History UsefulNotes / OrthodoxChristianity

Some jurisdictions, notably in Russia, Ukraine, and Serbia, follow a different calendar from the Catholic church (the Julian calendar, originated in Ancient Rome, which is considered the "holy calendar"), thus Christmas takes place January 7th. Others, such as Greece, Romania, and Constantinople itself, use a Revised Julian calendar that is almost exactly the same as the secular calendar (but will diverge at some point in the future), so they celebrate Christmas on December 25th. However, almost all of those churches still calculate Easter and related holidays according to the old calendar (yes, it's complicated). Easter ("Paskha") can be up to several weeks after Catholic Easter--or it can be on the very same day. This derives both from the difference in calendar and by being determined by a different method.

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' introduces us to the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, a fictional ChurchMilitant order tasked with protecting the secret of the Holy Grail's location.

* The PSP [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'' uses titles from Orthodox Christianity when referring to the leaders of Galgastan and Bakram. "Abuna" is a title found in much African [Oriental] Orthodox churches, particularly in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and is also used to colloquially refer to a priest among Syrian and Egyptian Christians. (It's a common Semitic term that means "our father", so, e.g., "Abuna Markos" is roughly equivalent to the Catholic "Father Mark".) "Hierophant" is a title that is not limited to Orthodoxy, but is commonly used in the Orthodox Church, particularly the Greek Orthodox Church. The UsefulNotes/PlayStation translation of the original game used [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholic]] titles instead.

There are also "Eastern Catholic" churches, which look and smell like Orthodox churches, and have many Orthodox practices (including even married priests[[note]]For a long time, the North American branches of the Maronite Church, historically native to Lebanon and Syria, did not allow married priests (unlike Maronite churches elsewhere), but that's no longer the case. This was true with most Eastern Catholics in US: when Eastern Catholic eparchies (administrative units equivalent to dioceses in Latin Churches) sent priests to minister to their immigrants in US, they would only send unmarried or widowed priests. One of the latter, Alexis Toth, a Ruthene priest from what was part of the Kingdom of Hungary at the end of 19th century, wound up causing a big controversy in US as he got into a fight with the local Latin bishop who was biased against Eastern Catholics--this prejudice was standard practice for American Catholic Church at the time, as they were very defensive about practices of the Catholic Church vis-a-vis the Protestant majority. Married priests practicing strange rites in communities of more recent immigrants than themselves was not something they liked. After acts of discrimination against his flock, egged on by the bishop he quarreled with, Fr. Toth led his flock, along with tens of thousands of other Eastern Catholics who felt slighted, to the Orthodox Church. He is now venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church of America. [[/note]]), but are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and accept the Pope's authority (and thus run on the Gregorian calendar and celebrate festivals on the Catholic dates, usually[[note]]Liturgical calendar is not consistent even among Eastern Catholic Churches: several continue to follow the Julian calendar (and the historical Orthodox formula for determining the data of Easter).[[/note]]). These churches make up 23 of the 24 churches that make up Catholicism--one of these is the Roman, the church usually considered the Catholic Church in most of the world--although most of the 23 non-Roman Catholic Churches are quite small. Otherwise, however, the ritual is entirely Eastern (including the way of signing the Cross). The Ukrainian Catholic Church is one of the largest and best known of these,[[note]]Apropos of nothing, Creator/AndyWarhol was a devout member of the related Ruthenian Catholic Church (Ruthenians being an eastern Slavic ethnic group closely related to Ukrainians from around the Carpathian Mountains, and mostly distinguished from Ukrainians by being ruled by Prussia and Austria rather than Russia; Warhol's parents were from Austrian-ruled lands in what is now Slovakia). As mentioned, Warhol always felt weird about making the Sign of the Cross the Eastern way he grew up upon entering the Latin Rite parish he attended in New York City (even in the Big Apple, finding a Ruthenian Catholic or even a Ukrainian Catholic parish could be difficult, ''especially'' if you lived in Manhattan as Warhol did--most of what Eastern Catholic parishes exist in the NYC area are in the Outer Boroughs (particularly Brooklyn and Queens) and New Jersey, and when you're around the corner from a Latin congregation, why bother with the [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCitySubway Subway]]/[[UsefulNotes/PortAuthorityTransHudson PATH]]?). You really never can tell...[[/note]] while the Syriac Maronite Church takes pride in being the only Eastern Catholic church that has an unbroken connection with the Pope since the formation of Christianity itself.[[note]]Theoretically, anyway. They're what you call a "lost tribe". They lost contact with him when the Schism happened and got stuck in the Western Levant as the Orthodox moved in around the yard, meaning they recognized the Papacy itself but didn't know which Pope ruled at which time because of the blockade. Only the arrival of the [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Crusaders]] in the 11th century put an end to that.[[/note]] Some older literature might call these Eastern Catholic churches "Byzantine Catholic" or "Uniate". The latter term is generally considered offensive, while the former is merely considered archaic and sometimes inaccurate (as most but not all Eastern Catholic churches use the Byzantine Rite). While there are in fact more Eastern Catholic Arabs (or Arabic-speakers, at any rate) than Ukrainians, they are split among several groups: In Levant alone, there are Syriacs (counterpart to Oriental Orthodox Syriac Church in the Levant) and Melkites (counterpart to Eastern Orthodox Church in the Levant), in addition to the Maronites (who don't have an Orthodox counterpart).[[note]]Leaders of all three groups hold the title "Patriarch of Antioch" in the Catholic Church, confusingly. [[/note]] Plus, most of the Armenian Catholic Church's followers are actually in the Middle East rather than Armenia itself [[note]] One of their leaders, Cardinal Krikor Bedros Agagianian, was almost elected as the Pope in 1960s, although he supposedly refused and yielded the position to John XXIII.[[/note]] and the followers of the Egyptian Coptic Catholic Church and the Chaldean Catholic Church (whose mother church is in Baghdad, Iraq) usually don't consider themselves Arabs although they are mostly Arabic-speaking.

