Blessed Dositheus and the “Golden Chain”

The Theology of Saint Symeon and the Confession of Dositheus

Saint Symeon the New Theologian (25/12 Oct OC/NC | 25/12 Mar OC/NC) and Blessed Dositheus II Notaras of Jerusalem (21/8 Feb OC/NC)

The Golden Chain of Saints from Christ to Now

Saint Symeon the New Theologian tells us that the Saints, from generation to generation, following the Saints who preceded them, are linked by obedience to the divine commandments and filled with divine grace.¹ In this way, they form a metaphorical chain that joins the faithful to the God-Man Jesus Christ by faith, good deeds, and love. This chain is unbreakable, and whoever is connected to this chain has their strength in God.

It is obvious that not every council, even convoked by those within the Orthodox Church, professes the true faith. Some externally observable criteria must be present to objectively show that any council deserves our assent as Christians. While the affirmation of the synods of every jurisdiction may seem to be objective enough, even this is subject to some critique. After all, there were many councils that boasted great numbers of attendees and signatories, and yet they professed falsehood. The Robber Synod of Ephesus (449) possessed 127 bishops, almost as many as the Fifth Ecumenical Council (150) and almost three times the number of bishops present at the first session of the Sixth Ecumenical Council (43). The iconoclast synod of Hieria bore the attendance of 338 bishops, more than the number of bishops present at the council that overturned it, the Seventh Ecumenical Council (308). Rather than devolve into base authoritarianism and episcopolatry, wherein the breadth of episcopal support at the present time defines the Orthodoxy of this thing or that thing, it is important to depend on the Golden Chain of Saints to remain on the royal path. This does not necessarily mean affirming everything said by one or a few monks who a Saint of the previous generation taught, but rather, it means that the absence of affirmation by any of the Saints or their children down to the modern day would speak against any particular creed, council, catechism, or confession.

If that is the case, then can we faithfully claim the Confession of Dositheus to be the Orthodox belief if it lacks such continuity? The truth is that the Confession does possess such continuity, being affirmed as a guidestone for the Orthodox belief by many Saints in each generation. This can be seen in how Blessed Dositheus received the Orthodox faith, how he embodied Orthodoxy in his life, the Saints he produced by his teaching, the Saints of later generations who taught from his Confession, and that the Confession is maintained up to this day as a source of Orthodox dogmatic truth.

Who taught the Patriarch?

1. One cannot ignore that Blessed Dositheus was a student of the holy fathers and inspired men. He served as a deacon under the omophorion of Saint Parthenius III at the Metochion in Constantinople. While serving as Patriarch, he was the first Orthodox prelate in history to make widespread use of the printing press for the distribution of patristics. He was a devoted hesychast who established the Greek printing press specifically to distribute the works of Saint Gregory Palamas. When the Latins initiated a controversy about the Essence and Energies in 1698, Blessed Dositheus responded with the Tome of Love, a collection of Palamite texts introduced with an account of the fullness of the original Hesychast Controversy. The Tome includes, among other things, the following hesychastic works:
   
   a) “Against the Akindynists” by Saint Gennadius Scholarius
   b) The 15 Antirrhetics of the Patriarch Philotheus
   c) The Triads of Saint Gregory Palamas
   d) The Collected Works of Saint Mark of Ephesus
2. In a time period often characterized as showing the intellectual and patristic decline of the Orthodox Church, Saint Dositheus was the chief architect of its intellectual and spiritual enlightenment. Only 20 years after his repose, the Synod of Constantinople² would reaffirm its commitment to hesychatic teaching and Saint Gregory Palamas, a task which surely would have been impossible to achieve without the effort of the Master of the Mother Church.
3. Blessed Dositheus was the only Orthodox writer in almost 200 years to mirror Saint Mark of Ephesus when it came to engaging in polemics against the Latin purgatory. For while many men, both of high regard and low regard, had debated the Latins on this matter, their unfamiliarity with the topic compelled them to treat it the same as the belief of Origen in universalism. This was a wholly false characterization that surprised the Ephesian when he first heard what the papal church actually believed at the Council of Florence. Saint Mark formally responded to their views in the form of his First and Second Homilies Against the Purgatorial Fire. He was the first out of every Orthodox Saint, monk, or bishop to properly respond to the Latin purgatory, and all our patristic theology concerning that topic is established upon him for that reason. It would appear that no one had spoken on the Latin purgatory in the same way as Saint Mark until Blessed Dositheus had done so in his Confession almost verbatim. Practically whole paragraphs in the homilies of Saint Mark could be replaced with Decree 18 of the Confession of Dositheus without realizing a difference.
   
   a) Both Saints speak of Heaven and Hell as being the only places of departure after death.
   
