who says that Christ has two natures, not one nature. He presented a document prepared for this purpose and asked Flabianos to sign it so that it would be returned to Constantinople. Flabianos also signed this document, acknowledging the ruling of the Council of Chalcedon on Nestorius and Eutyches, refraining from supporting any definition of the doctrine contained in the decisions of this council.

Philoxenus returned to confronting and quelling his anger, so Flabbianus decided to call the Council of Antioch to consider all the issues raised by Philoxenus, especially his recent case. The Antiochian fathers gathered in Sidon in the fall of the year 512, and their number reached eighty. The emperor was represented among them by the leader Evtropius. In Philoxenus' passengers were Peter, Bishop of Aleppo, Nicias, Bishop of Tripoli, Maximus, Bishop of Beirut, and seven others, so that the number of Monophysites became only ten. Philoxenus and his delegation were supported by a large number of monks. They submitted to the council a request to denounce the decisions of the Chalcedonian Council. They supplemented their request with sixty-seven chapters refuting Thomas Leo and the decisions of the Chalcedonian Council. The Orthodox fathers pondered these chapters and others, argued with their opponents, and demonstrated evidence, reason, and transmission against them. Then they cited the texts of the Monophysite fathers and the letters of Peter Monous and Athanasius II, proving that it is necessary to suffice with signing the Enoticon. They burned Philoxenus and left him speechless. The Council's work ended with the victory of Orthodoxy over Monophysiteism. We - Dr. Asad Rustom - do not see any reason to say that the Emperor intervened to explain the speedy completion of the work. Before the rejection, Flabianos of Antioch and Elijah of Jerusalem sent a letter to Emperor Anastasius in which they confirmed their support for the text of the Enoticon.

Flabianos deposed and deported: (512) Philoxenus left the Sidon council, angry and hateful. He gathered monks from all over the world and contacted the Assyrian bishops, causing trouble between them and their leader, Flabianus. Then he sent monks to Constantinople demanding Flabianus’ deposition and deportation. This was accomplished for them in early November of the year 512 by a local council held specifically for this purpose in the city of Latakia. Flabianos was deported to Petra.

Severus, Bishop of Antioch: (512-528) Anastasius instructed the election of Severus to succeed Flabian, and this was done on November 6, 512. Severus was ordained in Antioch itself at the hands of the metropolitans of Tarsus and Manbij and ten local bishops from the first diocese of the Euphrates and Syria. On the occasion of receiving the crutch of patronage, Severus sent a letter to the monks, a translation of which into Syriac is still preserved to this day. This pastoral statement included an affirmation of Severus’ adherence to what was stated in the acts of the Councils of Nicaea and Ephesus and an acknowledgment of the validity of what was included in the Enoticon. But he denounced Nestorius, Otyhaus, the Council of Chalcedon, Thomas Leo, and all those who believed in two natures. In the following year, 513, he called for the Council of Antioch in Antioch itself. This council approved the main council in everything it went to and denounced the Council of Chalcedon and Thomas Leo. Epiphanius, Metropolitan of Tyre (brother of Flabian, the former bishop), Julian, Metropolitan of Bosra, Peter, Bishop of Damascus, and the bishops of Rastan, Hama, Shaizar, and Al-Ranfiya, objected to these decisions and did not support them.

Photo collage: Severus claimed that the overwhelming majority of bishops supported him, so he mentioned a large number of them in his letters. He claimed that his opponents did not. He called for a council in Tire in the year 514, and the bishops of Antioch, Apamea, the Euphrates Valley, Edessa, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Lebanese Phoenicia participated in its work. This council supported Severus' previous position on the problem of doctrine and interpreted the Enoticon in a manner contrary to the decisions of the Chalcedonian Council. Most of the bishops were disturbed. A number of Assyrian bishops refused to recognize the authority of Severus. The bishops of Tyre, Damascus, and Basra cut him off from fellowship, and Severianus of Rastan and Quzma Hama removed him from the apostolic office, and they sent to him the text of the decision taken. All of this coincided with the emergence of a synodal decision in Alexandria reconciling the provisions of Cyril and Thomas Leo and refuting all protests against the riots of Severus and Philoxenus. Severus saw that it was necessary to resort to violence. He entrusted the task of preparing the bishops to Severus of Apamea and Peter his companion. So Severus of Abyssinus summoned the clergy of the neighboring dioceses and talked to them about the topic of the day. He extended the wing of mercy to some of them, turned away from others, and replaced them with others who shared the words of Severus of Antioch and the Council of Tyre. The Abami did not stop at this point, as he confiscated the gold and silver from the altars and baptismal urns. Peter, the companion of this Abami, tasted harshness, cruelty, and rudeness, so he sought help from the Assyrians to fight the ascetics and hermits. There was a battle in Caesarea, and a number of monks fell defending the right religion.

Jerusalem: Elijah, Bishop of Jerusalem, did not recognize the bishopric of Severus of Antioch and did not mention him in the communion due to his departure from the Orthodox faith. It was necessary to depose him and appoint someone else to speak the Emperor’s words and cooperate with the Bishop of Antioch. In the year 516, Olympius, the ruler of Palestine, rose from his ruling center in Caesarea to Jerusalem at the head of a force to depose Elijah and install someone else. The monks intercepted him and showed them some documents issued by Elijah. He discouraged them, entered Jerusalem without resistance, deposed Elijah, and exiled him to Ayah at the Gulf of Aqaba.

