John III, the Patriarch of Jerusalem: Orthodox or Monophysite?
Afinogenov Dmitry E.
The Great Lectionary Menologion of Metropolitan Makarii contains a fragment devoted to St John Hesychastes, whose extended Life was written by the famous Cyril of Scythopolis (BHG 897– 898). This fragment, however, published here in Church Slavonic as well as in Greek and Russian translation, does not go back to any of the extant texts on John. The text, which goes back to Russian Prolog (Synaxarion) of the second half of the 12th century, describes Patriarch John III of Jerusalem as a true follower of Emperor Anastasios’ monophysite leanings and as the main persecutor of John Hesychastes. The text from which this Synaxarion notice ultimately derives must have been an alternative Life, probably complementing that by Cyril.
Keywords: Patriarch of Jerusalem, christianity, orthodoxy, monophysitism