   The Confession: “We believe that the souls of those that have fallen asleep are either at rest or in torment, according to what each hath wrought; — for when they are separated from their bodies, they depart immediately either to joy, or to sorrow and lamentation;”
   
   Saint Mark of Ephesus: “both the one and the other are in places proper to them: the first, in absolute repose and free, are in heaven with the angels and before God Himself … and take delight in the vision of God and the illumination sent from Him more perfectly and purely than before, when they were alive.” ³
   
   b) Both Saints affirm the incompleteness of bliss and suffering.
   
   The Confession: “though confessedly neither their enjoyment, nor condemnation are complete. For after the common resurrection, when the soul shall be united with the body, with which it had behaved itself well or ill, each shall receive the completion of either enjoyment or of condemnation forsooth.”
   
   Saint Mark: “We affirm that neither the righteous have as yet received the fullness of their lot and that blessed condition for which they have prepared themselves here through works, nor have sinners, after death, been led away into the eternal punishment in which they shall be tormented eternally. Rather, both the one and the other must necessarily take place after the Judgment of that last day and the resurrection of all.” ³
   
   c) Both Saints affirm an “intermediate” category of the dead and describe their fate.
   
   The Confession: “And such as though involved in mortal sins have not departed in despair, but have, while still living in the body, repented, though without bringing forth any fruits of repentance — by pouring forth tears, forsooth, by kneeling while watching in prayers, by afflicting themselves, by relieving the poor, and in fine by shewing forth by their works their love towards God and their neighbor, and which the Catholic Church hath from the beginning rightly called satisfaction — of these and such like the souls depart into Hades, and there endure the punishment due to the sins they have committed.”
   
   Saint Mark: “But if souls have departed this life in faith and love, while nevertheless carrying away with themselves certain faults, whether small ones over which they have not repented at all, or great ones for which — even though they have repented over them — they did not undertake to show fruits of repentance: such souls, we believe, must be cleansed from this kind of sins, but not by means of some purgatorial fire or a definite punishment in someplace (for this, as we have said, has not at all been handed down to us). But some must be cleansed in the very departure from the body, thanks only to fear, as St. Gregory the Dialogist literally shows; while others must be cleansed after the departure from the body, either while remaining in the same earthly place, before they come to worship God and are honored with the lot of the blessed, or — if their sins were more serious and bind them for a longer duration [for cleansing].” ⁴
   
   d) Both Saints affirm the purification of the “intermediates” such that they will be forgiven of their sins and released from Hell.
   
   The Confession: “But they are aware of their future release from thence, and are delivered by the Supreme Goodness, through the prayers of the Priests, and the good works which the relatives of each do for their Departed; especially the unbloody Sacrifice availing in the highest degree; which each offereth particularly for his relatives that have fallen asleep, and which the Catholic and Apostolic Church offereth daily for all alike;”
   
   Saint Mark: “All such ones, we affirm, are helped by the prayers and Liturgies performed for them, with the cooperation of the Divine goodness and love for mankind. This Divine cooperation immediately disdains and remits some sins, those committed out of human weakness, as Dionysius the Great (the Areopagite) says in the ‘Reflections on the Mystery of Those Reposed in Faith’ (in The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, VII, 7); while other sins, after a certain time, by righteous judgments it either likewise releases and forgives — and that completely — or lightens the responsibility for them until that final Judgment.” ⁴
   
   e) And both Saints affirm that the salvation of the intermediates in Hell is inevitable.
   
   The Confession: “it being, of course, understood that we know not the time of their release. For that there is deliverance for such from their direful condition, and that before the common resurrection and judgment we know and believe; but when we know not.”
   
   Saint Mark: “Tenthly, to your question what we mean by ‘ignorance of the future,’ we answered that this ignorance refers to the time: [they do not know] when they will be freed from those punishments and numbered among the choir of the saved.” ⁵
4. Why is it necessary to mention Saint Mark of Ephesus and his views on the post-mortem fate of the soul? The reason is multifaceted. On the one hand, it is necessary to defend the more openly criticized portions of the Confession of Dositheus. On the other hand, it must be mentioned here to show that the Grace-Filled Patriarch inherits all his beliefs from the Saints, thus completing the Golden Chain.
5. In fighting the papal and protestant attacks on Holy Orthodoxy, Blessed Dositheus based his defense of the faith on the Orthodox Confession of Saint Peter Mogila. The schismatic denominations had used the forged “Confession of Cyril Lucaris” as an avenue through which to attack the Church, demanding that it either be affirmed in favor of Calvinism or rejected in favor of Papism. But Blessed Dositheus successfully fended off both sides by depending on the Catechism of Saint Peter Mogila, which had already sufficiently communicated the Orthodox Faith. He had the first edition of this work printed in 1662 and distributed throughout the Orthodox world for those in need and he sent it to the Latins and Calvinists who demanded the Orthodox belief.
6. All told, Blessed Dositheus was heavily dependent on the holy fathers for his Patriarchal reign. He was a voracious consumer of their writings and did not hesitate to put the spiritual works into practice in his own life. He was by no means ignorant of the Orthodox belief or terminology, and yet he chose to employ the Church’s belief in a way that would be understood by its primary audiences: The faithful being swayed by false believers and the false believers themselves. In every article of his Confession, he was careful to present what would only be found in the consensus of the fathers, for which cause he received universal assent.

