Achyraous
(᾽Αχυράους, Lat. Esseron), fortress of Mysia overlooking the Makestos River in northwestern Anatolia, near modern Balikesir. First mentioned in 812 as a village by Theodore of Stoudios, Achyraous ...
Anastasius Bibliothecarius
(9th century), scholar. He was the best Greek scholar of his age in the W. and became Papal librarian (hence his title). He attended the final session of the Eighth Oecumenical Council (869–70) and ...
Antirrhetikos
(ἀντιρρητικός), “refutation,” a genre of polemical literature; often used as an adjective with such nouns as logos, kephalaia, and biblion. The word is rare in classical Greek (e.g., Sextus Empiricus ...
Arsenios
Metropolitan of Kerkyra (9th-10th C.).According to his akolouthia, Arsenios was born in Bethany (Palestine) during the reign of Basil I and became a monk at age 12. After being ...
Arsenios the Great
Saint; born Rome 354, died Troia near Memphis in Egypt 445; feastday 8 May. According to an enkomion by Theodore of Stoudios, Arsenios, who was born to a noble and ...
Atroa
(᾽Ατρώα), a plain at the foot of the Anatolian Mt. Olympos, 7 km southwest of Prousa, where several monastic communities existed in the 9th and 10th C. Its most famous ...
Dorotheos of Gaza
Monk and ascetic writer; born Antioch ca.500, died between 560 and 580.Born to a wealthy family, Dorotheos received a classical education and became an ardent book collector. He then ...
epigram
Originally an inscription, usually in verse, e.g. on a tomb; hence a short poem ending in a witty turn of thought; hence a pointed or antithetical saying.
Epistolography
Or the art of writing letters, a genre of Byz. literature akin to rhetoric, popular with the intellectual elite. Copious examples survive from all periods, in more than 150 published ...
Feodosij of Pečera
Superior of the Kievan Caves monastery, or Kievo-pečerskij monastyr' (ca.1060–74); saint; born Vasil'ev, died Kiev 3 May 1074; feastday 3 May. Feodosij (Theodosios) is regarded as the founder of ...
Hatfield
The site of a church council (perhaps Hatfield in Hertfordshire, perhaps that in South Yorkshire) convened by Archbishop Theodore in 680 in response to a request by Pope Agatho to ...
iconoclasm
The odd pair of beliefs shared by enthusiasts including Cromwell and the Taliban, that while ‘false idols’ have no supernatural powers they are nevertheless so dangerous that they must be destroyed ...
Iconophiles
(εἰκονοφίλεις, “lovers of images”), also iconodules (εἰκονόδουλοι, “servants of images”), a term apparently coined during the period of Iconoclasm—it occurs as early as the 8th C. (Lampe, Lexicon ...
Ignatios the Deacon
Writer; born ca.770–80, died after 845, if the kanon on the Forty-Two Martyrs of Amorion (ed. V. Vasil'evskij, P. Nikitin, p.80.44) ascribed to “Ignatios” belongs to him and not to ...
John of Sardis
Name of several metropolitans of the city. The first of them, a correspondent of Theodore of Stoudios, participated in the Council of 815 (J. Pargoire, EO 5 [1901–02] 161). C. ...
John VII Grammatikos
(the Grammarian), patriarch of Constantinople (21 Jan. 837?–4 Mar. 843 [V.Grumel, EO 34 (1935) 162–66, 506]); born Constantinople late 8th C., died western shore of Bosporos before 867. John ...
Kassia
(Κασσία), also Kassiane, Eikasia, and other forms of the name, poet; born 800 or 805 (Rochow) or ca.810 (Beck, Kirche 519), probably in Constantinople, died between 843 and 867.According ...
Koinobion
(κοινόβιον, lit. “common life”), monastery housing a community of monks or nuns and emphasizing a communal and egalitarian way of life. Koinobia in their earliest form were created by Pachomios ...
Komes Tes Kortes
(κόμης τη̑ς κόρτης), official on the staff of a strategos, probably a civil official with judicial and police duties. Constantine VII (De cer. 489.17–21) states that the name originates from ...
Menologion
A calendar of the Greek Orthodox Church, containing biographies of the saints. The name comes from ecclesiastical Greek, from Greek mēn ‘month’ + logos ‘account’.
