MICHAEL CERULARIUS. - Greek Patriarch of Constantinople (1043-58), b. there at the beginning of the 11th century, famous for the definitive schism from the Roman See. He owed his career to Constantine IX Monomachos, with whom, still a layman in 1040, he had taken part in a political conspiracy; he was poorly educated and always remained of a violent character. Toward the Latins he was very intolerant and already around 1053 he closed their churches and monasteries in Constantinople; his opposition grew when the Byzantine captain (catepan) in lower Italy, Argyros, a Catholic, sought to establish an alliance with Pope Leo IX against the Normans who were threatening lower Italy. M. feared that this policy would increase the religious authority of the Pope. He therefore sought to stage an anti-Latin polemic in the religious field, with speeches and with an anti-Roman letter suggested by him to the metropolitan Leo of Achrida (v.). The emperor did not second these attacks, but induced the patriarch to send the Pope a peaceful letter, whose content did not fully satisfy the bishop of Rome. The latter, in order to clarify the religious situation of Constantinople, which for more than two decades had already been breeding the schism, and to facilitate a political alliance with the Emperor against the Normans, who in June 1053 had won a victory over Argyros at Siponto and over the Pope at Civitate, sent a pontifical legation to the Byzantine court.

Its head was Card. Humbert of Silva Candida (v.); associated with him were Frederick (the future Pope Stephen X), chancellor, and the archbishop of Amalfi, Peter. These three prelates set out in Jan. 1054 and arrived at Constantinople toward the end of March. The relations of the pontifical embassy with the Byzantine Emperor were always good. The patriarch, on the other hand, already at the first and only audience granted to the legates showed a coldness that soon changed into open hostility. In fact the patriarch broke off relations with the legates and induced the Studite monk Nicetas Stethatos to engage in a polemic against the Latins, who had brought had had to submit to certain ceremonies, partly superstitious, partly shamanistic, which he refused to do, considering it a defection from the Christian faith. Therefore he was cruelly killed together with his companion Theodore. Both are venerated as saints by the Catholic Church. Feast on 20 Sept.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, Viaggio ai Tartari, chap. 3, ed. G. Pulle, Milan 1920, pp. 236-37; A. M. Ammann, Kirchenpolitische Wandlungen im Ostbaltikum bis zum Tode Alexander Neushis, Rome 1936, pp. 239-43; id., Storia della Chiesa russa e dei paesi limitrofi, Turin 1948, p. 66; Pastor, XI, p. 228. Alberto M. Ammann to the Greeks certain apologetic writings of unfortunately harsh style against Leo of Achrida and his anti-Latin companions. The temporary retraction of Nicetas, in the disputation favorable to the Latins in the monastery of Studios on 24 June 1054, did not improve the situation; indeed M. C. forbade the legates to celebrate Holy Mass in the Greek churches and carried on propaganda among the people against them. The legates then, seeing the futility of their attempts to reconcile the patriarch with Rome, placed a document of excommunication upon the altar of Hagia Sophia during the solemn liturgy of 16 July 1054. The excommunication struck the patriarch, Leo of Achrida, and the sacellarius who had irreverently trampled on the Holy Eucharist of the Latins. It should be noted, however, that this excommunication was not drawn up in the form of a pontifical bull; indeed it was promulgated after the death of Pope Leo IX. For his part M. C. hurled the anathema against the legates on 21 and 26 June, sent an encyclical to the Easterners, and probably composed the book Panoplia. The patriarch Peter of Antioch was not pleased with the violent polemic of his colleague, but did not succeed in bringing him back to peaceful sentiments. M. C. meddled again in politics in 1057 and 1058, and in these tumults his agitated life ended on 8 Nov. 1058. His name remains connected with the consummation of the Byzantine schism, which had already begun some decades earlier.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: A. Michel, Humbert und Kerullarios, 2 vols., Paderborn 1924-30; E. Ammann, Michel Cérulaire, in DThC, X, coll. 1677-1705; M. Jugie, Le schisme bizantin, Paris 1941, pp. 187-246; V. Laurent, Le titre de patriarche œcuménique et Michel Cérulaire, in Misc. G. Mercati, III (Studi e testi, 123), Vatican City 1946, pp. 373-96; V. Grumel, Les régentes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople, I, III, Paris 1947, pp. 856-856, pp. 1-16. Giorgio Hofmann

@incollection{ec8_michele_cerulario, author = {Ammann, Alberto Maria and Hofmann, Giorgio}, title = {Michele Cerulario}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {955--956}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/michele-cerulario} }

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Michael Cerularius

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