Blessed Dositheus, the Link Himself, and his Devotees

1. I would be remiss not to mention that Blessed Dositheus is considered a Saint by the great canonist, hesychast, and compiler of the Lives of the Saints: Saint Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (+1809). In his work “The New Synaxarion,” he refers to the Jerusalem Patriarch as “Saint Dositheus of Jerusalem” and cites him for hagiographical information concerning the holy relics that were once held in Constantinople.⁶ In the Rudder, Blessed Dositheus is called “The Most Holy Patriarch of Jerusalem, Lord Dositheus the Scourge of Popes”⁷ and is referred to for a sufficient refutation of heresies. In the canonical work as a whole, Dositheus is mentioned no less than 100 times as an authority on faith. He is referred to as “of blessed memory.”⁸ He also says later that the memory of Dositheus is celebrated among the Patriarchs.⁹ Later still, he says that Dositheus is a “celebrated Church Father of sacred memory.”¹⁰ The Jerusalem Patriarch is also called “very learned,”¹¹ and called “most learned” who was “blessed with a peaceful repose.”¹² He is called “Blessed Dositheus”¹³ twice.¹⁴ It is also worth noting that both the Rudder and the New Synaxarion were commissioned and reviewed by Saint Macarius of Corinth, who gave it a glowing endorsement. In affirming the Rudder, later Saints also affirm what is said about Blessed Dositheus.
2. It is important to make note of the veneration of Blessed Dositheus even if Saint Nicodemus does not make mention of the Confession because the question is about whether the Patriarch is a part of the Golden Chain of Saints through which we have been taught the true faith. The Confession is automatically raised to a higher class of writing within the Church on account of his sanctity.
3. Saint Nicodemus uses Blessed Dositheus as his own type of Golden Chain by using his words as just cause to refer to Patriarch Michael Cerularius (+1059) as a “most holy and most virtuous gentleman,” “a saintly gentleman,” and a “most holy and God-bearing m[a]n.” In this, the canonist identifies the Patriarch as a link to the holy fathers and “endowed with Divine grace.” ¹⁶
4. Saint Constantine Brâncoveanu was a contemporary patron of Blessed Dositheus and his work in the Romanian Lands. He funded the translation of holy books in the Church into Romanian and built Churches and Monasteries while under the Patriarch’s tutelage. Blessed Dositheus took such care for the souls of the Romanians at that time that he ought to be called the Honorary Patriarch of Romania.
5. Saint Anthimus the Iberian was a Georgian slave of Turkish troops. Blessed Dositheus purchased his freedom and employed him in the Church as a translator of Church books and patristic writings into Romanian. He later became the Metropolitan of Wallachia.
6. Saint Dosoftei [Dositheus] of Moldavia was a student for a time under Blessed Dositheus, from whom he had learned and come to the realization of his plan to translate liturgical books into Romanian and introduce the Romanian language into the Orthodox Church. He began enacting his plan after being ordained the Metropolitan of Moldavia. Before then, he hid his ideas from the Church authorities because Constantinople would not tolerate the use of the Romanian language, but Blessed Dositheus supported him.
7. Saints Constantine, Anthimus, and Dosoftei are mentioned to show that Blessed Dositheus not only learned from the saints but also raised saints through his pious teaching and guidance, making himself the link between the fathers preceding him and succeeding him.
8. Blessed Dositheus must be considered part of the Golden Chain since it was through him that knowledge of the Council of the Holy Wisdom in 879 was transferred through the Orthodox world and thereby to the Saints of the next generation. He published the full Acts of the Synod in his “Tome of Joy.” It’s reasonable to suspect that the Acts of the Eighth Ecumenical Council would have been entirely lost without his effort.

Subsequent Saints

1. Saint Philaret of Moscow (+1867) not only endorsed the Confession of Dositheus but republished it to be read in the Russian Orthodox Church.
2. Blessed Nicodemus Milaš (+1915), who is locally venerated by the Dalmatia Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, refers to the Confession of Dositheus as “absolutely obligatory for all members of the Orthodox Church” to believe.¹⁵
   
   “In order to protect believers from being contaminated when some new teaching emerges, in order to refute the latter, the Church publishes detailed statements of faith for Her sons. Among these expositions, which are absolutely obligatory for all members of the Orthodox Church, two main ones: ‘The Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church’ [by Saint Peter Mogila] of the mid-17th century and ‘Confession of the Orthodox Faith of the Eastern Church’ [Confession of Dositheus] compiled at the Jerusalem Council in 1672 and known under the name: ‘The Epistle of the Patriarchs to the Orthodox Catholic Church on the Orthodox Faith.’ This also refers to the ‘Comprehensive Christian Catechism of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Church,’ as well as all catechisms issued by the Church authorities for the purpose of training young people in schools.”
3. Saint Nectarius of Aegina (+1920) makes liberal use of the Confession of Dositheus in his written works and explicitly refers to the man as a saint. In “The Credibility and Authority of the Church,” he says:
   
