49 Fun Facts About Eastern Orthodox Christianity

What official name does the Eastern Orthodox Church use for itself in its liturgical texts?

Orthodox Catholic Church. After the split of 1054 each side went on calling itself 'Catholic', and 'Eastern Orthodox' is the everyday label that avoids confusion with Rome.

Eastern Orthodox Christians form the majority in which of these central and eastern European countries?

Romania. Its church was proclaimed independent of Constantinople in 1865, but the patriarch took another twenty years to recognise it.

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople holds which standing in relation to the other Orthodox church leaders?

First among equals. Unlike the pope, he holds a primacy of honour only and has no authority over the other self-governing churches.

How many ecumenical councils does the Eastern Orthodox Church recognise?

Seven. The Catholic Church went on to count twenty-one, but the Orthodox accept only the councils held while East and West were still one church, the last of them in 787.

What do historians call the 1054 break between the churches of Rome and Constantinople?

The East–West Schism. The excommunications of 1054 named only a handful of men, and although they were formally lifted in 1965 the two churches remain divided.

Why is the excommunication that papal legates laid on Hagia Sophia's altar in 1054 often judged invalid?

The pope had already died. Leo IX had been dead for three months when Cardinal Humbert acted, so his envoys arguably spoke for no one, and the patriarch excommunicated them in return.

Which Patriarch of Constantinople was excommunicated by the papal legates in 1054?

Michael I Cerularius. He had refused even to meet the legates, and after their bull he convened a synod that excommunicated them in turn.

Which type of bread did Constantinople attack the Latins for using in the Eucharist?

Unleavened. Greek writers branded Westerners 'Azymites', from the Greek for 'without leaven', a charge they first raised only in the eleventh century.

The dispute over which clause added to the Nicene Creed helped divide the Greek and Latin churches?

Filioque. The Latin word means 'and from the Son', and the East objected that the Western church had added it on its own to a creed the whole church shared.

Pope Paul VI and which Ecumenical Patriarch nullified the anathemas of 1054 in 1965?

Athenagoras I. At his own initiative he met Paul VI in Jerusalem in 1964, the first such meeting in more than five centuries, and the lifting of the anathemas grew out of it.

Pope John Paul II expressed sorrow for the sack of Constantinople carried out during which event?

The Fourth Crusade. Its army had set out to recover Jerusalem by way of Egypt, but in 1204 it turned on the greatest Christian city of the East instead.

What does the Greek title Theotokos, given to the Virgin Mary, mean?

God-bearer. Nestorius wanted Mary called only 'Christ-bearer', so defending the older title became a way of insisting that the child she carried was truly God.

Which 431 council affirmed Mary as Theotokos against the teachings of Nestorius?

Ephesus. The patriarch of Alexandria opened the council before the bishops most sympathetic to Nestorius had arrived, and they answered by holding a rival synod of their own.

Which Roman emperor convoked the First Council of Nicaea in 325?

Constantine. He was still unbaptised when he summoned the bishops to settle the quarrel over Arius, and he accepted baptism only on his deathbed twelve years later.

Which empress regent called the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 to restore the veneration of icons?

Irene of Athens. Ten years later she had her own son, the emperor, blinded and then reigned alone.

What is the screen separating the nave from the sanctuary in an Orthodox church called?

Iconostasis. It began as a low rail with no images on it at all and grew over the centuries into a wall that hides the altar from the congregation.

Which medieval icon painter created the celebrated Trinity, showing three angels seated around a table?

Andrei Rublev. Russian painters of his day did not sign their work, so the Trinity is one of the very few works that can be credited to him with any certainty.

On the Russian Orthodox cross, what does the small top crossbar represent?

Pilate's sign above Christ's head. It read 'Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews', and when the chief priests asked Pilate to reword it he refused.

By what name do Orthodox Christians usually call Easter, their greatest feast?

Pascha. It usually falls later than Western Easter, because the Orthodox still work out the date by the older calendar that most of the world has dropped.

What are the sacraments called in Eastern Orthodoxy?

Holy mysteries. The habit of counting them off in a fixed list was borrowed from the Catholic West, and the older Orthodox view treats far more of church life as sacramental.

Which Orthodox sacrament, given straight after baptism, confers the gift of the Holy Spirit by anointing with holy oil?

Chrismation. The Catholic West delays confirmation for years, but the Orthodox anoint even infants at once, so a newly baptised baby can already receive communion.

What is the Orthodox term for humanity's calling to become like God?

Theosis. A classic early formula puts the idea this way: the Son of God became man so that we might become god.

From which ranks are Orthodox bishops almost always chosen?

The monastics. A married man may be ordained a priest, but bishops have had to be single or widowed since the sixth century, so the monasteries supply most of them.

In Orthodox churches, the priest gives laypeople the bread and wine of communion together using which utensil?

A spoon. The consecrated bread is placed in the chalice with the wine, so every communicant, baptised infants included, receives both at once.

On which two weekdays do Orthodox Christians traditionally fast for most of the year?

Wednesday and Friday. The first recalls the betrayal by Judas and the second the Crucifixion, so each ordinary week quietly retells the Passion.

Which missionary brothers did the Byzantine emperor Michael III send to the Slavs of Moravia in 863?

