Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Svâto-Tihonovskogo Gumanitarnogo Universiteta: Seriâ II. Istoriâ, Istoriâ Russkoj Pravoslavnoj Cerkvi (Dec 2018)

Participation of women in the Arsenite schism (1265 – 1310)

  • Mikhail Vishnyak

DOI
https://doi.org/10.15382/sturII201883.48-58
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 83, no. 83
pp. 48 – 58

Abstract

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Based on the works of patriarch St. Athanasius I of Constantinople (1289–1293, 1303–1309) and some other sources, this paper deals with the participation of women in the Arsenite schism (1265–1310). There are three main roles of women in the schism: 1) The role of high patronesses as well as mothers and educators of new members. A typical example is the sister of Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologos, Maria- Marfa, mother of Ioannes Tarchaneiotes and grandmother of Alexios Philanthropenos, the two distinguished Arsenites. 2) The role of ordinary participants, which was, mainly, a passive position in the schism and participation in the creation of informational and propagandistic background. 3) The “charismatic” role of active participants in liturgical life, performers of rituals and sacraments; this is the most extraordinary and least documented role of women in the Arsenite movement. It demonstrates clearly the processes of degeneration of a church schism into a para-Christian sect. This duty of women in the Arsenite schism has probably no connection with the “custom of the deaconesses”, which was liquidated by Patriarch Athanasius I.

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