   “Outside the Church, this Noah’s Ark, there is no salvation. In the Confession of St. Dositheus, it is said that we believe that the Holy Spirit enlightens the Church, for He is the true Paraclete, whom Christ sends from the Father to teach the Truth and drive out darkness from the souls of believers.” ¹⁷
   
   His usage of the Confession is clearly intended to present it as a text from which to receive our dogmatic teachings. In “Study on the Divine Mysteries,” he quotes Decree 17 of the Confession in full to teach the Orthodox belief of the Eucharist, and he emphasizes that it confirms the faith as taught by the Ecumenical Councils. ¹⁸
4. Saint Justin Popovich (+1979) views the Confession of Dositheus and the corrected Catechism of Saint Peter Mogila as significant enough to be called statements of faith of the Ecumenical Church and makes it a point to say that the Confession of Dositheus spoke “on behalf of all Orthodox patriarchs” and is “an accurate statement of faith.” ¹⁹
   
   “Dogmas in the Church have always been dogmas, both before and during and after Councils… Of the statements of faith of a later period, which are not approved and confirmed by the Ecumenical Councils, and therefore are significant only insofar as they are consistent with the one, holy, catholic and apostolic teaching of the Ecumenical Church of Christ, expressed in the symbols and creeds of the ancient Church…[are the] ‘Confession’ of the Jerusalem Patriarch Dositheus, approved in 1672 by the Jerusalem Council and in 1723 sent to the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on behalf of all Orthodox patriarchs as an example of an accurate statement of faith. Accepted by the Russian Holy Synod…[and the] ‘Orthodox Confession’ by Peter Mogila, Metropolitan of Kiev, examined and corrected at the Councils in Kiev in 1640 and in Iaši in 1643, and then approved by all Orthodox Patriarchs and published under the title ‘Orthodox Confession of the Eastern Catholic and Apostolic Church.’”
5. Saint Demetrius Stăniloae (+1993) published his doctoral dissertation on Patriarch Dositheus of Jerusalem, which is included in this work. He does not speak to the authority of the 1672 Council of Jerusalem or the Confession, but he does say that they successfully routed the Latin and Protestant attacks on our Church and refers to the Council as a positive achievement. Most approvingly, he says that the Blessed Patriarch was the strongest fighter against the papists in the history of our whole Church. ²⁰
   
   “Dositheus dies at the age of 66 years after a pastorate of 38 years, filled from one end to the other with battles, sometimes with the Catholics and sometimes with the heretics in the Church. His pastorate was rich in positive achievements such as the Synod and the Confession of 1672, his writings and editorial activity, and the schools founded and organized at his urging.”
   
   “No one fought so long against the Catholics as Dositheus fought so long his whole life, and no one rejected their arguments step by step as he did in this work (The Dodecabiblius).”
   
   “Dositheus, the Patriarch of Jerusalem from the end of the 17th century, played, in his time, without a doubt, the leading role in the life of the Orthodox Church.”
6. Saint Hilarion Troitsky (+1929) recounts Blessed Dositheus as the strongest defender of Russia against Latinizing influence: “But special mention should be made of the Jerusalem Patriarch Dositheus, a great zealot for Orthodoxy in the 17th century, who closely followed Russian Church life and often wrote letters to Russian patriarchs, tsars, and even individual Church and civil figures. Patriarch Dositheus viewed Russia as the support of all universal Orthodoxy, and therefore Russia, first of all, needed to adhere to the Orthodox faith in all its severity and purity. The patriarch looked with great alarm and great apprehension at the growing Western, primarily Catholic, influence in Moscow. Patriarch Dositheus thought very clearly about Catholicism. ‘Papal delusion is synonymous with atheism, for what is papacy and what is the union, if not obvious atheism?’ ‘Lawless papists are worse than the impious and godless; they are godless, for they offer two Gods — one in heaven and another on earth.’” ²¹

Modern Writers

1. Fr. George Metallinos (+2019), Athens University Professor, outright says the Confession of Dositheus is dogmatic in the presentation “From Patricity to Post-Patricity: The Self-Destruction of the Orthodox Leadership” during the Piraeus Symposium “Patristic Theology and Post-Patristic Heresy.” ²²
   
   “Not without reason, the great Patriarch Dositheus (+1707) was known as the ‘scourge of the Latins.’ In his ‘Confession,’ ‘a text of supreme dogmatic and creedal significance’ according to John Karmiris, he remains within the spirit of Kritopoulos as regards the primacy of the Pope: ‘Since a mortal man cannot universally and perpetually be head, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is head, and Himself holding the rudder is at the helm in the governing of the Church, through the Holy Fathers. And, therefore, over particular Churches, that are real Churches, and consist of real members [of the Catholic Church], the Holy Ghost hath appointed Bishops as leaders and shepherds.’”
   
