Holy Bishops of Alexandria: The Early Construction of Patriarchal Holiness and its Transformation through the Ecclesiastical Divisions of the Fifth and Sixth Century

My paper supports the thesis that the ideological construction of patriarchal sanctity is of ancient origin, traces of which can be found as early as the early fourth century in the first texts mentioning the martyr Peter of Alexandria. The sanctity of the following patriarchs was based primarily on the connection between martyrdom (not always resulting in their death, but more often in their exile) and orthodoxy, a pairing that gains significance due to the numerous episodes demonstrating the independence of the bishops of Alexandria from imperial political power, often at the cost of personal persecution. It will also be interesting to explore the different forms of sanctity in the two churches that emerged in the sixth century following Christological controversies: the sanctity of John the Almoner can be compared with that of Damian of Alexandria.