Andrew, Archbishop of Rhodes (Chrysoberga)

ANDREW, Archbishop of Rhodes (Chrysoberga). - A Dominican, born in Constantinople to a schismatic family, he converted to Catholicism and entered the Order of Preachers in the convent of Pera. He labored strenuously for the union of the Greeks with the Church of Rome, and to this end took part in the Councils of Constance, Basel and Ferrara-Florence. Invested with conspicuous dignities, Master of the Sacred Palace (1425-32), vicar general of the Society of the Pilgrim Brethren, he was entrusted with difficult legations within the Order (before and after the Councils) and also in Italy to Martin V and at the Council of Basel. First proposed for the see of Sutri (1429), which however he never reached, Eugenius IV designated him for the archbishopric of Colossi in Rhodes, whence his name best known to the Latins, of Colossensis or Rhodiensis. He affixed his signature to the Florentine decree of Union (6 July 1439), but his activity was carried on rather in the sessions of Ferrara, where he delivered the opening address and brilliantly defended the Catholic-Roman position against Bessarion (still schismatic) and Mark of Ephesus, on the question of the «Filioque». Besides his conciliar works (also as a preacher at Constance and Basel), two writings of his remain, one recently edited on the divine essence and operation, addressed to Bessarion (ed. Candal), and another polemical one against Mark Eugenikos of Ephesus (Vatican Library, cod. Pal. lat. 604). The dates of the long career of this figure are very difficult to establish with exactness.

Emanuele Candal