   In the same presentation, he says the Responses of the Orthodox Patriarchs of the East to the Anglican Non-Jurors “express the Orthodox self-consciousness for all of Western Christianity.” Within these responses, the Confession of Dositheus was delivered as our statement of faith. He likewise refers to the minutes of the 1672 Council of Jerusalem as “the position of Orthodoxy [made] clear towards the Protestants.”
2. Archbishop Panteleimon Lampadarios of Antinoe published multiple catechetical works for use by the clergy of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. In the one entitled “The Holy Mysteries of the Eastern Orthodox Church,” he cites the Confession of Dositheus as a source for our Church’s teaching 21 times.²³ In his “The Catechism of the Orthodox Church,” he mentions the Confession of Dositheus as one of the official documents conveying the Apostolic Tradition of the Orthodox Church, alongside its synodal version approved in 1723 by the Council of Constantinople.²⁴
3. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware (+2022), in his famous Church History book “The Orthodox Church,” taught that the Confession of Dositheus “must certainly be regarded as a document of primary importance in the history of modern Orthodox theology.”²⁵
   
   Later, he says in the same work that the teachings contained therein are the theology of the whole Church. “These Councils were local, but the substance of their decisions has been accepted by the Orthodox Church as a whole. The seventeenth-century Councils, like the Hesychast Councils three hundred years before, show that creative theological work did not come to an end in the Orthodox Church after the period of the Ecumenical Councils. There are important doctrines not defined by the General Councils, which every Orthodox is bound to accept as an integral part of his faith.”
4. Fr. George Florovsky (+1979) quotes the Confession of Dositheus (under the title “Epistle to the Eastern Patriarchs”) multiple times as a source for our beliefs about the Church and the Sacraments in his work “The House of the Father.” ²⁶
5. Fr. John Meyendorff (+1992) is yet another recent clergyman who blatantly says that the Confession is dogmatic and above reproach. In “The Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today,” he says: “This document, known henceforth both as the Confession of Dositheus and the Acts of the Council of Jerusalem, is the most important Orthodox dogmatic text of this period. Its authority is undisputed.” ²⁷
6. Elder Raphael Karelin of Georgia wrote a very long response to an attack on his name concerning the doctrine of the Church wherein he is compelled to defend the Confession of Dositheus against the attacks of recent and past thinkers.²⁸ “Archbishop Basil (Krivoshein) has more complaints about another document — ​​the ‘Confession of Faith’ of the Jerusalem Patriarch Dositheus, which Archbishop Basil calls a symbolic monument of the 17th century. However, here, too, we see a deliberate manipulation of the text, more suitable for a Jesuit than for an Athonite.”
   
   He confirms that the so-called “corrections” weren’t changes to the substance of the Confession, nor do they invalidate its perfect teaching: “It is characteristic that Archbishop Basil (Krivoshein) considers the correction and improvement of the text, which took place with the participation of all the Eastern patriarchs and theologians, to be an indicator of the imperfection of symbolic books, whereas here we see precisely the manifestation of the conciliar mind of the Church.”
   
   Most critically of all, Elder Raphael confirms that the Confession of Dositheus is the teaching of the Orthodox Church: “Even if Dositheus of Jerusalem had compiled the ‘Message’ alone, it would have to be said that the Eastern Patriarchs, with their synods that approved the ‘Message,’ expressed their confession of faith through Patriarch Dositheus, and therefore the “Message” belong to all of them, or rather, to the Orthodox Church.”
7. Archbishop Nectarius of Anthidonos: “Among the great enlightened figures of the 17th century, Patriarch Dositheus of Jerusalem is an undisputed member.” ²⁹
8. Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria cites the Confession as an expression of the Orthodox teaching about the Holy Eucharist:
   
   “This they received as a provision for eternal life, when they were led to the scaffolds and executions. That is why, fearless, brave, with their gaze raised to heaven, they faced the coming death that would unite them with the beloved person of the Savior Christ. They stood as true Christians, since they understood the heart of the Divine Liturgy, that is, the mystery of the Divine Eucharist. That is, they truly experienced what the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Dositheus, confesses in his famous Confession, that the bread is transformed into the true body of the Lord ‘Which was born in Bethlehem of the Ever-Virgin, was baptized in the Jordan, suffered, was buried, rose again, was received up, sitteth at the right hand of the God and Father, and is to come again in the clouds of Heaven; and the wine is converted and transubstantiated into the true Blood Itself of the Lord, Which as He hung upon the Cross, was poured out for the life of the world.’” ³⁰
9. Archimandrite Cyril Costopoulos of Patras cites the Confession of Dositheus in a study to prove that the Eucharist cannot transmit diseases if worthily partaken.³¹
10. Abbot Dionysius Shlenov addresses and treats Blessed Dositheus as one of the holy fathers and cites his works on the doctrinal and canonical teachings of Orthodoxy as regards the position of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in modern times.³²
    