There are also "Eastern Catholic" churches, which look and smell like Orthodox churches, and have many Orthodox practices (including even married priests[[note]]For a long time, the North American branches of the Maronite Church, historically native to Lebanon and Syria, did not allow married priests (unlike Maronite churches elsewhere), but that's no longer the case. This was true with most Eastern Catholics in US: when Eastern Catholic eparchies (administrative units equivalent to dioceses in Latin Churches) sent priests to minister to their immigrants in US, they would only send unmarried or widowed priests. One of the latter, Alexis Toth, a Ruthene priest from what was part of the Kingdom of Hungary at the end of 19th century, wound up causing a big controversy in US as he got into a fight with the local Latin bishop who was biased against Eastern Catholics--this prejudice was standard practice for American Catholic Church at the time, as they were very defensive about practices of the Catholic Church vis-a-vis the Protestant majority. Married priests practicing strange rites in communities of more recent immigrants than themselves was not something they liked. After acts of discrimination against his flock, egged on by the bishop he quarreled with, Fr. Toth led his flock, along with tens of thousands of other Eastern Catholics who felt slighted, to the Orthodox Church. He is now venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church of America. [[/note]]), but are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and accept the Pope's authority (and thus run on the Gregorian calendar and celebrate festivals on the Catholic dates, usually[[note]]Liturgical calendar is not consistent even among Eastern Catholic Churches: several continue to follow the Julian calendar (and the historical Orthodox formula for determining the data of Easter).[[/note]]). These churches make up 23 of the 24 churches that make up Catholicism--one of these is the Roman, the church usually considered the Catholic Church in most of the world--although most of the 23 non-Roman Catholic Churches are quite small. Otherwise, however, the ritual is entirely Eastern (including the way of signing the Cross). The Ukrainian Catholic Church is one of the largest and best known of these,[[note]]Apropos of nothing, Creator/AndyWarhol was a devout member of the related Ruthenian Catholic Church (Ruthenians being an eastern Slavic ethnic group closely related to Ukrainians from around the Carpathian Mountains, and mostly distinguished from Ukrainians by being ruled by Prussia and Austria rather than Russia; Warhol's parents were from Austrian-ruled lands in what is now Slovakia). As mentioned, Warhol always felt weird about making the Sign of the Cross the Eastern way he grew up upon entering the Latin Rite parish he attended in New York City (even in the Big Apple, finding a Ruthenian Catholic or even a Ukrainian Catholic parish could be difficult, ''especially'' if you lived in Manhattan as Warhol did--most of what Eastern Catholic parishes exist in the NYC area are in the Outer Boroughs (particularly Brooklyn and Queens) and New Jersey, and when you're around the corner from a Latin congregation, why bother with the [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCitySubway Subway]]/[[UsefulNotes/PortAuthorityTransHudson PATH]]?). You really never can tell...[[/note]] while the Syriac Maronite Church takes pride in being the only Eastern Catholic church that has an unbroken connection with the Pope since the formation of Christianity itself.[[note]]Theoretically, anyway. They're what you call a "lost tribe". They lost contact with him when the Schism happened and got stuck in the Western Levant as the Orthodox moved in around the yard, meaning they recognized the Papacy itself but didn't know which Pope ruled at which time because of the blockade. Only the arrival of the [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Crusaders]] in the 11th century put an end to that.[[/note]] Some older literature might call these Eastern Catholic churches "Byzantine Catholic" or "Uniate". The latter term is generally considered offensive, while the former is merely considered archaic and sometimes inaccurate (as most but not all Eastern Catholic churches use the Byzantine Rite). While there are in fact more Eastern Catholic Arabs (or Arabic-speakers, at any rate) than Ukrainians, they are split among several groups: In Levant alone, there are Syriacs (counterpart to Oriental Orthodox Syriac Church in the Levant) and Melkites (counterpart to Eastern Orthodox Church in the Levant), in addition to the Maronites (who don't have an Orthodox counterpart).[[note]]Leaders of all three groups hold the title "Patriarch of Antioch" in the Catholic Church, confusingly. [[/note]] Plus, most of the Armenian Catholic Church's followers are actually in the Middle East rather than Armenia itself [[note]] One of their leaders, Cardinal Krikor Bedros Agagianian, almost became the Pope in 1960s, although he supposedly refused and yielded the position to John XXIII.[[/note]] and the followers of the Egyptian Coptic Catholic Church and the Chaldean Catholic Church (whose mother church is in Baghdad, Iraq) usually don't consider themselves Arabs although they are mostly Arabic-speaking.

