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 ...
Basil, Rule of St
The monastic Rule put forward by St Basil the Great, which is the basis of the usual Rule followed by religious in the E. Church. The most widespread form of the Rule consists of various Basilian ...
Basil, St, ‘the Great’
(c.330–79 [or possibly slightly earlier]), one of the three Cappadocian Fathers. The brother of St Gregory of Nyssa, he settled as a hermit near Neocaesarea in 358; he left his retirement only when ...
canon
In the E. Church stanzas of poetry began in the 7th cent. to be inserted between the verses of the biblical canticles sung during the second part of Orthros. In most places the text of the canticles ...
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 ...
Iconoclastic Controversy
The controversy on the veneration of icons which agitated the Greek Church from c.725 to 842. In 726 the Emp. Leo III published a decree declaring all images idols and ordering their destruction. ...
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 ...
