www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Icon of St Dioscoros of Alexandria

Dear Friends,

I have an icon of the Oriental Saint Dioscoros of Alexandria on papyrus . . .

Would it be a problem for me to have it in my icon corner?

Alex

Only if you have no room left to put it up, then it will be a problem for you. Why do you want to put him there in the first place?

ICXC
NIKA

Dear Pavel,

Well, I study the lives of saints and also the saints of other Churches.

If I have icons of Orthodox Saints that had a thing or two to say about Rome in their lives . . . such as St Mark of Ephesus, St Athanasius of Brest et al., why not, for ecumenical reasons, have St Dioscoros?

He was not excommunicated for heresy and was the nephew of St Cyril of Alexandria. He is an Oriental Orthodox saint.

Would there be a problem with that?

Alex

Here is an article by Fr. Romanides on the controversies surrounding the Council of Chalcedon:

One Physis or Hypostasis of God the Logos Incarnate [orthodoxunity.org]

Dear Alex,

It is a funny thing about St. Mark of Ephesus.

Some like to hold him up as a hero of sorts *against* unity with Rome.

Others have pointed out that in actuality he was the greatest ecumenist *in favor of and in intention* of true theological unity with Rome, despite the two sides ultimately not seeing eye to eye !

I prefer to think of him as the second...

In Christ,
Alice

ANATHEMA! This is heretical! Simply unthinkable! I mean, who's ever heard of such a thing, icons on papyrus!!!

Where'd you get a papyrus icon of a less popular saint like that?

Dave

Dear Dave,

Our Coptic community finished building their great Cathedral here and I popped in for a visit.

They have a book-shop and I went in, of course . . .

I saw this framed icon on papyrus of . . . St Diosocoros.

I told them who I was and want Church I belonged to and said I wanted to purchase that icon . . .

They all stopped for a moment in shock . . . and then they smiled and said, "Well, we are all on the way back to unity, aren't we?"

Alex

Dear Todd,

Yes, and, as you know, the Orthodox/Oriental commission came to the conclusion that there their respective Christologies say the same thing - it is just that the Orientals have been very loyal to St Cyril of Alexandria's theological expression and so understood "Physis" to mean "Person."

Again, Dioscoros was not condemned for heresy, but for bullying . . .

If that is an unforgiveable sin, then there are some posters on this forum who are in deep do-do!

p.s. I also have icons of the Old Believer Saints Avvakum and Ambrose of Bila Krinitsa! Don't let that get around!

Alex

Todd,

It is very interesting as well to note that Maximos and John of Damscus associate Monophysitism with the person of Severus and not Dioscoros. Following Fr. John's analysis, which I think was quite promising, I'm very skeptical as well that Dioscoros departed from Cyril and was some kind of Monophysite. It seems as if the Copts have always maintained the fidelity to Dioscoros's teaching, and if a faithful follower of Cyril, then the Copts have been Orthodox all along. Very compelling.

Photios

Dear Photios,

Yes, and Dioscoros was, after all, the nephew of St Cyril of Alexandria . . .

The fact is that although Disocoros was censured for his inappropriate theological fisticuffs - it is a fact that St Nicholas himself gave the heretic Arius a knuckle-sandwich at the first Ecumenical Council in 325.

St Nicholas apparently felt that simply condemning Arius was insufficient punishment.

And Pope St Pius X once knocked out a parishioner for swearing boldly after Sunday Mass . . .

I guess in addition to "golden-tongues," there were also "golden-gloves" saints . . .

Alex