There are also "Eastern Catholic" churches, which look and smell like Orthodox churches, and have many Orthodox practices (including even married priests[[note]]For a long time, the North American branches of the Maronite Church, historically native to Lebanon and Syria, did not allow married priests (unlike Maronite churches elsewhere), but that's no longer the case. This was true with most Eastern Catholics in US: when Eastern Catholic eparchies (administrative units equivalent to dioceses in Latin Churches) sent priests to minister to their immigrants in US, they would only send unmarried or widowed priests. One of the latter, Alexis Toth, a Ruthene priest from what was part of the Kingdom of Hungary at the end of 19th century, wound up causing a big controversy in US as he got into a fight with the local Latin bishop who was biased against Eastern Catholics--this prejudice was standard practice for American Catholic Church at the time, as they were very defensive about practices of the Catholic Church vis-a-vis the Protestant majority. Married priests practicing strange rites in communities of more recent immigrants than themselves was not something they liked. After acts of discrimination against his flock, egged on by the bishop he quarreled with, Fr. Toth led his flock, along with tens of thousands of other Eastern Catholics who felt slighted, to the Orthodox Church. He is now venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church of America. [[/note]]), but are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and accept the Pope's authority (and thus run on the Gregorian calendar and celebrate festivals on the Catholic dates, usually[[note]]Liturgical calendar is not consistent even among Eastern Catholic Churches: several continue to follow the Julian calendar (and the historical Orthodox formula for determining the data of Easter).[[/note]]). These churches make up 23 of the 24 churches that make up Catholicism--one of these is the Roman, the church usually considered the Catholic Church in most of the world--although most of the 23 non-Roman Catholic Churches are quite small. Otherwise, however, the ritual is entirely Eastern (including the way of signing the Cross). The Ukrainian Catholic Church is one of the largest and best known of these,[[note]]Apropos of nothing, Creator/AndyWarhol was a devout member of the related Ruthenian Catholic Church (Ruthenians being an eastern Slavic ethnic group closely related to Ukrainians from around the Carpathian Mountains, and mostly distinguished from Ukrainians by being ruled by Prussia and Austria rather than Russia; Warhol's parents were from Austrian-ruled lands in what is now Slovakia). As mentioned, Warhol always felt weird about making the Sign of the Cross the Eastern way he grew up upon entering the Latin Rite parish he attended in New York City (even in the Big Apple, finding a Ruthenian Catholic or even a Ukrainian Catholic parish could be difficult, ''especially'' if you lived in Manhattan as Warhol did--most of what Eastern Catholic parishes exist in the NYC area are in the Outer Boroughs (particularly Brooklyn and Queens) and New Jersey, and when you're around the corner from a Latin congregation, why bother with the [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCitySubway Subway]]/[[UsefulNotes/PortAuthorityTransHudson PATH]]?). You really never can tell...[[/note]] while the Syriac Maronite Church takes pride in being the only Eastern Catholic church that has an unbroken connection with the Pope since the formation of Christianity itself.[[note]]Theoretically, anyway. They're what you call a "lost tribe". They lost contact with him when the Schism happened and got stuck in the Western Levant as the Orthodox moved in around the yard, meaning they recognized the Papacy itself but didn't know which Pope ruled at which time because of the blockade. Only the arrival of the [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Crusaders]] in the 11th century put an end to that.[[/note]] Some older literature might call these Eastern Catholic churches "Byzantine Catholic" or "Uniate". The latter term is generally considered offensive, while the former is merely considered archaic and sometimes inaccurate (as most but not all Eastern Catholic churches use the Byzantine Rite).

