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Eastern Orthodox Church

second-largest Christian church

51 dated entries naming Eastern Orthodox Church, drawn from 42 separate years between 320 CE and 2025 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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4th century

  • 320March 10 – Cyrion and Candidus, Armenian Orthodox priest and saintssource
  • 348December 12 – Saint Spyridon, Greek-Cypriot Orthodox bishop and saint (b. 270)source
  • 350November 26 – Paul I of Constantinople, Byzantine Orthodox bishop and saint.source
  • 360Eusebius of Emesa, Byzantine Orthodox bishop and saint (b. 290)source
  • 360December 18 – Auxentius of Mopsuestia, Byzantine Orthodox priest and saintsource
  • 360November 11 – Abramios the Recluse, Byzantine Orthodox priest and saintsource
  • 361December 24 – George of Cappadocia, Byzantine Orthodox archbishop and saintsource
  • 361December 24 – George of Laodicea, Byzantine Orthodox archbishop and saintsource
  • 362August 5 – Eusignius of Antioch, Byzantine Orthodox bishop and martyr (b. 252)source
  • 362December 10 – Gemellus of Ancyra, Byzantine Orthodox bishop and saintsource
  • 362February 25 – Reginos, Greek Orthodox bishop and saintsource
  • 362June 28 – Basil of Ancyra, Byzantine Orthodox bishop and saintsource
  • 362October 20 – Artemius, Egyptian Orthodox martyr and saintsource
  • 383May 30 – Isaac of Dalmatia, Byzantine Orthodox priest and saintsource

5th century

  • 447The Synod of Toledo (Spain) tries to add the filioque clause to the Nicene Creed. The Eastern Orthodox Church refuses to go along with this idea.source

6th century

  • 532February 23 – Emperor Justinian I orders the building of a new Orthodox Christian basilica in Constantinople – the Hagia Sophia. He chooses Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles as architects. The material for the construction is brought from all over the empire, such as large stones from quarries in Porphyry, Egypt. More than 10,000 people are employed.source
  • 535Byzantine troops drive the extremist Monophysite party out of Alexandria, and establish Theodosius I as patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church.source
  • 544Jacob Baradaeus consecrates Sergius of Tella as patriarch of Antioch, opening a permanent schism between the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.source
  • 550Eustathius of Mtskheta, Orthodox Christian saintsource
  • 563The new Hagia Sophia (cost: 20,000 pounds of gold), with its numerous chapels and shrines, octagonal dome and mosaics, becomes the centre and most visible monument of Eastern Orthodoxy.source
  • 595September 2 – John IV ("the Faster"), patriarch of Constantinople, dies after a 13-year reign in which he has mediated disputes between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Monophysites.source

7th century

  • 634Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor Heraclius, ill, infirm, and unpopular with the Eastern Orthodox Church, is unable to personally lead the Byzantine army to resist the Muslim conquest of the Levant. He sends his brother Theodore to assemble forces to retake the newly won Muslim territories. Monophysites and Jews throughout Syria welcome the Arab invaders, as they are discontented with Byzantine rule.source
  • 634Sophronius becomes patriarch of Jerusalem. He sends synodical letters to Pope Honorius I and the Eastern patriarchs, explaining the Orthodox belief, by renouncing Monothelitism.source
  • 638Heraclius issues his Ekthesis, espousing the Monothelete doctrine (that there is only one will in Christ), and setting it forth as the official doctrine of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Ekthesis is vigorously opposed, notably by Maximus the Confessor.source
  • 681September 16 – The Sixth Ecumenical Council (see 680) ends at Constantinople. The council reaffirms the Orthodox doctrines of the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and condemns monothelitism.source
  • 692The Quinisext Council is held in Constantinople; it lays the foundation for the Orthodox canon law. Justinian II suppresses non-Orthodox religious practices, and orders the arrest of Pope Sergius I; the militias of Rome and the Exarchate of Ravenna refuse, and take the pope's side.source

8th century

  • 719The Church of Nubia transfers its allegiance, from the Eastern Orthodox Church to the Coptic Church (approximate date).source
  • 787Second Council of Nicaea: Empress Irene restores the veneration of icons (images of Christ and saints). This is a major victory of the monks, who will advance extensive claims to complete freedom for the Eastern Orthodox Church in religious matters. This ends the iconoclastic period in the Byzantine Empire.source

9th century

  • 843March 11 – Feast of Orthodoxy – Official end of Iconoclasm: Empress Theodora II restores the veneration of icons in the Orthodox churches in the Byzantine Empire.source
  • 862During the Council of Shirakavan representatives of the Armenian, Byzantine and West-Syrian Churches convenes to discuss church union. Though this is not achieved, an agreement is formulated which allows for the peaceful co-existence of Orthodox and non-Chalcedonians in the Byzantine-Armenian borderlands.source
  • 863The Byzantine Empire invades Bulgaria in order to impose Orthodox Christianity on Boris I.source
  • 864The Christianization of Bulgaria begins: Boris I, Knyaz of the Bulgarian Empire, is converted to Orthodox Christianity. His family and high-ranking dignitaries accept the Orthodox faith at the capital, Pliska - from this point onwards the rulers of the Bulgarian Empire are known as ‘Tsars’ rather than ‘Khans’.source

