St Mark of Ephesus
Ἅγιος Μᾶρκος ὁ Εὐγενικός
The only Eastern bishop who refused to sign the Union of Florence (1439), and whose refusal became the rallying point of Orthodox resistance to the union.
- Feast day
- 19 January
- Century
- 15th c.
- Region
- Constantinople · Ephesus
- Rank
- Metropolitan of Ephesus
Biography
Markos Eugenikos (1392 to 1444), Metropolitan of Ephesus, was the chief spokesman of the Orthodox at the Council of Ferrara and Florence. When the union with Rome was concluded in 1439, he alone among the Eastern bishops declined to sign it.
Returning east, he urged the faithful and clergy not to accept the union or communion with its supporters. On his death he asked that George Scholarios (later Patriarch Gennadios II) continue the resistance. He is honoured as a pillar of Orthodoxy.
The controversy
- The Union of Florence: the attempted reunion with Rome on terms including the Filioque, purgatory, papal primacy, and azymes, which the Orthodox delegation was pressed to accept under political duress.
Position taken
- A union that compromises the faith is no union; communion with those who impose it is to be refused.
- His resistance was that of a canonical bishop declining a false peace, not the founding of a sect.
Quotations
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Related figures
Bibliography
- L. Petit (ed.), Documents relatifs au concile de Florence, Patrologia Orientalis 15 & 17.
- J. Gill, The Council of Florence (1959).
- C. N. Tsirpanlis, Mark Eugenicus and the Council of Florence (1974).