* ''[[VideoGame/CrusaderKings Crusader Kings 2]]'' has both Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy (presented in-game as [[ShownTheirWork Miaphysitism]]).

There are also "Eastern Catholic" churches, which look and smell like Orthodox churches, and have many Orthodox practices (including even married priests[[note]]For a long time, the North American branches of the Maronite Church, historically native to Lebanon and Syria, did not allow married priests (unlike Maronite churches elsewhere), but that's no longer the case. This was true with most Eastern Catholics in US: when Eastern Catholic eparchies (administrative units equivalent to dioceses in Latin Churches) sent priests to minister to their immigrants in US, they would only send unmarried or widowed priests. One of the latter, Alexis Toth, a Ruthene priest from what was part of the Kingdom of Hungary at the end of 19th century, wound up causing a big controversy in US as he got into a fight with the local Latin bishop who was biased against Eastern Catholics--this prejudice was standard practice for American Catholic Church at the time, as they were very defensive about practices of the Catholic Church vis-a-vis the Protestant majority. Married priests practicing strange rites in communities of more recent immigrants than themselves was not something they liked. After acts of discrimination against his flock, egged on by the bishop he quarreled with, Fr. Toth led his flock, along with tens of thousands of other Eastern Catholics who felt slighted, to the Orthodox Church. He is now venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church of America. [[/note]]), but are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and accept the Pope's authority (and thus run on the Gregorian calendar and celebrate festivals on the Catholic dates, usually[[note]]Liturgical calendar is not consistent even among Eastern Catholic Churches: several continue to follow the Julian calendar (and the historical Orthodox formula for determining the data of Easter).[[/note]]). These churches make up 23 of the 24 churches that make up Catholicism: the 24th is the Roman, although most of the 23 non-Roman Catholic Churches are quite small. Otherwise, however, the ritual is entirely Eastern (including the way of signing the Cross). The Ukrainian Catholic Church is one of the largest and best known of these,[[note]]Apropos of nothing, Creator/AndyWarhol was a devout member of the related Ruthenian Catholic Church (Ruthenians being an eastern Slavic ethnic group closely related to Ukrainians from around the Carpathian Mountains, and mostly distinguished from Ukrainians by being ruled by Prussia and Austria rather than Russia; Warhol's parents were from Austrian-ruled lands in what is now Slovakia). As mentioned, Warhol always felt weird about making the Sign of the Cross the Eastern way he grew up upon entering the Latin Rite parish he attended in New York City (even in the Big Apple, finding a Ruthenian Catholic or even a Ukrainian Catholic parish could be difficult, ''especially'' if you lived in Manhattan as Warhol did--most of what Eastern Catholic parishes exist in the NYC area are in the Outer Boroughs (particularly Brooklyn and Queens) and New Jersey, and when you're around the corner from a Latin congregation, why bother with the [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCitySubway Subway]]/[[UsefulNotes/PortAuthorityTransHudson PATH]]?). You really never can tell...[[/note]] while the Syriac Maronite Church takes pride in being the only Eastern Catholic church that has an unbroken connection with the Pope since the formation of Christianity itself.[[note]]Theoretically, anyway. They're what you call a "lost tribe". They lost contact with him when the Schism happened and got stuck in the Western Levant as the Orthodox moved in around the yard, meaning they recognized the Papacy itself but didn't know which Pope ruled at which time because of the blockade. Only the arrival of the [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Crusaders]] in the 11th century put an end to that.[[/note]] Some older literature might call these Eastern Catholic churches "Byzantine Catholic" or "Uniate". The latter term is generally considered offensive, while the former is merely considered archaic and sometimes inaccurate (as most but not all Eastern Catholic churches use the Byzantine Rite).

