The life of St Mark Eugenikos of Ephesus
When the Byzantine emperor sought to reunite the Eastern and Western Churches at the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438 and 1439, hoping for military help against the advancing Ottomans, Mark was sent as one of the Eastern Church's chief representatives and theologians.
He went to the council prepared to seek genuine reconciliation, but came to believe that what was being offered was not true union but a one sided surrender on matters he held essential, above all the Western addition to the Creed and the claims of papal authority over the whole Church. When the other Eastern bishops present eventually signed the act of union, Mark alone refused, holding that agreement in matters of faith could not be bought at the price of truth. He returned home to lead the resistance to the union, which most of the Orthodox faithful ultimately shared, and on his deathbed in 1444 he charged his closest disciple, later Patriarch Gennadios, to guard the Church against the same pressures. He was formally glorified as a saint in 1734.