    He presents Dositheus as the source of the solution to the modern Church crisis: “At present, the issue of the primacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople as the primacy of honor or as the primacy of honor and power is especially topical. The unity of world Orthodoxy, which has already embarked on a thorny path of disputes and divisions, depends on the solution to this issue. St. Dositheus II of Jerusalem Notaras spoke out as a strong critic of the idea of ‘primacy of honor and power,’ which suggests the possibility of an extraterritorial appeal to the Patriarch of Constantinople. This report will attempt to present his position.”
11. Elder Luke of Gregoriou states that Saint Nicodemus, Saint Macarius of Corinth, and Saint Athanasius of Paros followed the tradition of Blessed Dositheus of Jerusalem. ³³

Conclusion

What has been covered so far demonstrates the following:

• Blessed Dositheus of Jerusalem was a devoted follower of the patristic tradition, educated beyond his peers, and an active defender of Orthodoxy in his life.
• Blessed Dositheus guided multiple men in the Orthodox faith who later became Saints and great teachers of Orthodoxy themselves.
• Blessed Dositheus was zealously followed by multiple Saints decades and centuries after his repose.
• The Confession of Dositheus has doctrinal and pastoral applications even at the present time.
• The Confession of Dositheus was and is treated as a source of dogmatic authority concerning the teaching of the Orthodox Church by many Saints, bishops, priests, and monks from its inception to the modern day.

We can comfortably say that Blessed Dositheus is a link on the Golden Chain of Saints and that the Confession of Dositheus is the dogma of the Orthodox Church.

What do we do with this information?

Let us honor Blessed Dositheus of Jerusalem, the Pillar of Orthodoxy, who put to flight the persecuting heresies of the West, and let us proclaim his name with the angels who cry out: Eternal Memory! Eternal Memory! Eternal Memory!

Troparion — Repeated Hymn — Tone 1
When thou didst inherit the Throne of the Mother Church, / the Holy Apostle James didst thou imitate / in calling the Church to one accord / to expel the errors arising from Calvin the Most Wicked one, / and protecting the Orthodox from across the whole world, / thy divine illumination saw them set free from the enemy. / Wherefore, O Blessed Dositheus, // We entreat thee to pray that our souls be saved.

Kontakion — Hymn of the Scroll — Tone 8
Let us hymn the luminary of the Man-Befriending God, / the pious protector of the faith, / who didst follow the footsteps of the Holy Hesychasts, / who art honored as the Guardian of the Lord’s Sepulchre, / who fought the darkness of error. / His wisdom spread to men as fire through leaves. / Therefore seeing him adorn the Heavens as he adorned the Church, / we keep his holy memory. / Him do we beseech to intercede for us, // that our souls find mercy!

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1. Saint Symeon the New Theologian, “Practical and Theological Precepts, paragraph 157, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, trans. by E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer (London: Faber and Faber, 1951), p. 135.
   
   “Moreover, the saints — those who appear from generation to generation, from time to time, following the saints who preceded them — become linked with their predecessors through obedience to Divine commandments and, endowed with Divine grace, become filled with the same light. In such a sequence all of them together form a kind of golden chain, each saint being a separate link in this chain, joined to the first by faith, right actions and love; a chain which has its strength in God and can hardly be broken.”
2. Archimandrite Emmanuel Kalyvas, “Condemnation of the Papacy” (Осуждение папства).
   
   “The Council condemns the corruption of the Creed by Catholics and calls for the preservation of the unchangeable faith of the Ecumenical Councils. Tradition, Sacraments. It condemns the dogma of the Filioque, purgatory, the theory of the created energies of God; condemns primacy, papal indulgences, etc… It calls on the Orthodox ‘…all that is directed against it (Orthodoxy), schisms and… heresies, condemned, rejected and anathematized by it (Orthodoxy)… to be equally condemned, rejected and anathematized.’” https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/konfessii/osuzhdenie-papstva
3. Saint Mark of Ephesus, Second Homily Against the Purgatorial Fire
4. Saint Mark of Ephesus, First Homily Against the Purgatorial Fire
5. Responsiones ad postremas Latinorum quaestiones, 10/ed. L. Petit. Paris, 1927. P. 164 (PO; 15)
6. Saint Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain “Synaxarion of the Twelve Months of the Year” (Συναξαριστής των δώδεκα μηνών του ενιαυτού), Volume 1
   
   “Characteristics and details of the Holy Cross
   
   The size of the Cross, according to tradition and Synaxares, was 4.5 meters long and 2.4 meters wide. The Holy Goldenmouth tells us that its thickness was 20 centimeters and that the part of the Cross that was embedded in the earth was 40 centimeters.
   
   The Nails, that is, the Nails that were found with the Cross, some tell us that there were three, such as Saint Dositheus of Jerusalem, and others, such as Saint Paisius of Gaza, report that the common tradition accepts that there were four. Saint Helena took the nails with her to Constantinople.
   