There are also "Eastern Catholic" churches, which look and smell like Orthodox churches, and have many Orthodox practices (including even married priests[[note]]For a long time, the North American branches of the Maronite Church, historically native to Lebanon and Syria, did not allow married priests (unlike Maronite churches elsewhere), but that's no longer the case[[/note]]), but are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and accept the Pope's authority (and thus run on the Gregorian calendar and celebrate festivals on the Catholic dates). Otherwise, however, the ritual is entirely Eastern (including the way of signing the Cross). The Ukrainian Catholic Church is one of the largest and best known of these,[[note]]Apropos of nothing, Creator/AndyWarhol was a devout member of the related Ruthenian Catholic Church (Ruthenians being an eastern Slavic ethnic group closely related to Ukrainians from around the Carpathian Mountains, and mostly distinguished from Ukrainians by being ruled by Prussia and Austria rather than Russia; Warhol's parents were from Austrian-ruled lands in what is now Slovakia). As mentioned, Warhol always felt weird about making the Sign of the Cross the Eastern way he grew up upon entering the Latin Rite parish he attended in New York City (even in the Big Apple, finding a Ruthenian Catholic or even a Ukrainian Catholic parish could be difficult, ''especially'' if you lived in Manhattan as Warhol did--most of what Eastern Catholic parishes exist in the NYC area are in the Outer Boroughs (particularly Brooklyn and Queens) and New Jersey, and when you're around the corner from a Latin congregation, why bother with the [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCitySubway Subway]]/[[UsefulNotes/PortAuthorityTransHudson PATH]]?). You really never can tell...[[/note]] while the Syriac Maronite Church takes pride in being the only Eastern Catholic church that has an unbroken connection with the Pope since the formation of Christianity itself.[[note]]Theoretically, anyway. They're what you call a "lost tribe". They lost contact with him when the Schism happened and got stuck in the Western Levant as the Orthodox moved in around the yard, meaning they recognized the Papacy itself but didn't know which Pope ruled at which time because of the blockade. Only the arrival of the [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Crusaders]] in the 11th century put an end to that.[[/note]] Some older literature might call these Eastern Catholic churches "Byzantine Catholic" or "Uniate". The latter term is generally considered offensive, while the former is merely considered archaic and sometimes inaccurate (as most but not all Eastern Catholic churches use the Byzantine Rite).

[[caption-width-right:300:Example of Orthodox iconography: [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} Jesus Christ]] Pantocrator (detail from the Deesis mosaic in Hagia Sophia, UsefulNotes/{{Istanbul}}).]]

