The Orthodox church of Marseille and the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the 19th century

This article examines the history of the Orthodox community in Marseille in the nineteenth century and its relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Drawing on a documented historical approach, the study places this community in the context of the ecclesiastical and political tensions that were then running through Orthodoxy, notably the rise of religious nationalism in Europe. The article analyzes the confrontation between a phyletist conception of the Church, based on national belonging, and the universalist vision defended by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which led to the formal condemnation of phyletism at the Council of 1872. The contribution of this research is twofold: it sheds light on the particular situation of an Orthodox community in the Western diaspora and contributes to the understanding of the ecclesiological issues that structured the debates over identity within Orthodoxy during that century.