Cyril and Methodius. To put the liturgy into the Slavs' own tongue they devised the Glagolitic alphabet, and the later script that carries Cyril's name grew out of their work.

Orthodox services in Russia, Serbia and Bulgaria have traditionally been sung in which liturgical language?

Church Slavonic. It grew out of the ninth-century translations made for newly converted Slavs and went on to leave a deep mark on the modern Russian literary language.

Which grand prince of Kiev had his people baptised into Byzantine Christianity in 988?

Vladimir the Great. The chronicle tale has him sending envoys to weigh Islam, Judaism and Latin Christianity before choosing the Byzantine rite for the beauty of its worship.

After Constantinople fell in 1453, Russian churchmen began to call their own capital by which title?

The Third Rome. The monk Philotheus of Pskov gave the idea its classic form: two Romes have fallen, the third stands, and a fourth there will not be.

Ivan III of Russia married Sophia Palaiologina, a niece of which last Byzantine emperor?

Constantine XI. He died when Constantinople fell in 1453, and the match was proposed by a cardinal at the papal court, where the orphaned Sophia had grown up as a ward.

The Old Believers split from the Russian church in 1666 over reforms by which patriarch?

Nikon. His corrections were as small as crossing oneself with three fingers instead of two, yet millions of believers refused them and broke away.

Old Calendarists are Orthodox groups that broke away in the 1920s rather than give up which calendar?

The Julian. When some churches adopted a revised calendar in the 1920s, the dissenters likened it to the Gregorian reform that Orthodox synods had condemned in the sixteenth century.

Which patriarchate broke off full communion with Constantinople in October 2018?

Moscow. The Russian church cut its ties after Constantinople approved an independent Orthodox church for Ukraine, which it regards as its own territory.

What term describes an Orthodox church, like that of Greece or Serbia, that elects its own head?

Autocephalous. The Greek means 'self-headed', and with no pope to settle the matter, the leading patriarchates still dispute who has the right to grant the status.

Which national church did the Serbian patriarchate recognise as fully independent in 2022?

Macedonian. It had declared its own independence in 1967 over Belgrade's objections and then spent decades cut off from the rest of the Orthodox world.

Arabic and Turkish speakers call local Orthodox Christians 'Rum', a word that literally means what?

Roman. The people now called Byzantines regarded themselves as Romans to the last, and the name outlived their empire in the languages of their neighbours.

Hagia Sophia was built under which Byzantine emperor between 532 and 537?

Justinian I. Rioters had destroyed the previous church in the Nika revolt of 532, and he had its replacement standing within six years.

Which short prayer do Orthodox monks repeat continually, often counting on a knotted rope?

The Jesus Prayer. Hesychast monks tie its few words to the rhythm of their breathing, seeking through unceasing prayer the inner stillness their tradition calls hesychia.

From 1935 until it became a mosque again in 2020, Hagia Sophia served as what?

A museum. Atatürk, first president of the secular Turkish republic, had turned the building into one after its nine centuries as a church and nearly five as a mosque.

Which fourth-century archbishop of Constantinople, nicknamed 'golden-mouthed', gives his name to the usual Orthodox liturgy?

John Chrysostom. The preaching that earned him the nickname also made him enemies at the imperial court, and he died in exile in 407.

Who is barred by Greek law and tradition from entering Mount Athos's monastic territory?

Women. The ban has held for more than a thousand years and extends even to female farm animals, which tradition explains as keeping the mountain for the Virgin Mary alone.

Pilgrims granted a permit for Mount Athos can reach its monasteries only by which means?

By ferry. Athos is a peninsula, yet its monasteries are served by boats from two nearby ports, where each pilgrim must show a permit called a diamonitirion.

Which cluster of Greek Orthodox monasteries is perched on sandstone pillars rising from the plain of Thessaly?

Meteora. Monks began settling the almost inaccessible peaks in the eleventh century in search of solitude, and of the twenty-four monasteries later built there only six remain in use.

Greeks call Mount Athos 'Agion Oros', a name that means what?

Holy Mountain. The title is more than honorary: Greece's constitution lets the peninsula's twenty monasteries govern it themselves as a monastic republic.

Which monastery preserves some of the oldest surviving panel icons, painted in the sixth century?

St Catherine's, Sinai. The monastery already lay under Muslim rule when Byzantine emperors ordered images destroyed, so their iconoclasts never reached it.

Which Orthodox patriarch's environmental campaigning has earned him the nickname 'the Green Patriarch'?

Bartholomew I. He has convened symposia of scientists and clergy since 1995, and told one in 1997 that to commit a crime against the natural world is a sin.

The Ecumenical Patriarch is regarded as the successor of which apostle?

Andrew. A later legend says he founded the bishopric of Byzantium, which gave Constantinople an apostle of its own, the brother of Rome's Peter.

The country that hosts the Ecumenical Patriarchate requires every patriarch to hold what?

Turkish citizenship. Because nearly all of Turkey's Greek Orthodox have emigrated, the rule leaves only a small pool of men eligible for the office.

In which historic Istanbul district is the Ecumenical Patriarchate based?

Fener. The Greek form of its name, Phanar, has become shorthand for the patriarchate itself, much as 'the Vatican' stands for the papacy.