No Pope (one of the main reasons for the split, and the biggest obstacle to reunification in the present). The church is instead led by several Patriarchs, each responsible for a different region. Kirill I is the current Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, by far the largest church, but the Ecumenical Patriarch of [[UsefulNotes/{{Istanbul}} Constantinople]] (currently Bartholomew I) is considered "first among equals" (the fancy technical term for this setup is "autocephaly", literally "self-headedness" in Greek). Since 2018, the Russian Orthodox Church and Ecumenical Patriarchate are not on speaking terms because of a dispute about the autocephaly of the Ukrainian church. The other churches are split on the issue and mostly uncomfortable with the tension (which has political implications given the oppositional stance UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin's [[UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia Russia]] has with much of UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}, especially after Putin invaded UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} in 2022).[[note]]The Russian Orthodox Church actually excommunicated the Ecumenical Patriarchate over the Ukrainian issue, but Constantinople has not returned the disfavor. Excommunicating Constantinople is not new to the Russian Orthodox, having done it at least twice in its history.[[/note]]

No Pope (one of the main reasons for the split, and the biggest obstacle to reunification in the present). The church is instead led by several Patriarchs, each responsible for a different region. Cyril I is the current Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, by far the largest church, but the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (currently Bartholomew I) is considered "first among equals". (The fancy technical term for this setup is "autocephaly", literally "self-headedness" in Greek). As of 2018, the Russian Orthodox Church and Ecumenical Patriarchate are not on speaking terms because of a dispute about the autocephaly of the Ukrainian church. The other churches are split on the issue and mostly uncomfortable with the tension (which has political implications given the oppositional stance Putin's Russia has with much of Europe, especially after [[UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} the war]]).[[note]]The Russian Orthodox Church actually excommunicated the Ecumenical Patriarchate over the Ukrainian issue, but Constantinople has not returned the disfavor. Excommunicating Constantinople is not new to the Russian Orthodox, having done it at least twice in its history.[[/note]]

No Pope (one of the main reasons for the split, and the biggest obstacle to reunification in the present). The church is instead led by several Patriarchs, each responsible for a different region. Cyril I is the current Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, by far the largest church, but the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (currently Bartholomew I) is considered "first among equals". (The fancy technical term for this setup is "autocephaly", literally "self-headedness" in Greek). As of 2018, the Russian Orthodox Church and Ecumenical Patriarchate are not on speaking terms because of a dispute about the autocephaly of the Ukrainian church. The other churches are split on the issue and mostly uncomfortable with the tension (which has political implications given the oppositional stance Putin's Russia has with much of Europe, especially after [[UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} the war]])[[note]]The Russian Orthodox Church actually excommunicated the Ecumenical Patriarchate over the Ukrainian issue, but Constantinople has not returned the disfavor. Excommunicating Constantinople is not new to the Russian Orthodox, having done it at least twice in its history.[[/note]]

* In ''Film/{{Loveless|2017}}'' (set in modern Russia), Zhenya's ex-husband Boris has to hide the fact that he's divorcing her, because his very Orthodox boss would not tolerate that from one of his employees and fire him. Said boss even takes his employees on religious pilgrimages as company vacations.

* ''Film/IvanTheTerrible'' starts with the [[AwesomeMomentOfCrowning lavish religious crowning]]] of [[UsefulNotes/IvanTheTerrible the eponymous Tsar of Russia]]. The Church's authorities are not quite happy when he immediately goes on a NewEraSpeech about ''everyone'' financially contributing to the expansion of Russia's military to make the country stronger.

* ''Film/IvanTheTerrible'' starts with the [[AwesomeMomentOfCrowning lavish crowning]]] of [[UsefulNotes/IvanTheTerrible the eponymous Tsar of Russia]]. The Church's authorities are not quite happy when he immediately goes on a NewEraSpeech about ''everyone'' financially contributing to the expansion of Russia's military to make the country stronger.