10th century

  • 921September 15 – Ludmila, Bohemian duchess and widow of Bořivoj I, is murdered by her daughter-in-law Drahomíra at Tetín (modern Czech Republic). Ludmila will be canonised and become the patron saint of Bohemia and is venerated in the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches.source
  • 957Olga of Kiev, ruler and regent of Kievan Rus', converts to the Eastern Orthodox Church, from paganism (approximate date).source
  • 988Grand Prince Vladimir the Great, ruler of Kievan Rus', marries Anna Porphyrogenita (sister of Basil II) and converts to Christianity. He is baptized at Cherson in the Crimea, taking the Christian name of Basil (in honor of his brother-in-law). Vladimir returns in triumph to Kiev, and begins the Christianization of Kievan Rus' to the Eastern Orthodox Church.source

11th century

  • 1051Hilarion of Kiev (or Ilarion) becomes the first non-Greek metropolitan bishop of the Eastern Orthodox Church, in Kiev.source

12th century

  • 1134Neophytos of Cyprus, Cypriot Orthodox priest (d. 1214)source

13th century

  • 1277April – John XXI sends a papal embassy to Constantinople to force Michael VIII Palaiologos, his 18-year-old son and heir Andronikos and Patriarch John XI Bekkos to reaffirm their allegiance to the Union of Lyon in the Palace of Blachernae. Michael refuses to accept a religious union of the Greek Orthodox Church with Rome.source
  • 1278May 1 – William of Villehardouin, prince of Achaea, dies. By the terms of the Treaty of Viterbo, his lands passed under the direct control of Charles I, king of Sicily. Charles appoints a bailiff to rule the Latin principality. In response, Charles swears fealty to the new pope, Nicholas III, on May 24. He promises not to attack or invade the Byzantine Empire because Nicholas has hopes to unify the Orthodox Church with the Catholic Church.source
  • 1285Council of Blachernae: The Eastern Orthodox Church repudiates the Union with the Catholic Church, declared in the Second Council of Lyon.source

14th century

  • 1397Matthew I of Constantinople becomes the new Patriarch to lead the Eastern Orthodox Church to replace the previous Patriarch, Callistus II Xanthopoulos.source
  • 1397May 17 – Callistus II Xanthopoulos becomes the new Patriarch to lead the Eastern Orthodox Church after the death of the previous Patriarch Antony IV.source

15th century

  • 1494January 4 – The Cetinje Octoechos (Цетињски октоих, an Eastern Orthodox octoechos (liturgy), first tone), the first incunabulum written in the Serbian recension of Church Slavonic, and the first book printed in Cyrillic in Southeast Europe, is completed in Cetinje.source

16th century

  • 1575May 24 – In an attempt to reform the Eastern Orthodox Church, Lutheran missionaries meet with Jeremias II Tranos, the Ecumenical Patriarch, at his residence in Constantinople, and present him with a Greek translation of the Augsburg Confession. Jeremias sends the missionaries, Jakob Andreae and Martin Crusius, three rebuttals to define the objections he has to the Lutheran document, declaring the reasons why the Eastern Orthodoxy has no desire for reformation.source
  • 1590Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria Meletius I succeeds Silvester.source
  • 1594December 2 – The proposal for the Union of Brest (moving the Metropolitan of Kiev, Galicia and all Rus from the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Eastern Orthodox Church to the Roman Catholic Church) is made in a petition by the Metropolitan Michael Rohoza in a petition to Sigismund, monarch of Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and Finland. After a similar petition to Pope Clement VIII on June 12, 1595, the Union will be proclaimed on October 8, 1596.source

18th century

  • 1726November 20 – Callinicus, Metropolitan of Heraclea dies suddenly only one day after being elected the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the highest office in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Callinicus is said to have paid a record fee to the Ottoman Sultan to guarantee his appointment.source
  • 1779July 16 – Declaratory Rescript of the Illyrian Nation issued in order to regulate organization of Eastern Orthodox Church in Habsburg monarchy.source

19th century

  • 1861July 2 – Ivan Kasatkin lands on Hakodate, and introduces the Eastern Orthodox Church into Japan.source

20th century

  • 1926February 1 – Theodosius of Skopje, Bulgaria Orthodox religious leader and saint (b. 1846)source

21st century

  • 2025November 27–30 – An ecumenical meeting of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholic Church at Nicaea is held to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea.source

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