These monks were anchorites , following the monastic ideal of St. They lived by themselves, gathering together for common worship on Saturdays and Sundays only. This is not to say that Monasticism or Orthodox Asceticism was created whole cloth at the time of legalization but rather at the time it blossomed into a mass movement.

Charismatics as the ascetic movement was considered had no clerical status as such. Later history developed around the Greek Mount Athos and Syrian Cappadocia forms of monastic life, along with the formation of Monastic Orders or monastic organization. The three main forms of Ascetics' traditions being Skete , Cenobite and Hermit respectively. The final breach between Greeks and Latins is often considered to have arisen after the capture and sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in Crusades against Orthodox Christians by Roman Catholic crusaders were not exclusive to this crusade nor the Mediterranean.

This is in light of Roman Catholic atrocities not exclusive to the capital city of Constantinople in starting the period in Greece referred to as Frangokratia. The establishment of the Latin Empire in was intended to supplant the Orthodox Byzantine Empire. This is symbolized by many Orthodox churches being converted into Roman Catholic properties and churches like Hagia Sophia and Church of the Pantokrator , and it is viewed with some rancor to the present day.

Some of the European Christian community actively endorsed the attacking of Orthodox Christians. One of the major blows for the idea of the conquest of Russia was the Battle of the Ice in With or without the Pope's blessing, Sweden also undertook several crusades against Orthodox Novgorod.

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Many Orthodox saw the actions of the Catholics in the Mediterranean as a prime determining factor in the weakening of Byzantium which led to the Empire's eventual conquest and fall to Islam. In , Pope John Paul II extended a formal apology for the sacking of Constantinople in ; the apology was formally accepted by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

Many things that were stolen during this time: As the conquest by the European crusaders was not exclusive to the fourth crusade, many various kingdoms of European rule were established.

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After the fall of Constantinople to the Latin West, the Empire of Nicaea was established, which was later to be the origin of the Greek monarchy that defeated the Latin forces of Europe and re-established Orthodox Monarchy in Constantinople and Asia Minor. By this time, Egypt had been under Muslim control for some seven centuries. Jerusalem had been conquered by the Umayyad Muslims in , won back by Rome in under the First Crusade and then finally reconquered by the Ottoman Muslims in Under Ottoman rule, the Greek Orthodox Church acquired power as an autonomous millet. The ecumenical patriarch was the religious and administrative ruler of the entire "Orthodox nation" Ottoman administrative unit , which encompassed all the Orthodox subjects of the Empire, but was dominated by ethnic Greeks.

The Ottoman Empire was marked by periods of tolerance and periods of often bloody repression of non-Muslims. One of the worst such episodes occurred under Yavuz Sultan Selim I. As well as many individual Christians being made martyrs for stating their faith or speaking negatively against Islam. The Orthodox Church was an accepted institution under the Ottomans, in contrast to Catholicism which was associated with enemy Austria, and actually grew in size during Ottoman rule.

One of the first things that Mehmet the Conqueror did was to allow the Church to elect a new patriarch, Gennadius Scholarius. The Hagia Sophia and the Parthenon , which had been Christian churches for nearly a millennium were converted into mosques, yet most other churches, both in Constantinople and elsewhere, remained in Christian hands.

They were endowed with civil as well as ecclesiastical power over all Christians in Ottoman territories. Because Islamic law makes no distinction between nationality and religion, all Christians, regardless of their language or nationality, were considered a single millet , or nation.

The patriarch usually an ethnic Greek as the highest ranking hierarch, was thus invested with civil and religious authority and made ethnarch , head of the entire Christian Orthodox population. Practically, this meant that all Orthodox Churches within Ottoman territory were under the control of Constantinople. Thus, the authority and jurisdictional frontiers of the patriarch were enormously enlarged.

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During the early s, the two sides made demands which the Sultan could not possibly satisfy simultaneously. In , the Sultan adjudicated in favour of the French, despite the vehement protestations of the local Orthodox monks. The ruling Ottoman siding with Rome over the Orthodox provoked outright war see the Eastern Question. As the Ottoman Empire had been for sometime falling into political, social and economic decay see the Sick Man of Europe this conflict ignited the Crimean War in between Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

During — the Ottoman Empire conducted a policy of genocide against the Christian population living within its extensive territory. The Sultan, Abdul Hamid, issued an official governmental policy of genocide against the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire in Systematic massacres took place in — when Abdul savagely killed , Armenians throughout the provinces. In government troops killed, in the towns of Adana alone, over 20, Christian Armenians. Also, in the first two decades of the 20th century, there were massacres of Greeks, Slavs, and Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, culminating in the Armenian , Greek and Assyrian genocides.

As a result, the 20th century saw a sharp decline of the number of Orthodox Christians, and of Christians in general, in the Anatolian peninsula amidst complaints of Turkish governmental repression of various Eastern and Oriental Orthodox groups. During the Lausanne Conference in , the Turkish and Greek sides after some discussions accepted the proposal of a population exchange.

