Meletios Galesiotes
Our Venerable Father Meletios the Confessor of Mount Galesion
Venerable · Confessor · b. c. 1209, in Pontus (baptised Michael) — d. c. 1283
Commemorated 19 January — Principal commemoration
Meletios the Confessor (c. 1209 – c. 1283), called "the Galesiote" from Mount Galesion near Ephesus where he was a monk, was one of the great confessors of Orthodoxy against the false Union of Lyons (1274) imposed by the emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. A monk first on Sinai and then at the Monastery of Saint Lazarus on Galesion, renowned for extreme asceticism, he stood at the head of the resistance to the union with Rome — rebuking the emperor to his face as a "second Julian the Apostate" — and for it was imprisoned, exiled, and had his tongue cut out, yet (the tradition holds) continued to speak in defence of the faith. In his exile he composed the vast didactic poem the Alphabetalphabetos, setting out the whole of the Orthodox faith and life. He reposed about 1283, his relics venerated at Galesion. He is commemorated on January 19.
He was born about the year 1209 in the region of Pontus, on the southern shore of the Black Sea, and baptised Michael, the son (the accounts say) of a soldier named George and his wife Maria. Drawn from youth to the things of God, he left his homeland and became a monk on Mount Sinai, taking the name Meletios; there and afterward he practised an asceticism so severe — weeks without food, nights without sleep, in unceasing fasting, vigil, and prayer — that it astonished his fellow monks. He settled at length near Ephesus on Mount Galesion, at the Monastery of Saint Lazarus (the holy mountain made famous a century and a half before by Lazarus of Mount Galesius), where he perfected himself in obedience and the contemplative life.
The confession against the Union of Lyons
Meletios's greatness is that of the confessor. When the emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, seeking Western political support and protection against his enemies, forced through the union of the Churches at the Second Council of Lyons (1274) — accepting the papal claims, the Filioque, and communion with Rome — the monastic and faithful conscience of Byzantium rose against it, and Meletios became one of the leaders of the resistance. Coming to Constantinople, he denounced the union and the innovations it carried (the Filioque, the azymes, the papal supremacy), and reproached the emperor himself as a "second Julian the Apostate" for betraying Orthodoxy. Patriarch Joseph I had resigned rather than accept the union; the anti-unionists looked to men like Meletios and his companion Galaktios.
For his defiance Meletios was imprisoned and exiled — to the island of Skyros among other places — and subjected to torture. The tradition, associating him with the confessors of earlier ages, holds that his tongue was cut out (as Maximus the Confessor's had been) to silence his confession, and that his companion Galaktios was blinded; yet, the account marvels, Meletios continued to proclaim the faith. He remained steadfast to the end of the reign; only after the death of Michael VIII (1282) and the repudiation of the union under his son Andronikos II did the confessors' cause prevail.
Writings and repose
In his exile and imprisonment Meletios gave himself to writing in defence of Orthodoxy. His great work is the Alphabetalphabetos — an immense didactic poem in "political" (fifteen-syllable) verse, arranged as an alphabet of alphabets, gathering the essentials of the Orthodox faith, the moral and ascetic life, and teaching for salvation into a single vast composition; he wrote also on the spiritual life and on the state of souls after death (the "aerial toll-houses"). He reposed about the year 1283 (some accounts place his death a few years later), and his relics were kept at the Monastery of Saint Lazarus on Galesion, where they were honoured as a source of healing. He is commemorated on January 19.
Feast and commemoration
Meletios is kept on January 19 (church date; Old Calendar civil February 1), chiefly in the Greek calendars, together with Mark of Ephesus — a fitting pairing, for the two are the great Byzantine confessors against the two false unions with Rome, of Lyons (1274) and of Florence (1439).
Iconography
Meletios is depicted as an aged monk in the habit and Great Schema, an ascetic of gaunt and severe aspect, sometimes holding a scroll — the confessor of Galesion. No public-domain image of him identified with certainty was found for storage; the entry is noted as wanting an icon.
Disputed questions
- The year of repose. The death is commonly given as c. 1283; some sources place it about 1286, and certain records give a longer life-span. The entry gives c. 1283 with the variance noted.
- Not to be confused with the several other saints named Meletios — in particular Meletios the Great, Archbishop of Antioch (†381, kept February 12), and Meletios the Younger of Mount Myoupolis (†c. 1105). This Meletios is the Confessor of Mount Galesion of the thirteenth century.