   The two other crosses, our historians tell us, were also transferred to Constantinople and placed, according to Saint Dositheus as he mentions it in his Dodecabiblius, “under the purple column in the Forum,” as well as the alabaster jar of myrrh, with which Mary anointed the Lord’s feet. The Nails of the Cross were also placed on the same column. One of the nails is in the Monastery of the Archangel in Thassos.”
   
   “Χαρακτηριστικά και λεπτομέρειες του Τιμίου Σταυρού
   
   Το μέγεθος του Σταυρού, κατά την παράδοση και τον Συναξαρηστή, ήταν μήκους 4,5 μέτρων και πλάτους 2,4 μέτρων. Ο Ιερός Χρυσόστομος μας παραδίδει ότι το πάχος του ήταν 20 εκατοστά και ότι το τμήμα του Σταυρού που εμπήγετο μέσα στη γη, ήταν 40 εκατοστά.
   
   Οι ήλοι, δηλαδή τα καρφιά, που βρέθηκαν μαζί με τον Σταυρό, άλλοι μας παραδίδουν ότι ήταν 3, όπως π.χ. ο Άγιος Δοσίθεος Ιεροσολύμων και άλλοι όπως ο Άγιος Παΐσιος Γάζης, αναφέρει πως η κοινή παράδοση δέχεται ότι ήταν 4. Τους ήλους τους πήρε μαζί της η Αγία Ελένη στην Κων/πολη.
   
   Τους δύο άλλους σταυρούς οι ιστορικοί μας αναφέρουν, πως και αυτοί μεταφέρθηκαν στην Κων/πολη και τοποθετήθηκαν, σύμφωνα με τον Άγιο Δοσίθεο όπως το αναφέρει στην Δωδεκάβιβλο του «κάτωθεν του εν τω Φόρω πορφυρού κίονος», όπως επίσης και το αλάβαστρον του μύρου, με το οποίο η Μαρία άλειψε τα πόδια του Κυρίου. Εις τον ίδιο κίονα τοποθετήθησαν και οι ήλοι του Σταυρού. Ένα από τα καρφιά βρίσκεται στο μοναστήρι του Αρχαγγέλου στη Θάσο.”
7. Saint Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, “Holy and Divine Rudder of the Orthodox Catholic Church,” page 72, “If, however, anyone should like to apprehend their heresies from books, he will find all of them in the books of the most holy Patriarch of Jerusalem Sir Dositheus the Papomastix (i.e., Scourge of Popes) together with their most learned refutations.” http://s3.amazonaws.com/orthodox/The_Rudder.pdf
8. Ibid. page 29, “See Patriarch Dositheus of blessed memory in Book 3 of past patriarchs of Jerusalem,”
9. Ibid. page 92, “From that time, I say, such a custom came to prevail, and since it prevailed they themselves ought not to eat meat (says Dositheus, the celebrated Church Father of sacred memory in his Dodccabiblus. page 779 — that is, a patriarch addressing patriarchs, and a prelate addressing prelates. not I myself).”
10. Ibid. page 349, “See also Dositheus of celebrated memory among Patriarchs, page 745, concerning those who have served as Patriarchs in Jerusalem, who asserts that it is an error for anyone to express the opinion that one party to a marriage may marry again after the other has adopted the monastic mode of life;”
11. Ibid. page 483, “But as very learned Dositheus (p. 55 of the Dodecabiblus) says, it was because a letter had been sent by the above-mentioned second council to Pope Stephen of Rome…”
12. Ibid. page 521, “Great thanks are due to Dositheus, the former Patriarch of Jerusalem, a most learned gentleman who became blessed with a happy end and worthy of note, and who alone states that this Council was held in that year (page 976 of the Dodecabiblus), at a time when others say nothing about the date of it,”
13. Ibid. page 477, “Hence it is that in many different ways they strive to prove it false, employing for this purpose twenty-seven antitheses, which blessed Dositheus solves on page 730 of his Dodecablblus;”
14. Ibid. page 559, “See also the other praises of the Gospel on p. 739 of the Dodecabiblus of blessed Dositheus.”
15. Ibid. page 989, “This decision of most holy Sisinnius was thereafter confinned by the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cerularius (whom Dositheus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, greatly admires in his Dodecabiblius as a most holy and most virtuous gentleman).”
16. Bishop Nicodemus Milaš, “Orthodox Canon Law” (Православно ирквено право). Мостар, 1902. рage 469:
    
    “In order to protect believers from being contaminated when some new teaching emerges, in order to refute the latter, the Church publishes detailed statements of faith for Her sons. Among these expositions, which are absolutely obligatory for all members of the Orthodox Church, two main ones: ‘The Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church’ [by Saint Peter Mogila] of the mid-17th century and ‘Confession of the Orthodox Faith of the Eastern Church’ [Confession of Dositheus] compiled at the Jerusalem Council in 1672 and known under the name: ‘The Epistle of the Patriarchs to the Orthodox Catholic Church on the Orthodox Faith.’ This also refers to the ‘Comprehensive Christian Catechism of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Church,’ as well as all catechisms issued by the Church authorities for the purpose of training young people in schools.”
    
