Asad Rustom on the Patriarch Sylvester

Translated from: Asad Rustum, Kanisat Madinat Allah Antakya al-'Uzma [The Church of the Great City of God Antioch], Jounieh: Editions St. Paul (1988), vol. 3, pp. 143-151

While Rustom's account is the most common modern Orthodox treatment of Sylvester's election and career, much research has been done since his wrote it. For the most detailed and up-to-date study of Sylvester, see Mihai Țipău's new book, available free for download here. For Rustom's account of Sylvester's Catholic rival Seraphim/Cyril Tanas, see here.

Sylvester I (1724-1766): Before his death, Athanasius indicated to the Christians in Aleppo to elect as his successor a Cypriot priest called Sylvester, who had first served with him as a deacon and accompanied him on many of his travels to Wallachia, Moldavia and elsewhere, and then left him and enrolled in the clergy of the Church of Constantinople. At that time, Sylvester was living on Mount Athos, practicing asceticism.

Cyril Tanas wrote to the Christians who stood firm in the Orthodox faith to attract them to himself. He also wrote to the bishops of the See of Antioch informing them that he had been installed as their patriarch. He asked them to recognize him, submit to him, and commemorate him, threatening those who resist him with deposition, but the bishops did not respond. Before his letters reached them, they and the laity had written to the Holy Synod of Constantinople, presided over by Patriarch Paisius, informing them about the death of the Patriarch Athanasius and about the activities of Cyril Tanas, the way in which he had been consecrated, and his forcible entry into and occupation of the patriarch's residence in Damascus. They asked the synod for fraternal help on account of its moral influence with the Ottoman state, informing them that they had elected Sylvester as patriarch and that they wished for him to be recalled from Mount Athos and be consecrated as a bishop so that he could occupy the Apostolic See of Antioch. In doing this, the Antiochian Christians aimed to obtain someone who had both experience and moral influence and could come to the Church of Antioch with a berat from the sultan and an injunction that would help him to curb the heretics and defend the Orthodox faith, and so be able to strengthen Orthodoxy, put and end to the quarrel among Antioch's Christians, and work to unify their hearts.

When these letters arrived at the Holy Synod of Constantinople, it wrote to Mount Athos, summoning Sylvester, and elevated him to the episcopacy on September 27, 1724. He was issued with a berat from the sultan and orders for the deposition of Cyril Tanas and the arrest of Abu Tawq, the governor of Damascus who had pledged to request the issue of a berat from the sultan for Cyril. News of Sylvester and the berat and orders that he held spread and Cyril fled, taking with him vestments, miters, crosses, chalices, patens, and all the rest of the holy vessels that Macarius had brought from Russia, and taking refuge in Mount Lebanon, residing in Deir al-Mukhalles.

Kyr Sylvester was a virtuous man who had spent a long time in the sketes of Mount Athos and because of his estrangement from the world, he was simple, light-hearted and docile. At the same time, however, he was strongly attached to tradition. He was unwavering and would not deviate from it.

When he arrived in Aleppo, he was informed of what Seraphim [that is, Cyril Tanas] had done, so he hurried to Damascus and stayed there for two months. The people of the city, including Cyril Tanas' supporters, welcomed him. He then went on pilgrimage and after a year and a half he returned to the region of Aleppo. When he reached Khan Tuman, the Orthodox notables went out to receive him and they prepared for him there an elegant dinner with fish, even though it was Wednesday, in accordance with the permission they had received from the previous patriarch, Athanasius. When Sylvester saw the fish, he kicked over the table, excommunicated the Aleppans, left the notables and went immediately to the patriarchal residence in Aleppo. The Aleppans tried to mollify the patriarch, but he did not pardon them. Instead, he stood up in the church on Sunday and excommunicated anyone who would dare in the future to eat fish on Wednesday or Friday. He did not limit himself to this, but also scorned the elites of Aleppo and complained to the governor about those among them who were partisans of papism and they were placed in jail and not released until they had incurred serious costs. They were angered and sought to imprison the patriarch. Sylvester learned of this from the English consul and secretly fled to Lattakia, from there going by sea to Constantinople.

The Aleppans complained about their situation to the Holy Synod of Constantinople, claiming that Sylvester had beaten priests and handed elites over the the authorities, exposed the people's wealth to fines and confiscation, and threatened people with banishment and execution,"accusing them of being of the religion of the Franks," and stating that they had driven him off and could not accept him in their place. Sylvester himself went to Constantinople and complained, in turn, about the Aleppans. The Holy Synod advised him to be gentle, lenient and to practice persuasion and love, and it send a bishop named Gregory as vicar of Patriarch Sylvester, ordering him to commemorate Sylvester. The Aleppans welcomed him and returned to the Church, morning and evening, not revealing their opinions.

In 1725, the Holy Synod of Constantinople, with the agreement of the Patriarch Sylvester, issued a pastoral encyclical addressed to the Christians of the Churches of Antioch and Jerusalem, urging them to stay away from novel, Western teachings that do not conform to the teachings of the Ecumenical Councils and the Holy Fathers, excommunicating those who disobey.

