Георгий, архиепископ Дамасский: самозванческая интрига в истории взаимоотношений Маронитской Церкви и Святого Престола в середине XVI в.

In the article we describe and investigate a curious case in the relations between the Maronite Church and the Holy See in the 1560s. The messenger of the Maronite Patriarch Moses al-‘Akkarī (1524-67) to Pope Pius IV (1559-65), a priest from Cyprus called George, distorted the Patriarchal letter and claimed the position of the Maronite Archbishop of Damascus. In the forged document George on behalf of the Patriarch presented his own requests to be appointed a Patriarchal deputy over all Maronite bishops and to be given a monastery in Cyprus for his residence. His other wish - to be sent to the Council of Trent - was not granted by the Pope but otherwise the scheme was largely successful as he managed to obtain a title to the monastery in Cyprus. Instead of bringing the Papal bull to the Patriarch George headed straight to Cyprus where he settled and made use of the vestments sent as a gift to the Patriarch by the Pope. The Latin translation of the forged letter to the Pope is now kept in the collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts in St Petersburg (former private collection of Nikolai P. Likhachev) (IOM, Syr. 38, fol. 3v-4v) and is published for the first time in the article. It is accompanied by a dossier of documents related to the affair: a note with the Italian text and Syriac transcription of George’s address to the Pope (published for the first time from the MS IOM, Syr. 38, fol. 5r and 1r); a note, in Italian, by the archpriest of Tripoli Joseph Assemani (19th century) testifying to the accuracy of the Latin translation of the original Syriac letter of the Patriarch (published for the first time from the MS IOM, Syr. 38, fol. 8r); the bull of Pope Pius IV to Patriarch Moses al-‘Akkarī of 1 September 1562 – a reply to the Patriarchal letter forged by George; a letter, in vulgar Italian mixed with Latin and French, of Moses al-‘Akkarī to Pope Pius V of 27 April 1566 describing the betrayal committed by an unnamed Patriarchal messenger to Rome, which fits very well all that we know about George and his intrigue; an undated Latin note from the Vatican Secret Archive with a summary of a Patriarchal request to ordain a certain George of Cyprus Archbishop of Damascus. All published documents are provided with the Russian translation. Also attached is a Russian translation of a section (AD 1561) from Stephen al-Duwaihī’s ‘Annales’ giving a partial and vague account of the affair of George. A parallel is drawn with the activities of Paisios Ligarides, a pseudo-Metropolitan of Gaza, at the Russian court in Moscow in 1660s.