Olympius, the ruler, chose Deacon John, “Protector of the Holy Cross,” as Elijah’s successor. This deacon was the son of Marcian, Bishop of Sebastah, and brother of Anthony, Bishop of Ashkelon. Olympius asked him to renounce Thomas Leo and denounce the decisions of the Fourth Ecumenical Council before his inauguration. John promised this. He determined the inauguration day and designated the location. People rushed to the Church of St. Stephen, the largest church at that time, and eighteen thousand Orthodox monks served in Jerusalem. John appeared, accompanied by Saints Saba and Theodosius. The crowds chanted: “Curse the heretics and support the council.” John cursed Nestorius, Eutyches, Severus of Antioch, and Sotyricus of Caesarea in Cappadocia, and at the same time supported the four ecumenical councils.

The Emperor's pressure and its failure: Timothy I, Bishop of Constantinople (511-518), was a fickle man. He forbade the decisions of the Fourth Ecumenical Council and came to an agreement with Severus of Antioch and John of Nicaea of Alexandria. The Metropolitan of Thessalonica was forced to go along with Timothy for fear of the Emperor, so the people demonstrated against the Emperor and the bishops. Forty bishops from the Balkans and Greece held a council, broke off their relations with Timothy, and entered into communion with the Bishop of Rome.

The Emperor's pressure on the Orthodox continued, and Vitalianus, commander of a Bulgarian division in the army, revolted and occupied Warna on the Black Sea. Then he advanced towards the capital, demanding the abolition of the Monophysite deification and the return of the Orthodox bishops from their exile, and he attacked the capital by land and sea. He was repulsed, but not defeated. So he returned with his men to Burgas and remained there, an angry rebel!

Severus learned at this time that a large number of Orthodox believers would go to the shrine of Simon the Stylite in protest against Severus' cruelty and heresy. So Severus, in cooperation with Peter the Short, sent someone to ambush them and attack them and kill them. They enlisted the help of a group of Jewish men to carry out the massacre, and they killed 350 monks.

The surviving monks narrated the incidents of this massacre through letters of protest and petitions of complaint that they addressed to the Pope, religious authorities, the monarchy, and episcopal councils. Seven documents have reached us, including seven documents that shed light on the details of the massacre and its ugliness.

It was stated in a “petition submitted by the monks of Apamea”: “And behold, Jews, laymen, or even monks attacked the fathers from high and rugged places... with rudeness, atrocity, and brutality, killing some, taking others captive, stripping some of their clothes, and leading others in public in inappropriate clothing...” Then “they carried out another attack on the Monastery of Saint Simon, demolishing part of the wall, and entered at night, killing some, beating many, looting the monastery’s vile supplies, and installing sinful symbols contrary to piety... They did not actually hesitate to demolish the monastery, as happens in a siege, and to capture the monks while they were chanting...” .

In another letter sent by the monks of Antioch, it said: “And no one is ignorant, O most holy one, neither we nor anyone else, how many holy monks were killed using Jewish hands. How cruel was the sight of more than three hundred and fifty men from the second Syria... lying naked on the gutter, being mauled by dogs and birds, not to mention similar heart-breaking things....”

In a petition addressed by the monks of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Palestine, Sinai, Arabia, and Syria, the following was stated: “We remain silent about the arrests, the throwing in prisons, the looting of monasteries day and night, and the assassinations of innocent people there. We remain silent about their treacherous attacks on innocent people in the streets and their shedding of the blood of saints. While these people were walking towards the Monastery of Saint Simon out of zeal and collective consultation regarding the persecutors of the Church and their workers, they gathered a group of criminal Jewish thieves and unleashed them on the righteous men. The barbaric thugs lurked for the holy men on the road, emerged from their hiding places, and suddenly attacked our men like raging dogs. They used swords on three hundred and fifty of them, cut them into pieces, and threw their body parts on the side of the road, not caring about burying them...”

To find out about these letters, you can return to the following: Patriarch Estephan Al-Duwayhi the Maronite referred to a letter from these documents in his book The Origin of the Maronites (verified by Father Antoine Daou, p. 102), and Father Boutros Daou in his book The History of the Maronites quoted the text of these seven documents in the third chapter of pp. 164 to 197. Also, Paul Naaman’s book, in his book “Maronism Theology and Life,” mentions this massacre twice (pp. 50-51 and 152), and in the documents section, he published the verbatim text of four letters talking about the massacre (pp. 167 to 170).

Despite this cruelty and this increasing pressure, the people of Asia, Thrace, the Balkans, Greece, and Palestine continued to maintain the right tradition, adhering to the decisions of the ecumenical councils, and their bishops remained far from saying one nature. In the Church of Antioch, there were many bishops and people who believed in one nature. But the Orthodox remained numerous, especially among monks and hermits. In Egypt, the belief in one nature prevailed among the majority of the people and the clergy.

In the spring of 518, Timothy I, Bishop of Constantinople, died, followed by Emperor Anastasius, who died on July 9 of the same year. He departed to his Lord on the nineteenth of July of the year 518, also Flabbianus II, the exiled Bishop of Antioch, and his colleague Elijah, Bishop of Jerusalem. Also in the fall of this year, Philoxenos was exiled to Gangra and died there by suffocation.