A lecture at Hillsdale College
February 21, 2024
I have been asked to give a talk — a couple of talks, actually — on John Bekkos at Hillsdale College in Michigan next month. The talks are scheduled for March 20th and 21st, but as yet I have no details as to their exact times and locations.
Also, one of the editors of the series Eastern Catholic Studies and Texts, published by the Catholic University of America Press, has offered to publish my edition and translation of Bekkos’s De unione ecclesiarum in that series, and I have accepted the offer. There is no word as yet when that edition will appear, but I hope to finish work on the book by the end of this year.
For those who would simply like to read my translation of the De unione, with the revised Greek text, I have published it privately, as a work-in-progress; it can be ordered for $20 (a very reasonable price for a scholarly book) at the link below:
On the Union and Peace of the Churches of Old and New Rome
De unione ecclesiarum 
February 21, 2024 at 7:08 pm
One of my favorite anecdotes about him is when his request that the emperor grant a pardon was refused. John Bekkos threw his crozier to the ground and resigned in protest.
February 21, 2024 at 9:51 pm
It would be great if this were recorded for those of us who can’t be there. Any chance you could ask them to?
March 1, 2024 at 1:43 pm
Yes. Bekkos was nobody’s lapdog. One point though: he didn’t resign in protest at that point. He did so later, when his ecclesiastical enemies, led by the Bishop of Ephesus (the emperor’s father-confessor), caused him to be officially reprimanded for sending the emperor kolyva (boiled wheat, traditionally offered at memorial services) on an ornamental tray that had an Arabic inscription; the inscription was probably a verse from the Koran, and was deemed blasphemous. Bekkos withdrew to a monastery for a few months, until papal envoys arrived and the emperor, in panic, realized he needed Bekkos there to convince the westerners that the Union was still in force.
When Bekkos resumed his official duties he did so, apparently, on the condition that he be allowed to publish his writings in defense of the Union. Pachymeres, the historian who informs us of these things, says that it was around that time that Bekkos began publishing many books. Earlier, Bekkos had observed a promise to the previous patriarch, Joseph, not to respond in writing to his critics. But now he felt authorized to do so. One of the manuscripts of his works is probably an official edition that dates to this time, around the year 1280; that is the manuscript upon which I have based my edition of the De unione.
March 1, 2024 at 1:47 pm
I’ll ask them. If a video of the event is made public, I’ll let you know.