Church Leaders Sue Princeton Over ‘Stolen’ Manuscripts

by Colin Moynihan

They are simultaneously sacred texts and works of art, three illuminated Byzantine-era manuscripts that are more than 1,000 years old and that for decades have been part of a heralded collection at Princeton University.

The Ladder of St. John Climacus

The college received the items as a gift in 1942 from a trustee and alumnus who had bought them from a German auction house nearly 20 years earlier.

But in a lawsuit filed Thursday, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church said the manuscripts were stolen and demanded their return, asserting that they had been taken during World War I from a monastery in Kormista, a village in northern Greece.

The plaintiffs in the federal suit filed in New Jersey, including Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, say that Bulgarian guerrilla forces stormed the Theotokos Eikosiphoinissa Monastery in 1917, assaulted the monks who lived there and made off with a trove of ancient texts.

Among the evidence cited in the lawsuit is a volume, “Greek Manuscripts at Princeton, Sixth to Nineteenth Century: A Descriptive Catalogue,” which was published in 2010 and identifies some manuscripts in the school’s collection as having been removed from the monastery in 1917 by Bulgarian authorities.

“This is Princeton’s book, issued by the Princeton press, about Princeton’s collection, written by Princeton employees,” said George A. Tsougarakis, a lawyer for Hughes Hubbard & Reed in New York, which represents the patriarch, the monastery and regional church officials in the case. “In our view that’s about as concrete an admission as you could get.”

The university said in a statement Friday that it had full confidence that the provenance research it has done establishes that the manuscripts were not looted. Read More

Metropolitan EPIFANIY of Kyiv and All Ukraine

Many Years, O Master! Іс полла еті, Деспота!

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On December 15, the Unification Council that took place in St. Sofia [Cathedral] of Kyiv elected the new Primate after the second round of voting. It is Metropolitan Epifaniy of Pereyaslav and Bila Tserkva of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate. The newly elected Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will hold the title of Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine.

Earlier, on December 13, the Bishops’ Council of the UOC-KP elected him as the only candidate to the office of Primate of the new Church.

192 delegates of the Unification Council participated in the election of the head of the new Church.

As previously reported, the Tomos of Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church will be handed over to the newly appointed Primate, Metropolitan Epifaniy, on January 6 [Christmas Eve on the Julian calendar, Theophany on the Gregorian] by Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul. Read More

Earlier today, Orthodoxy in Dialogue editor Giacomo Sanfilippo’s maiden op-ed, Worse Than 1054? A Schism of Moscow’s Own Making, appeared at the Kyiv Post, Ukraine’s award-winning English-language newspaper. He shows that Kremlin and Patriarchate in Russia must be taken at their word when they announce to the world their intention to speak with one voice—Byzantine symphonia in the 21st century.

This suggests that we in the West would do well to greet everything that the Moscow Patriarchate has to say with the same wisdom of serpents and innocence of doves as we do anything issuing from the Kremlin. Clocking in at a brief 800-some words, Sanfilippo’s article is worth a read as a preface to the paragraphs below.

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk is perhaps one of the Orthodox Church’s most recognizable figures on the world stage today. Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR), he travels around the globe as the Russian Orthodox Church’s main representative in both inter-Orthodox and ecumenical affairs. Nothing appears on the DECR website without his explicit approval, and by extension, that of Patriarch Kirill at whose pleasure the Metropolitan serves. 

Earlier today the DECR published a report with the very long title, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill Sends Letters to Religious Leaders, Senior Statesmen and Heads of International Organizations Regarding the Pressure Exerted by the Ukrainian Authorities on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church [Moscow Patriarchate] and the Government’s Interference in the Ecclesiastical Life in Ukraine. It begins: Read More

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Beneath your mercy we take refuge,
O Virgin Theotokos.
Do not despise our prayers in our need,
but deliver us from dangers,
O only Pure and only Blessed One.
Most-Holy Theotokos, save us. Most-Holy Theotokos, save us. Most-Holy Theotokos, save us.

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Під Твою милість прибігаємо,
Богородице Діво.
Молитвами нашими в скорботах не погорди,
але від бід ізбави нас,
Єдина Чиста і Благословенна.
Пресвята Богородице, спаси нас. Пресвята Богородице, спаси нас. Пресвята Богородице, спаси нас.

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