Orthodox

PopeKyrillos

St. Samuel the confessor had his eye beaten because he and a christian solider had an arguement about whether god is one or 2 different humanities, but what was the christian solider? Greek Orthodox? And why was it such a big deal?

And one more thing, Can anyone briefly explain how the orthodox seperated from each other?

PopeKyrillos

so that's what seperated the orthodox?

why

what seperated the ORTHODOX from other types of orthodox or the orthodox from the other christianity???

mnc_hnn

i think he meant coptic orthodox from the other orthodox?

PopeKyrillos

Coptic orthodox from the other orthodoxies

Luke90

We and our sister churches seperated from the others at the fourth "so called" Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon. Wikipedia, I think, has a great description of the history of our Church, including the Council of Chalcedon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coptic_Church

Stavro

[quote author=PopeKyrillos link=board=10;threadid=2926;start=0#msg44615 date=1134965799]
St. Samuel the confessor had his eye beaten because he and a christian solider had an arguement about whether god is one or 2 different humanities, but what was the christian solider? Greek Orthodox? And why was it such a big deal?

And one more thing, Can anyone briefly explain how the orthodox seperated from each other?

It was not a personal argument. The byzantine soldier, Maximian, was carrying out the orders of the Byzantine military ruler of Alexandria, who was the Chalcedonian Patriarch in the same time (two in one deal), named Cyrus [sup]1[/sup], to impose the decision of the council of Chalcedon on the Coptic Church. St. Samuel rejected the council and its famous Tome, he rejected also the authority of the above mentioned Cyrus and acknowledged only Pope Bejamin I as the lawful Pope of Alexandria as all Copts did. Pope Benjamin was in persecuted by the CHalcedonians and he was on the run. For that, he was tortured.

It was a general policy of the Empire at the time to try to impose the decision of the council of Chalcedon on the Copts, Syrians, Palestinians and the East in general using severe persecution. It reached unprecedented peak in cruelity during the reign of Justinian Emperor (527- 565) and Hercules Emperor (610-641), who reigned during the time of St.Samuel in Constantinople.

The separation of the Eastern Orthodox (EO) from the Oriental Orthodox (OO) is an interesting subject, that begins and ends at Chalcedon and its disasterous consequences. Look up "Council of Chalcedon Re-examined" by Fr. V.C. Samuel of the Indian Orthodox Church (later Mar Paulos Gregorios) and edited by Peter Farrington of the British Orthodox Church for a fair and balanced assessment of this council.


1. Cyrus is known to the arab historian as El-Mekawkas, in case you are familiar with this name. He was the Byzantine ruler during the arab invasion and who played a vital role in the capture of Alexandria, the fall of the fortress of Babylon in Heliopolis and the relatively easy invasion of Egypt by the arabs. This is a more interesting topic and can be further studied from classical arabic resources, if you know arabic.