ISTANBUL (RNS) — “Antichrist in a Cassock,” “Antichrist of Constantinople” and “Devil Incarnate” were among the terms Russia’s foreign intelligence service used to attack the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Bartholomew I, accusing him of meddling in Ukraine and trying to push the Russian Orthodox Church out of the Baltic states.
In a statement released Jan. 12, the agency, known by its Russian initials SVR, wrote: “Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who dismembered Orthodox Ukraine, continues his schismatic activities within the Orthodox Church. Now he has set his dark eye on the Baltic states. This ‘devil incarnate’ is obsessed with ousting Russian Orthodoxy from the Baltic states, establishing in its place church structures completely under the control of the Phanar,” referring to the Istanbul neighborhood where Bartholomew is headquartered.
Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, is traditionally considered “first among equals” of the world’s Orthodox Christian patriarchs. But what that title entails remains a matter of canonical debate, and in recent years Moscow has bitterly objected to his support for Orthodox national churches in Eastern Europe that have broken with the Russian church, overturning long-established spheres of influence.
Moscow declared itself in schism with Constantinople in 2018 after Bartholomew recognized an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church untethered from the Russian Orthodox Church and its patriarch, Kirill. The Russian church leader has clos …