ALEXANDRIA, PATRIARCHATE OF

One of the oldest patriarchates to be formed in the early Church. In the Council of constantinople i (381) the patriarch of Alexandria was granted second place of honor after the pope of Rome, and his jurisdiction spread over Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis, which at that time possessed more than 100 bishoprics. alexandria was a city of capital importance as a civil center and for its extraordinary library and renowned schools of philosophy and theology. Ecclesiastically, it possessed a tightly organized hierarchy that radiated its jurisdiction over thousands of monks in the Egyptian desert who were renowned all over the then Christian world.

Aftermath of the Council of Chalcedon. Its unity split asunder after the Council of Chalcedon (451) condemned the monophysitism of Dioscorus. From 457 there existed two parallel churches. The majority of the Christians living in Alexandria followed their patriarch, Dioscorus, thus forming what today is called the indigenous coptic orthodox church (Oriental Orthodox). Those in the minority who remained faithful to the teachings of Chalcedon formed the Byzantine (melkite) Church.

The patriarchal see was disputed between the pro-Chalcedonian and anti-Chalcedonian factions, and from 482 to 538 the latter prevailed. After 538 there was a double patriarchal hierarchy, Byzantine Orthodox (Chalcedonian) and the Coptic Oriental Orthodox (Non-Chalcedonian). The Coptic patriarchs were frequently forced into exile under justinian i (527–565), who supported the Byzantine Orthodox. heraclius (610–641) strove to establish monothelitism as a compromise between strict Monophysitism and Byzantine Orthodoxy to create at least the outer appearance of religious unity.

During the Arab conquest of Egypt, the Coptic patriarch was allowed to exercise his jurisdiction, and through financial and social pressure the number of Byzantine Orthodox was greatly reduced, principally because the Arabs distrusted their loyalty to the Byzantine emperors. The Byzantine patriarchate of Alexandria remained vacant from 652 to 737; and candidates for the episcopacy had to be sent to Tyre for consecration.

At one time, the two churches preserved the same liturgy of Alexandria (see alexandrian liturgy), but gradually the Byzantine liturgical rite was accepted by the Melkites. From 639 to 1811 the Copts were oppressed as much as the Byzantine Orthodox under the domination of the Mussulman caliphs. The year 1811 marks the beginning of contemporary history of Egypt under the Sultan Muhammad Ali and his successors, who granted religious liberty to all Christians.

Great schism. The close relationship between the orthodox patriarch of Alexandria and the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople caused the Alexandrian patriarchate to rally behind the ecumenical patriarch at the time of the Great Schism of 1054. In 1219 the Latin Crusaders established a Latin patriarch for Alexandria in expectation of their capturing the city, but he was never able to reside there. During the Latin occupation, the orthodox patriarch of Alexandria took up residence in Constantinople, thus increasing his dependence on the Byzantine Church. The Alexandrian patriarch, together with those of Antioch and Jerusalem, sent a representative to the Council of florence (1439) and through him agreed to enter into communion with the See of Rome. It is difficult to know whether the patriarch of Alexandria repudiated this union with Rome along with the antiochene patriarch in the Synod of Constantinople in 1484. But the Alexandrian Melkites finally severed relations with Rome after the Turkish conquest of Alexandria in 1517. It is probable that a faction favoring communion with Rome always existed and that from time to time one of them held the patriarchal see. But by decision of the Turkish caliph, the patriarch of Constantinople became head of all orthodox subjects in the Ottoman Empire. From this point, the Alexandrian orthodox patriarchate was completely Hellenic.

With the reunion of 1724, a Melkite Greek Catholic patriarchate was established in Antioch. In 1833 Patriarch maximos iii Mazlūm obtained from Pope Gregory XVI the personal privilege (which has been handed down uninterruptedly) of adding the title of patriarch of Alexandria and Jerusalem along with jurisdiction over the Melkite Catholic churches in these areas. From 1895, when a Coptic Catholic patriarchate was established for the Alexandrian patriarchate, until the present there have been four separate patriarchal sees of Alexandria: the Coptic Oriental Orthodox, the Coptic Catholic, the Orthodox, and the Melkite Greek Catholic.

Bibliography: d. attwater, The Christian Churches of the East, 2 v. (rev. ed. Milwaukee, Wis. 1961–62). c. de clercq, Les Églises unies d'Orient (Paris 1934). r. janin, Les Églises Orientales et les Rites Orientaux (Paris 1955). c. karalevskij, Histoire des Patriarcats Melkites, 3 v. in 2 (Rome 1909–10). a. a. king, The Rites of Eastern Christendom, 2 v. (London 1950). e. r. hardy, Christian Egypt (New York 1952). w. de vries et al., eds., Rom und die Patriarchate des Ostens (Freiburg 1963). r. roberson, The Eastern Christian Churches: A Brief Survey, 6th ed (Rome 1999).

[g. a. maloney/eds.]