MARCO, EUGENICO. — Archbishop of Ephesus, a celebrated Byzantine schismatic polemicist, born in Constantinople in 1591 or 1592, died there in 1444. A monk from 1418 on the island of Antigone and subsequently in Constantinople itself, he began to look ahead to the future Council of Union and prepared numerous writings addressing the theological questions to be discussed beforehand at the Emperor’s behest. Subsequently appointed prelate of Ephesus (1437), he was elected by the Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem, at the proposal of John VIII Palaeologus, their representative at the Council.
During the sessions at Ferrara, there are three discussions of his on Purgatory, contrary to the general opinion, which nevertheless are not without interest. At Florence, beginning in February 1439, he embarked upon his obstructive tactic of sterile disputes concerning the licitness of the Filioque and the authenticity of patristic texts. His discourse delivered on 17 March was characteristic; after it, although remaining in Florence, he no longer wished to attend the sessions, still less to sign the dogmatic Decree of Union (6 July 1439). On returning to his homeland, he suffered at the hands of the Turks in Ephesus and was imprisoned at Lemnos for two years by the Emperor. Eventually returning to Constantinople as a free man, he died there soon afterward, still working assiduously until his final day against the Florentine Union.
A most prolific but not very profound writer, M. left ascetical, scriptural, oratorical, liturgical and even epigrammatic works, in addition to an extensive correspondence. He owes his fame, however, to his polemical writings. Against the Greeks, the most extensive of his volumes is Κατὰ τῆς αἱρέσεως τῶν Ἀκυνολογιστῶν, in which he attacks Manuel Calecas and openly shows himself a partisan of Gregory Palamas. Against the Latins he wrote at least the 18 treatises collected by Petit in the PO (v. BIBLICA), the discourses of Florence, the dogmatic epistles to the most prominent persons after the Council, and his testament, in which he encourages George Scholarios in the struggle for “Orthodoxy” in opposition to Rome.