Gregory remained in Aleppo for two years. Then he grew weary of residing there because it was not his diocese, so he took leave of the Aleppans, said farewell to them and went back to Constantinople. The Aleppans wrote to the Holy Synod of Constantinople about this and requested that their legitimate bishop, Gerasimus, be pardoned and returned to them. The synod agreed and brought him out of exile, after him having been there for five and a half years, commanding him to be on good behavior among them and to commemorate the Patriarch Sylvester. He accepted the command and feigned obedience. When he arrived in Aleppo, the Aleppans received him well and honored him. He pretended to do what the Holy Synod of Constantinople commanded him and he commemorated the Patriarch Sylvester at the liturgy. The Aleppans led the church in both directions, with each having his own opinion. However, the Frankish monks did not cease to extol to them obedience and submission to Rome and to sharpen their intention to do this, indeed, pressing and driving them to do so. Gerasimus kept silent about these activities because he was secretly Catholic while pretending the opposite out of fear of having to go back into exile.

Sylvester in the Lands of the Christians: Upon his arrival in Constantinople, Sylvester worked hard to bring the Aleppans back to obedience and spent large sums on this. When he did not achieve success, he returned to his see, passing through Erzurum collecting alms. He then arrived in Damscus in 1731, spending some time there with peace prevailing. Then the Frankish monks provoked a conflict between the two sides, with both accumulating debts, and the situation deteriorated. When he saw that there was no way to put an end to the evils, he left Damascus on a pastoral tour. He then returned, named a capable and influential layman, Mikhail Touma, as his vicar and headed for Constantinople. After giving a report to the patriarch of Constantinople and his synod, he left for Wallachia and Moldavia in order to collect donations to repay the debts. It is said that his absence lasted for almost ten years, during which time Sylvester established a monastery in Moldavia [in fact, Wallachia] named for Saint Spyridon the Wonderworker, which was given as an endowment to the Patriarchate of Antioch.

In 1747, he printed in Arabic in Bucharest a collection of texts composed at the two synods in Constantinople regarding the appearance of Catholicism among the ranks of the Antiochian Christians, one in late 1724 under the Patriarch Jeremiah and the other in 1727, under the Patriarch Paisius. This collection also contained five articles in Arabic giving Orthodox refutations of the five innovations of the Latins. After this was the document The Holy Eastern Church of Christ. In total, it contains seventeen parts. [...].

Cyril and Damascus: As for Cyril Tanas, after he left Damascus and took refuge in Lebanon, he resided in Deir al-Mukhalles, making great efforts to pressure the Orthodox in the coastal dioceses and inciting them to renounce obedience to their canonical leaders. During Sylvester's absence, which lasted a long time, he worked skillfully with some of the people of Aleppo and the Frankish monks to compose petitions from some of the people and to send letters from the consuls of France and Austria in Aleppo and Sidon to their ambassadors in the capital to help him to obtain a berat from the sultan. He spent significant sums to prepare other petitions, in which the Damascenens complained about their patriarch's long absence and explained that they needed a patriarch who could manage their religious affairs, at the same time expressing their satisfaction with Cyril Tanas and requesting him as their patriarch. The French ambassador and the papal nuncio in the capital offered four thousand Roman riyals to the defterdar and obtained the desired berat in 1745, sending it to the French consul in Sidon. Cyril received it and dispatched a representative to Damascus, who was able to gain possession of the church and to arrange for Mikhail Touma and some of the notables to be imprisoned.Then Cyril himself went up to Damascus, sealed his berat at the sharia court and took possession of his see. Dimitri Shehadeh, reporting from his grandmother, the daughter of the priest Mikhail Breik, that upon Cyril's return to Damascus the unrest increased, and whenever he recited the Creed with the addition "and the Son" staffs would appear and the beating would start. Cyril wrote to the metropolitans, informing them of the arrival of the berat and requesting their obedience. The bishops rejected his command and wrote to Ecumenical Patriarch Paisius about the affair of Cyril Tanas, requesting that he quickly write to Sylvester and urge him to hurry back to his see. The patriarch of Constantinople acted quickly and urged Sylvester to hurry. Along with Patriarch Parthenius of Jerusalem and thirteen metropolitans, he sent a petition to the sultan in which they explained the misdeeds of Cyril Tanas, who claimed that he was an Orthodox patriarch while being of the religion of the Franks, and testified that the canonical patriarch was alive and in possession of a berat from the sultan.

Cyril Returns to Deir al-Mukhalles: When the Ottoman government realized the aims of Cyril Tanas and the French and papal ambassadors, it issued Sylvester a second berat and a firman ordering that Cyril Tanas be arrested and sent into exile. Sylvester sent the order from the Sublime Porte informing the government and Christians in Damascus about the issue of the decrees cancelling Cyril's patriarchate and turning the cathedral and patriarchal residence over to the Orthodox. He then appointed Nicophorus, the metropolitan of Bayas, as his vicar, authorized to undertake all legal activities. He sent with him the firman and the papers containing the indicated orders. This vicar went to Damascus one year after these orders were issued and he was finely received by the governor of Damascus, As'ad Basha, who helped him to undertake all measures to strengthen his position.

Sylvester in Damascus (1754-1766): Sylvester spent twelve years in Damascus, during which the quarrels between him and the papists ended, because he realized that the fight was causing enormous material losses for both parties. He was not the sort of person to attract flocks through moral means, such as guidance, preaching, and true Christian love, which eliminates hatred and jealousy and elevates the Church to a level befitting her. Those who took the side of the Catholics in those times had priests who served them in their homes or in the churches of the Latins or other Catholic sects, but their weddings, baptisms and funerals in cities and Orthodox areas were performed by Orthodox priests and the fees for them were paid to the Orthodox authorities.

At the end of his life, Sylvester made holy chrism in the Church of St Nicholas in Damascus with two bishops, seventeen priests and ten deacons. He went to the mercy of his Lord on May 13, 1766 and was buried at the tomb of the patriarchs on the hill of Saint George.