When was the Schism between Eastern and Western Christianity? St. Nectarios of Aegina rejected the date 1054, insisting: “no Ecumenical Council had been convened, nor a major Synod, nor was the Pope excommunicated, nor was it confirmed that all the Patriarchs had agreed.” He proposed the year 1449. It most certainly was not at 1054. The following article was written by Seraphim Popov:
St. George the Hagiorite and the Date of the East-West Schism
When dating the East-West schism, from an Orthodox perspective, it is important to keep in mind the witness of the Eastern Saints. If we date the schism so early that it occurs while Orthodox Saints were still keeping communion with Rome and defending the Latins, then we run the risk of condemning these very Saints of communing with schismatics or defending heresy. In such instances, it would seem that we exalt ourselves as wiser than the Saints, or more capable of discerning their own times than they. We ought to exercise caution when making definitive judgments in these matters, and avoid the temptation of taking positions hastily, whether out of preference or aversion towards the West. We assume that the Orthodoxy or heterodoxy of particular churches in a given time period can typically be discerned by the Saints contemporary to that time and place. Therefore, if any canonized Orthodox Saint has affirmed the Orthodoxy of the Latins after 1054, then we must assume that the Latins were still members of the one Orthodox Church at least up until the lifetime of that Saint and the composition of his Vita.
There is an Orthodox Saint who had directly assessed the orthodoxy of the Latins in the year 1064. His name is St. George the Hagiorite, and he is one of the greatest Georgian Orthodox Saints of the 11th century, a notable writer, a great ascetic, a champion of Orthodoxy. He was highly educated in the Holy Fathers, and certainly knew how to tell the difference between Orthodox and heretics. St. George the Hagiorite travelled to Constantinople and had an audience with the Emperor Constantine X Doukas (r. 1059-1067) at a time when legates of the Roman Church were also visiting Constantinople. St. George, who certainly understood the Holy Fathers, and was able to discuss matters of faith with the representatives of the Western Church directly, could soundly say of the West as late as 1064:
“Nor did the Romans, once they recognized God, ever turn away from Him nor did error ever penetrate among them.” 1
And a little later he adds that the disciplinary differences between Greeks and Latins were not essential because: “the faith is correct.”2 The Saint does not say these things out of ignorance, for he was learned in the Holy Fathers and was in the very presence of the Latins: therefore, he was not mistaken with respect to either. Nor was he an ‘ecumenist’ by any stretch of the imagination, nor was he concerned about offending the Latins. For when asked about the Armenians, who also had legates present, he said: “Do not even mention the perverse faith.”3 Therefore, St. George was neither a compromiser, nor a flatterer, and neither was he ignorant of the Fathers, nor was he ignorant of the Latins. We conclude that if he assessed the Latins of his time as Orthodox, it is because they really were so. The most straightforward explanation of this would be that the Latins at this point in time still understood the Filioque in the sense of St. Maximus the Confessor. They were still fully Orthodox.
The Vita of St. George, which includes this information, was written in the year 1066 and was sent to Mount Athos, where it was received by many holy and sanctified men. Therefore, it must have been the case that even as late as 1066, the Latins were still fully Orthodox. If they had actually embraced a heresy at this point in time, St. George would have condemned them rather than affirming their orthodoxy. Thus, it is impossible to date the schism between East and West any earlier than 1066, for to do so would impune St. George and make him complicit in heresy. The date of the schism must be identified at some later point. Even if, for sake of argument, the West fell into heresy just a year after the Vita was written, this would still mean that Sts. Hermann of Reichenau (d. 1054), Íñigo of Oña (d. 1057), Ælfwold II of Sherborne (d. 1058), Dominic Loricatus (d. 1060), Gisela of Hungary (d. 1059), Duthac of Ross (d. 1065), Arialdo of Milan (d. 1066), Conrad of Pfullingen (d. 1066), Edward the Confessor (d. 1066), Gottschalk the Obotrite (d. 1066), John Scotus of Mecklenburg (d. 1066), and Theobald of Provins (d. 1066), as well as the apparition of Our Lady of Walsingham (1061) are fully Orthodox. Thus, while St. George does not give us an exact date for the schism, his example certainly does limit what is possible in terms of assigning a date: whenever it occurred, it must have occurred sometime after 1066.
1. The Life of St. George the Hagiorite, Ch. 77., translated by Fr. Paulus Peeters SJ and D. P. Curtin (Dalscassian Press, 2023)
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid. Ch. 78.