Letter concerning the consecration of Theodore

This is one of the numerous texts issued from the ecclesiastical struggles within the Miaphysite Church linked to the controversial figure of Paul of Beit Ukkame, or Paul the Black, patriarch of Antioch from 550 to 575. Paul was the secretary of the patriarch Theodosius I of Alexandria and probably aspired at succeeding him, but he was instead sent to the East and consacrated patriarch of Antioch. In 571 he is said to have accepted communion with the Chalcedonians and was imposed a three-year penitence in order to be rehabilitated. In 575 he meddled in the election of the Syrian monk Theodore as patriarch of Alexandria, probably to regain influence in Egypt. But his candidate was eventually rejected by the local miaphysite community, and Paul and Theodore were both excommunicated by the patriarch elected by the rival faction, Peter IV.

Metras' account of the consacration of Theodore as patriarch of Alexandria is mentioned in a section of the miscellany manuscript London, British Library, Additional 14533, entitled by Wright (1871: 974): 'Charges made by the followers of Paul of Beit Ukkame, with replies to them'. A translation of the passage is provided by Van Roey - Allen (1994: 298), who identify the text with the document mentioned in Sergius' 'Defence of patriarch Paul of Beit Ukkame'. According to Sergius, though, the latter was a collective work which was being circulated under the name of Metras.