While there are monks and nuns much like in the Catholic church, you might not recognize them. Monks usually wear black robes and have very long, and sometimes unkempt, beards and hair (taking too much care of your appearance is seen as earthly vanity). Think "hippie" or "hermit" instead of "Friar Tuck". And nuns are usually [[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/File:Ystavshici.jpg draped head-to-toe in black,]] with their heads covered. On first glance, you're likely to think you're looking at a traditional Muslim woman. In fact, applying veils during prayer is quite common among Orthodox women, as this is seen as reflecting traditions of the Apostolic Age (or emulating Virgin Mary, who is always depicted wearing veils in icons). Catholicism used to adhere to this requirement as well until sometime after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, but there are places where it still sticks if you look hard enough.

The look-and-feel of the religion is very similar to Catholicism, much more so than to Protestantism (''pace'' the High Church forms of Anglicanism and Lutheranism): there are bishops, monks, nuns, saints and other pre-Reformational trappings. Church services have lots of chanting, gold vestments, incense, candles. But the liturgical languages are Greek, Old Church Slavonic or the national language of the country the particular Church is from (e.g., Japanese in Japan, English in the US, etc.) and the spirituality is decidedly more "Eastern" than Western churches (see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm Hesychasm]] for an example). Orthodox Christians make the sign of the cross up-down-right-left, whereas Catholics go up-down-left-right. In some spy stories, a Westerner might give himself away by crossing himself the wrong way while saying grace. That said, this isn't a hard-and-fast rule; Byzantine-rite Eastern Catholics (particularly members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Ruthenian Greek Catholic Churches) in full communion with Rome also go up-down-right-left.[[note]]Creator/AndyWarhol, a devout Ruthenian Greek Catholic his whole life, said he always felt weird going to services at Latin Rite churches because he made the Sign of the Cross the Eastern way--see below.[[/note]]

One of the two Churches resulting from the 11th century Great Schism of the [[UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} Christian]] Church, the other being the Roman Catholic Church. The schism developed gradually. For several centuries before the formal break, contact had been intermittent between the Eastern and Western churches, with each pretty much running its own show. As a result, when the schism occurred, each side could honestly believe "we never changed, ''they'' left ''us''". The "Great Schism" is generally dated from when a [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Papal]] legate and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other in 1054, but it had been a long time coming. It was also a long time going; at the time, hardly anybody recognized the schism of 1054 as anything other than a temporary political and jurisdictional brouhaha. Notably, when [[UsefulNotes/TheByzantineEmpire Emperor Alexios I Komnenos]] wrote to Pope Urban II asking for [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Western help]] against the Turks in Anatolia and the Levant a little over 50 years ''after'' the alleged "Great Schism", neither side saw this as anything other than a request to defend the one universal Church against a newly powerful enemy.[[note]]Or if they did see it as something else, they either saw it as a desperate attempt to preserve the Eastern Empire or as an unusually martial pilgrimage to Jerusalem; either way, nobody thought the Eastern and Western Churches were different institutions at the time. To the extent that the "Latins" preferred to be ministered to by their own priests, it was a purely cultural question of familiar rites and language.[[/note]] It wasn't until well into the 13th or even 14th century that the Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches really began to see themselves as wholly separate institutions. Ordinary Christians on both sides generally didn't get the memo until after [[UsefulNotes/TheFallOfConstantinople Constantinople fell to the Turks]] in 1453. Go to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East-West_Schism the Other Wiki]] if you want all the gory details.

** Most Orthodox churches in Western countries are willing to use the primary local language at least part of the time. It would be a rare church that would insist on the service being totally in Greek, when participants and family members would not understand what is going on. At the very least, a translated service text would be provided. Of course, this especially would be ignored because having it all literally be Greek to Ian is ''really'' funny.

* ''Film/MyBigFatGreekWedding'' shows a Greek Orthodox baptism and (naturally) a wedding ceremony. The ceremonies are depicted inaccurately. (Of course, everybody--''especially'' actual Greek-American Orthodox Christians--[[MST3KMantra let all of this go]] [[RuleOfFunny because it’s funny]].) Significantly, Creator/NiaVardalos, who wrote the script (in addition to playing Toula), is Greek Orthodox and [[WriteWhatYouKnow based the whole plot on her own relationship and wedding to Ian Gomez]] (who was raised Jewish rather than Protestant but whatever).

