The correspondence of metropolitan Macarius of Amida with archimandrite Porphyrius (Uspensky)

In this article, two letters from Macarius (between 1805 and 1810-1870), Metropolitan of Amida of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, to Archimandrite Porphyrius (Uspensky), preserved in his collection in the St. Petersburg branch of the RAS Archive, are published, translated and commented. The first of these, drawn up at Constantinople on August 5, 1852, is written entirely in Arabic. It deals with the complicated relationship between the Arab bishop who converted from Unia to Orthodoxy with the Greek church hierarchs, who delayed the fulfillment of his requests concerning the plight of his metropolis. The second letter was sent on October 5, 1863, during the stay of Met. Macarius in Russia at the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow with an introduction in Russian and the main part in Arabic. It refutes the assertion of Archim. Porphyrius about the fact that in the church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian in Amida their relics have not survived. Apparently, Met. Macarius never found understanding with the Orthodox clergy, which prompted him, shortly before his death, to return to Uniatism.