Macedonian Names

It is no secret that the most notable figures of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia had Greek names. This does not surprise, for the Macedonians were indeed Greeks and the Greek language was the lingua franca of the region at the time. (We are aware that the Macedonians had their own dialect, and this will be the topic of a future post.)

In this short post today, we take a look at the names of the two best known Macedonians and dissect them to prove their Greekness. So let's get straight into it.

Alexander the Great: Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros) = ἀλέξω (verb aléxo meaning to ward off, to defend) + ἀνήρ (anír, genitive being ανδρός andrós, meaning [of] man) = Protector, defender of man

King Philip II: Φίλιππος (Fílippos) = φίλος (fílos meaning dear, loving, friend) + ἵππος ([h]íppos meaning horse) = Fond of horses, horse's friend

When the Yugoslavs hear this, they usually have nothing to say. Some try to argue that just because the ancient Macedonians had Greek names that doesn't make them Greeks. While other, more extreme Yugoslav nationalists will say that Aleksandr and Filip are names belonging to the same language family as Gojko and Zoran.

In any case, their arguments are always very weak, baseless in fact. They cannot claim that the ancient Macedonians were not Hellenes despite having Greek names and promoting Hellenic culture because they were forced to. (By who?) It just makes no sense.

Taking a look at other historical figures of the time and the names they bore, we can see that names often, if not always, reflected the language spoken and, consequently, the identity of the person.

Take Julius Caesar for example. Emperor of Rome, his birth name in Latin was Gaius Julius Caesar. In the history books we don't read that Caesar was secretly a Gaul or a German barbarian.

What about Tutankhamun, the boy pharaoh of Egypt? He wasn't secretly a Hebrew named Solomon or an Arab born Walid.

As always, if you'd like to get in touch with us, give some feedback, or ask a question, please email melbourne.macedonian@gmail.com.

EU Parliament President's Macedonia Gaffe

Controversial remarks made by recently installed president of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani have hit the media spotlight. According to Greek newspaper Kathimerini, during an interview while visiting Skopje last year, Mr. Tajani stated:

"Macedonia [sic] is a beautiful country. Everyone in Italy knows Macedonia [sic]. Why? Because Alexander the Great and Philip the Macedonian are your very well-known ancestors. There's no Europe without Alexander, as he was the first king who stopped an invasion from Iran and those countries. That's why we call him great, because he strengthened Europe's borders."

The revelation of the comments was naturally followed by vigorous protests from the Greek foreign ministry and the country's main political parties, as well as from one of the most prominent Greek MPs in Brussels, Dimitris Papadimoulis (Syriza party), who is one of the European Parliament's vice-presidents.

The strong denunciation of the comments from Greece – which is a member of the EU unlike FYROM – led to president Tajani posting in Greek on Twitter yesterday that "I know history very well. Alexander the Great was Greek and had ideas that contributed to the birth of Europe".

Preceding Mr. Tajani's tweet was a statement issued by the European Parliament confirming its firm stance on FYROM and that the only name by which it recognizes the country is the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. 

For the record, Antonio Tajani is a member of Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing Forza Italia party as well as the European People's Party.  He was installed president of the European Parliament just over a week ago on January 17.

Ecclesiastical Issues Facing FYROM and its Diaspora (II)

Today we continue from where we left off on our previous post regarding the so-called "Macedonian" church.

We talked about how the church in FYROM is schismatic – i.e. not in communion with any of the canonical churches that make up the Orthodox Communion, whether they be Serbia, Bulgaria, or Russia – and (briefly) explained how this situation came to be.

We also stressed that the same status applies to any (arch)diocese or metropolis in the diaspora identifying as "Macedonian" Orthodox, as these communities are under the jurisdiction of the schismatic church in FYROM.  

A question was sent to us asking whether the Yugoslavs being schismatic meant they had different beliefs. The answer, simply put, is no. For all heretical churches are indeed schismatic, but not all schismatic churches are heretical. 

That said, schismatics still cannot receive holy communion in a canonical Orthodox church. And this makes perfect sense, because there can be no common cup if there is no unity. Just like a Roman Catholic or member of one of the Protestant churches cannot receive communion in a canonical Orthodox church, neither can someone belonging to a schismatic Orthodox church. 

One of us here at Melbourne Macedonian remembers a priest once explaining to him that anyone outside of the Church who goes to a canonical priest to receive holy communion does not receive Body and Blood, but fire. 

Other schismatic churches that have left the Orthodox Communion but still identify as Orthodox include the Kyivan patriarchate of Ukraine (led by patriarch Filaret) and the so-called church of Genuine Orthodox Christians (old-calendarists) based in Greece.

Archbishop Jovan Vraniskovski leads a small church (number-wise) in FYROM that falls under the jurisdiction of the Serbian patriarchate and is canonical. This church was established in 2003 after archbishop Jovan, a hierarch of the schismatic church at the time and based in Veles (Greek Bελεσσά), responded positively to calls from Serbian patriarch Pavle the previous year for the church in FYROM to return its mother (Serbia).

Archbishop Jovan

Note that Jovan, like the schismatic Stefan, also bears the title of archbishop of Ohrid (Greek Αχρίδα). Some may wonder why the city of Ohrid bears more religious importance than Skopje (the capital) for the church in FYROM. This is because Ohrid was once one of the region's main spiritual hubs, where the faith flourished and a number of saints were born. St. Clement (Greek Κλήμης) is one of them. (He was a disciple of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who brought literacy to the Slavs with the creation of the Cyrillic alphabet.) 

The future of the church in FYROM is unclear. From what it looks like, the status quo will not change any time soon and the group led by archbishop Stefan will remain outside of the Orthodox Communion going forward. There's simply too much politics and too many big egos involved that make reunification with the Serbian patriarchate and the other Orthodox churches very hard. 

Indeed, it's very unlikely that the "Macedonian" church would accept returning to its previous status of daughter church to the Serbian church, thus becoming subordinate once again. And it's even less likely, impossible in fact, for independence to be granted to the "Macedonian" church by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, for doing so would mean bringing a 15th autocephalous church into the Communion with a name that is not in line with history or nature and distorts the facts.

The Macedonian [sic] Australian Pride Facebook Page

Our friends at Macedonian [sic] Australian Pride have sent their love via Facebook to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs this Julian-calendar Christmas Eve (6th January). Why? Because apparently a Russian graphic labelling the northern Greek administrative regions of Western, Central, and Eastern Macedonia (and Thrace) with their actual names constitutes Russian recognition of these regions as territories of FYROM.

It's posts like these and the comments that follow that make us laugh and realize that the Yugoslavs really don't have any arguments or facts to back their claims. 

For example, apparently only the ancient kingdom of Macedonia had a monarch. Other Greek-speaking regions had prime ministers and presidents, as they were democracies. Guess that means King Leonidas of Sparta (the 300) was not a king after all. 

Another example is the name Thessaloniki, which was apparently invented only last century. Guess that means St. Paul's two letters to the Thessalonians found in the New Testament need to be renamed. And while we're at it, we may as well rewrite the history books so that the world knows King Philip II never had a daughter called Thessaloniki...

As noted in a previous post, Melbourne Macedonian has no intention of engaging in round-the-clock online warfare with the various Yugoslav-run pages on social media sites.

However, if we see something we deem to be incorrect or deceiving, out of line with history or lacking sheer common sense, we will respond.