In September , a pogrom was directed primarily at Istanbul 's ,strong Greek minority. The modern Turkish state requires the Patriarch of Constantinople to be a Turkish citizen but allows the Synod of Constantinople to elect him. Orthodoxy under the Palestinian National Authority including Gaza. The success of the conversion of the Bulgarians facilitated the conversion of other East Slavic peoples , most notably the Rus' , predecessors of Belarusians , Russians , and Ukrainians.

By the beginning of the 11th century most of the Slavic world, including, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia had converted to Orthodox Christianity. Bulgaria's Church was officially recognized as a Patriarchate by Constantinople in , Serbia's in , and Russia's in All these nations, however, had been converted long before these dates. The traditional event associated with the conversion of Russia is the baptism of Vladimir of Kiev in , on which occasion he was also married to the Byzantine princess Anna, the sister of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II.

However, the presence of Christianity in these areas is documented to have predated this event.

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Russia's patriarchate, which was never part of the Ottoman Empire, was recognized by Constantinople in Through a series of Wars with the World of Islam the church did indeed establish itself as the protector of Orthodoxy see the Eastern Question and the Russo-Turkish wars. Today, Russia ranks fifth after the four ancient patriarchates of Constantinople , Alexandria , Antioch , and Jerusalem.

Russia lay under Mongol rule from the 13th through the 15th century. This period lead to great calamity for the internal structure of Russia. Much of Russia was ruled by Mongols and Russian Princes of whom had limited power. The eventual end of the reign of the Golden Horde is said to have begun with the Battle of Kulikovo 8 September Which involves the famous Orthodox legend of Monk and Russian champion Alexander Peresvet and his death that mark the battle's beginning. The death toll by battle, massacre, flooding, and famine of the Mongol wars of conquest is placed at about 40 million according to some sources.

It obtained immunity from taxation in , and was allowed to impose taxes on the peasants. The Synodal Period that followed lasted until the Bolshevik Revolution, when the patriarchate was once again restored The church was involved in various campaigns of russification , [48] and, as a consequence, it was accused of participating in anti-Jewish pogroms. The Church, like the Tsarist state was seen as an enemy of the people by the Bolsheviks and other Russian revolutionaries. This may have further strengthened the Bolshevik animus against the church.

According to Lenin, a communist regime cannot remain neutral on the question of religion but must show itself to be merciless towards it. There was no place for the church in Lenin's classless society. Before and after the October Revolution of 7 November October 25 Old Calendar there was a movement within the Soviet Union to unite all of the people of the world under Communist rule see Communist International.

This included the Eastern European bloc countries as well as the Balkan States. Since some of these Slavic states tied their ethnic heritage to their ethnic churches, both the peoples and their church were targeted by the Soviet and its form of State atheism.

The Soviet Union was the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion. Toward that end, the Communist regime led by such figures as Felix Dzerzhinsky and Lavrentiy Beria of the Cheka confiscated and destroyed church property see Kamoyants St. Gevorg , ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools.

Actions toward particular religions, however, were determined by State interests, and most organized religions were never outlawed.

In the first five years after the Bolshevik revolution, 28 bishops and 1, priests were executed. The main target of the anti-religious campaign in the s and s was the Russian Orthodox Church, which had the largest number of faithful. Nearly all of its clergy, and many of its believers, were shot or sent to labor camps. Theological schools were closed, and church publications were prohibited. In the period between and , the number of Orthodox Churches in the Russian Republic fell from 29, to less than Between and , , Orthodox priests were arrested.

The widespread persecution and internecine disputes within the church hierarchy lead to the seat of the Patriarch of Moscow being vacant from to Some 20, people were executed just outside Butovo, a good percentage of which were Orthodox clergy, ascetics, and laymen. By about 22, Russian Orthodox churches had become active. But in Nikita Khrushchev initiated his own campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church and forced the closure of about 12, churches. By fewer than 7, churches remained active. In the Soviet Union, in addition to the methodical closing and destruction of churches, the charitable and social work formerly done by ecclesiastical authorities was taken over by the state.

As with all private property, Church owned property was confiscated into public use. The few places of worship left to the Church were legally viewed as state property which the government permitted the church to use.

Outside of sermons during the celebration of the divine liturgy it could not instruct or evangelise to the faithful or its youth. Catechism classes, religious schools, study groups, Sunday schools and religious publications were all illegal or banned. This persecution continued, even after the death of Stalin until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in Albania was the first state to have declared itself officially fully atheist.

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However, this was only supported by one faction within the regime, and lasted only three years. The Communist authorities closed down the prison in , and punished many of those responsible for abuses twenty of them were sentenced to death. An early medieval mission of the Assyrian Church of the East brought Christianity to China, but it was suppressed in the 9th century.

The Chinese Orthodox Church was an autonomous Orthodox church in China, which, prior to the Cultural Revolution in , was estimated to have as many as twenty thousand members. Nowadays, Orthodox Christianity is practiced primarily by the ethnic Russian minority in China. Eastern Orthodoxy arrived in China via Siberia in In that year, the Kangxi Emperor resettled 31 inhabitants from the captured fort of Albazin on the Amur River. Maxim Leontiev, the priest who led the 30 others, dedicated the first Orthodox church in Beijing.