The term Matthewites represents a ‘family’ of schisms stemming from the person and ideology of Vicar-Bishop Matthew of Bresthena, Greece. Vicar-Bishop Matthew joined the early Greek Old-Calendarists as an archimandrite, was consecrated a vicar-bishop by the three original leaders of the Old-Calendarists (Metropolitan’s Chrysostom, Chrysostom, and Germanos) in 1935, but then broke away in schism from them in 1937 when he failed to persuade them to treat the New-Calendarist hierarchy of that time as outside the Church and graceless on account of the new-menaion innovation.
By the late 1940’s, believing himself to be the only Orthodox hierarch left in the world, he uncanonically single-handedly ordained hierarchs from his followers and then died. These later repented in the 1970’s and submitted to re-ordination by the ROCOR (which at that time was in communion with the Florinites [the synod of the original leaders of the Old-Calendarists]) which the Matthewites had appealed to judge their dispute with the other Greek Old-Calendarists. However, five years later they again changed their mind and, repudiating their corrective ordinations, again isolated themselves as ‘the only Orthodox’ and began a series of squabbles that has now created three or more schisms presently among them.
The Matthewites are the first schismatics and fighters against the canons from the Greek Old-Calendarists.
The Matthewites: The First Schismatics of the Greek Old Calendar Movement
A Series of Matthewite Postings Revealing Vicar Bishop Matthew’s Personality and Errors from his own writings.
A Short Recapitulation of Some Lamentable Aspects of Matthewite History
Archbishop Gregory P.O. Box 3177 Buena Vista, CO 81211-3177 USA Email: ArchbishopGregory@starband.net
Copyright 2005.
