An Epistle from Epiphanius of Cyprus to Patriarch Ignatius and the Adherence of the Cypriot Church to the Anti-Photian Council

Abstract

The so-called Anti-Photian Collection comprises various documents related to the successive appointments and depositions of Ignatius and Photius as Patriarchs of Constantinople. Among these is a letter from Epiphanius, Archbishop of Cyprus, addressed to Patriarch Ignatius. In this epistle, Epiphanius offers his congratulations on Ignatius’s reinstatement to the Patriarchal See. This epistle is not an autograph document but a copy preserved in two manuscripts owned by Cardinal Bessarion, from which all subsequent copies derive. The text follows the typical themes and structure of Byzantine epistolography but it is clearly an excerptum. However, since no official documentation from Ignatius’s Patriarchate has survived, this letter stands as a unique record of the autocephalous Church of Cyprus’ adherence to the decrees of the Eighth Ecumenical Council. Notably, no Cypriot representative was present at the anti-Photian synod, as recorded in the acta conciliaria.