Patriarch Gregory IV of Antioch passed away on this day in 1928. In the Ottoman Empire, only the Ecumenical Patriarch, who resided in the nineteenth century in the Fanar district of Istanbul, had an official status. He was the bashi (head) of the Rum Millet (“Roman Nation”). To some extent, the Ecumenical Patriarch was the inheritor of rights that had been proper to the Byzantine emperor. At the same time, the three other Patriarchs found themselves within the borders of the Ottoman Empire, but without any legal status. This situation led to the dominance of Greek-speaking clergy in Arabic-speaking countries. The active proselytism of the European Christians at the end of the nineteenth century, with their offers of free education, served as a catalyst for various tensions within the Patriarchate of Antioch. The Russian Empire, through its Palestine Society, became engaged in Syria and Lebanon, opening Orthodox Christian schools there. Having the Russians behind their back, the Arab-speaking Orthodox succeeded in installing Metropolitan Meletios (Doumani) as patriarch. After his sudden death in 1906, the Synod of the Antiochian Patriarchate unanimously elected Patriarch Gregory (Ghantus Haddad) as his successor. The Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II confirmed the election. In 1909, the Young Turk Revolution restored the Ottoman Constitution, limited the sultan’s authority, and consequently limited the influence of the Phanariot clergy. As a result, the other Greek patriarchates recognized Patriarch Gregory. In Russia, Archbishop Antonii Khrapovitskii was struggling for the restoration of the patriarchal throne. In 1913, when the ruling Romanov dynasty celebrated the 300th anniversary of its foundation, Tsar Nicholas invited Patriarch Gregory to solemnize the liturgical celebration in the “patriarchal” Holy Dormition Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. Patriarch Gregory presided over the consecration of Aleksei (Simanskii) (later Patriarch Aleksei I) as Bishop of Tikhvin. Patriarch Gregory and Archbishop Antonii became friends, to the point that in 1924, Antonii dedicated his famous Catechism, published in Serbia, to him. Patriarch Gregory did a lot to develop the “backward” Patriarchate of Antioch. He founded a seminary in Balamand in Lebanon. Although Patriarch Gregory was a Russophile, he did not let himself become a pawn in the Russian “game” of geopolitical chess in the Middle East. Sources: K.A. Panchenko, A.V.Sarab’ev, “Grigorii IV,” Pravoslavnaia Entsiklopedia. Monk Benjamin (Gomarteli), “Letopis’ tserkovnykh sobytii Pravoslavnoi Tserkvi nachinaia s 1917 goda,” [Timeline of the events in the History of the Orthodox Church Beginning With 1917] Part II. Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad. |
