The Moorish Orthodox
Diocese of New Jersey
Cathedral of Saints Sergius & Bakkhus
Ong's Hat Road
Pemberton Township, New Jersey 08068
Tel/Fax: (973) 776-3901, Ext. 8683
E-Mail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.welcome.to/moorishorthodoxy
PRESS RELEASE:
For immediate release
February 26, 2002 - 11:15am (EST)
MOORISH ORTHODOX CHURCH TO DECLARE 7TH-CENTURY ROMAN
POPE A SAINT: WAS ONLY POPE CONDEMNED BY ROME
Pope Honorius I occupied the See of Rome from 625 until his
death on 12 October,
638. A native of the Campania, he was
consecrated on either 27 October or 3
November (recorded dates vary), in succession to
Boniface V.
His chief notoriety has come to him from the fact that he
was condemned as a
heretic by the sixth general council (680) in
connection with his apparent espousal
of Monothelitism, a theological position holding
that Jesus of Nazareth was
possessed of a single Divine will, made manifest
in two natures, Davine and
human. This is the doctrine held to to
this day by the Armenian, Coptic (Egyptian),
Syriac/Jacobite and Ethiopian Apostolic Orthodox
Churches, amongst the oldest
branches of Christianity still existing.
The Monothelite question was raised about 634 in a letter to
this pope from the
Patriarch of Constantinople, Sergius. He related
that Emperor Heraclius, when in
Armenia in 622, in refuting a Monophysite of the
Severian sect, had made use of
the expression "one operation"
(energy, energeia) of the Incarnate Word. Cyrus,
Bishop of the Lazi, had considered this
doubtfully orthodox, and had asked advice
of Sergius. Sergius replied (he says) that he
did not wish to decide the matter,
but had learned that the expression had been
used by his predecessor Mennas
in a letter to Pope Vigilius, whence it came to
fall sequentially into the hands of his
successor Honorius.
The critical phrase in Honorius' letter sent in reply is:
"Wherefore we acknowledge one Will of our
Lord Jesus Christ, for evidently it
was our nature and not the sin in it
which was assumed by the Godhead, that
is to say, the nature which was created
before sin, not the nature which was
vitiated by sin."
Sergius, after receiving the pope's letter approving his
cautiousness, composed an
"Ecthesis", or exposition, which was
issued by the Emperor towards the end of 638.
In conformity with the words of Honorius it
orders all the subjects of Heraclius to
confess one Will in our Lord, and to avoid the
expressions "one operation" and "two
operations".
Under Emporer Constantine Pogonatus, and with the connivance
of Pope Agatho,
a general council met at Constantinople on 7
Nov. 680. On 12 March, 681, a packet
was produced which one hierarch Macarius had
sent to the emperor, but which had
not opened. It proved to contain the letter of
Sergius to Cyrus and to Honorius, the
forged letter of Mennas to Vigilius, and the
letter of Honorius to Sergius.
Having been made privy to the brief's content, the
thirteenth session of the Council
sitting on 28 March condemned Honorius thus:
"Those whose impious dogmas we execrate, we
judge that their names also shall
be cast out of the holy Church of
God", that is, Sergius, Cyrus, Pyrrhus, Peter, Paul,
Theodore, all which names were mentioned
by the holy Pope Agatho in his letter to
the pious and great emperor, "and
were cast out by him, as holding views contrary
to our orthodox faith; and these we define
to be subject to anathema. And in addition
to these we decide that Honorius also,
who was pope of elder Rome, be with them
cast out of the holy Church of God, and
be anathematized with them, because we
have found by his letter to Sergius that
he followed his opinion in all things, and
confirmed his wicked dogmas".
According to the Moorish Orthodox Bishop of New Jersey, Dr.
Sotemohk Beeyayelel,
"There lies in the secret archive of the
Vatican Library to this day a text known as the
"Grimoire of Honorius," whose
existence was only recently made known to us by a
revered academic, and one of the attendants of
those archives. Notwithstanding his
years of standing as a habitue of the Vatican
and in spite of his immeasurably valuable
service to the Holy See, he is in constant fear
that were his having made us privy to
the existence of this volume, his life - and
that of his family - would be placed in real
danger. Knowing what we do of the 'Holy
See's modus operandi,' we have no choice
but to lend this brave man credence in his
fears."
According to the Bishop, the substance of this volume is a
collection of
statements by Honorius defending his theological and
political positions against
contemporary as well as future opponents, but
the monothelite issue plays but a
very insubstantial part in it.
Rather, the Grimoire of Honorius, whose existance the
Vatican has until now made
no statement on, contains in the most part
defenses by Honorius of his work to accept,
reconcile with and embrace in the life of the
Church a dissident faction of Egyptian
and Levantine Christians who had formed a sect
which, in addition to exhibiting both
Carpocratian as well as Valentinian
"heretical" features, was most pronouncedly a
"proto-Freemasonic" body.
Its utilization of contemporary Masonic devices is
remarkable, according to Bishop
Sotemohk, including both graphical (such as,
e.g., the 'compass and square' familiar
to all) as well as textual appurtenences (e.g.,
the reference to the Deity as the "Supreme
Architect" and the incorporation into its liturgy of a
wide variety of terms taken from
the stonebuilding trade).
Moreover, the sect (which was nameless) appears to have
conceived of itself as
being the anti-Roman, anti-authoritarian and
antinomian "Underground Stream" of the
Johannine Church, whose task it was to remain
underground until the time of its public
work was come.
According to its spokespersons, the reasons for the
canonization of Pope
Honorius by the Moorish Orthodox Church include the Saint's
scholarship, life
of holy asceticism, courage in defending hmself
and his beliefs against the slanders
of the self-denominated Orthodox of his day, the
attacks he has suffered at the hands
of Rome and her minions until the present, and
most emphatically, his seeking to
bring the Johannine, esoteric tradition hidden
within Christianity into the forefront of
Christendom.
The Moorish Orthodox Church's Bishop of New Jersey, the
Right Reverend Sotemohk A.
Beeyayelel, has not set a date for the
canonization rites. According to Dr. Beeyayelel,
these will most likely take place over the
period of Summer or Fall of 2002 at the diocese's
Cathedral of Saints Sergius & Bakkhus, Ong's
Hat, Pemberton Township, New Jersey.
Please contact the diocese's public information office by
telephone or e-mail or see its
website (http://www.welcome.to/moorishorthodoxy)
for more detailed information.