    У свези са овим символом, кад се какво ново учење истакне, а да би вјерни сачували се од заразе гим новим учењем, црква издаје подробнија изложења вјере с обзиром на та нова учења, и као руководство за своје синове. Из- међу оваквих изложења вјере, која су безусловно обвезна за све чланове православне цркве, главна су два: ᾿Ορθόδοξος ὁμολογία τῆς πίστεως τῆς καθολικῆς καὶ ἀποστολικῆς ἐκκλησίας ἀνατολικῆς ποπовине XVII вијека и Ὁμολογία τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως τῆς ἀνατολικῆς ἐκκλησίας, изложена на јерусалимском сабору 1672. године, и позната под именом „посланице патријараха православно-католичанске цркве о православној вјери.” Овамо се односи и „пространи хришћански кати- хисис православне католичанске источне цркве”, а тако исто и сви катихисиси, које издаје црквена власт, ради обучавања младежи у школама.
17. Saint Nectarius of Aegina, The Credibility and Authority of the Church. https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Nektarij_Eginskij/svjatitel-nektarij-eginskij-zhizneopisanie
18. Saint Nectarius of Aegina, Study on the Divine Mysteries. https://ergo-logou-agapis.blogspot.com/2017/03/blog-post_96.html
19. Saint Justin Popovic, Dogmatics, Volume 2 (1), Chapters 6–7. https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Iustin_Popovich/sobranija-tvorenij-tom2/
20. Saint Demetrius Stăniloae, The Life and Work of Dositheus II of Jerusalem (1641–1707) by Saint Demetrius Staniloae.
21. Saint Hilarion Troitsky, Theology and Freedom of the Church. https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ilarion_Troitskij/bogoslovie-i-svoboda-tserkvi/
22. Fr. George Metallinos, From Patricity to Post-Patricity: The Self-Destruction of the Orthodox Leadership. https://www.vimaorthodoxias.gr/egrapsan-s-emas/p-georg-metallinos-apo-tin-patrikotita-stin-metapaterikotita-i-aftoanairesi-tis-orthodoksis-igesias/
23. Archbishop Panteleimon Lampadarios, The Holy Mysteries of the Eastern Orthodox Church. https://old.tsu.ge/data/file_db/anthim/1.pdf
24. Archbishop Panteleimon Lampadarios, The Catechism of the Orthodox Church. https://www.scribd.com/document/225832785/Parts1-3-Ch-1-6
25. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church. http://users.uoa.gr/~nektar/orthodoxy/explanatory/kallistos_ware_the_orthodox_church.htm
26. Fr. George Florovsky, The House of the Father. http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/the-house-of-the-father-florovsky.aspx
27. Fr. John Meyendorff, The Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today. https://archive.org/details/orthodoxchurchit0000meye/mode/1up
28. Archimandrite Raphael Karelin, On Modern Neo-Gnosticism (Response to Zaitsev A.A.).https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Rafail_Karelin/o-sovremennom-neognostitsizme-otvet-zajtsevu-a-a/
29. Archbishop Nectarius of Anthidonos, The Economics of the Struggle — The Achievement and Recognition of Greek Independence. https://jerusalem-patriarchate.info/arthrografia/%CE%BF-%CF%83%CE%B5%CE%B2-%CE%B1%CF%81%CF%87%CE%B9%CE%B5%CF%80%CE%B9%CF%83%CE%BA%CE%BF%CF%80%CE%BF%CF%83-%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B8%CE%B7%CE%B4%CF%89%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%83-%CE%BA-%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%BA%CF%84%CE%B1/
30. Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria, We and Christ are One. https://www.ditikostipos.gr/imeis-kai-o-christos-en-esmen-toy-mitropolitoy-kastorias-serafeim-gia-tin-theia-koinonia/
31. Archimandrite Cyril Costopoulos of Patras, Holy Communion and Coronavirus. (https://www.pemptousia.gr/2020/10/thia-kinonia-ke-koronoios/)
32. Archimandrite Dionysius Shlenov, Criticism of the Extraterritorial Appeal to the Patriarch of Constantinople by St. Dositheus of Jerusalem. https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Dionisij_Shlenov/kritika-eksterritorialnoj-apelljatsii-konstantinopolskomu-patriarhu-svt-dosifeem-ierusalimskim/
33. Elder Luke of Gregoriou, The Contemporary Dialogue between Orthodox and Anti-Chalcedonians in the Light of the Tradition of the Church. (https://www.zoiforos.gr/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=9660:o-sygxronos-dialogos-orthodokson-kai-antixalkidonion-ypo-to-fos-tis-paradoseos-tis-ekklisias&Itemid=167)