** Most Orthodox churches in Western countries are willing to use the primary local language at least part of the time. It would be a rare church that would insist on the service being totally in Greek, when participants and family members would not understand what is going on. At the very least, a translated service text would be provided.

* ''Film/MyBigFatGreekWedding'' shows a Greek Orthodox baptism and (naturally) a wedding ceremony. The ceremonies are depicted inaccurately. (Of course, everybody--''especially'' actual Greek-American Orthodox Christians--[[MST3KMantra let all of this go]] [[RuleOfFunny because it’s funny]].)

** Also, in real life, he would not have been baptized without a period of catechesis. That said, the timeline of the movie is vague enough that it’s possible that was just skipped over, perhaps because they couldn’t a way to make it funny.

The look-and-feel of the religion is very similar to Catholicism, much more so than to Protestantism (''pace'' High Church Anglicanism and High Church Lutheranism): there are bishops, monks, nuns, saints and other pre-Reformational trappings. Church services have lots of chanting, gold vestments, incense, candles. But the liturgical languages are Greek, Old Church Slavonic or the national language of the country the particular Church is from (e.g., Japanese in Japan, English in the US, etc.) and the spirituality is decidedly more "Eastern" than Western churches (see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm Hesychasm]] for an example). Orthodox Christians make the sign of the cross up-down-right-left, whereas Catholics go up-down-left-right. In some spy stories, a Westerner might give himself away by crossing himself the wrong way while saying grace. That said, this isn't a hard-and-fast rule; Byzantine-rite Eastern Catholics (particularly members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Ruthenian Greek Catholic Churches) in full communion with Rome also go up-down-right-left.[[note]]Creator/AndyWarhol, a devout Ruthenian Greek Catholic his whole life, said he always felt weird going to services at Latin Rite churches because he made the Sign of the Cross the Eastern way--see below.[[/note]]

The look-and-feel of the religion is very similar to Catholicism, much more so than to Protestantism: there are bishops, monks, nuns, saints and other pre-Reformational trappings. Church services have lots of chanting, gold vestments, incense, candles. But the liturgical languages are Greek, Old Church Slavonic or the national language of the country the particular Church is from (e.g., Japanese in Japan, English in the US, etc.) and the spirituality is decidedly more "Eastern" than Western churches (see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm Hesychasm]] for an example). Orthodox Christians make the sign of the cross up-down-right-left, whereas Catholics go up-down-left-right. In some spy stories, a Westerner might give himself away by crossing himself the wrong way while saying grace. That said, this isn't a hard-and-fast rule; Byzantine-rite Eastern Catholics (particularly members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Ruthenian Greek Catholic Churches) in full communion with Rome also go up-down-right-left.[[note]]Creator/AndyWarhol, a devout Ruthenian Greek Catholic his whole life, said he always felt weird going to services at Latin Rite churches because he made the Sign of the Cross the Eastern way--see below.[[/note]]

Today, Ethiopia is both the world's largest Oriental Orthodox-majority country and the home to the largest single population of Oriental Orthodox believers. Armenia and Eritrea are next, but confusingly so: On one hand, Armenia has a larger proportion of Oriental Orthodox (over 90%, vs. Eritrea's 50%ish); but Eritrea's population is about twice Armenia's (6 million vs. 3 million); but there's at least about 6 million Armenians in diaspora, making the balance much closer. Egypt, historic home of Oriental Orthodoxy, retains a large Coptic Oriental Orthodox minority, numbering in the millions, though good statistics are hard to come by--not least because hundreds of thousands if not millions of Egyptian Christians have emigrated over the past 50 years to all parts of the world (but mostly UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}, UsefulNotes/{{California}}, and UsefulNotes/NewJersey). The Coptic Orthodox Church also numbers an additional half-million or so in UsefulNotes/{{Sudan}}, which was itself majority Oriental Orthodox until about the 16th century.