In 1054, the Great Schism, or the East-West Schism, permanently separated the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Western Papacy. At that time, Pope Leo IX and Patriarch …show more content…
Though the two churches began to drift apart from one another, they left one another with remnants of each other’s presences.
When Pope Leo IX severed all ties with Patriarch Michael I, he set new standards of the Catholic mass and what it meant to be a faithful Christian for his congregation located in Europe. The Catholic views are easily summarized by the ideals of Saint Thomas Aquinas, which were later adopted into the Roman Catholic Doctrine; he stated that faith was the intellectual assent to divine truth and understanding by the commandments, will, grace, and authority of God. Because of this ideal definition of faith, the Catholics uphold certain traditions and standards that differ from the Orthodox community and the other …show more content…
Patriarch Michael I did his best to effectively split his church from the growing Roman Catholic power, but not by changing, by staying constant. Based on late Greek etymology, the word “orthodox,” or “orthodoxos” in Greek, means right and straight in religion, meaning that they stay constant. Patriarch Michael decided that the best way to clearly separate his new jurisdiction from the Catholics was to defy their new ideals. These ideals have been condensed in a modern-day explanation of The Ten Point Program for Orthodox Life, a guide to translating Orthodox Christian values into daily activities. They include “praying daily, worshiping and participating in the Seven Holy Sacraments, participating in the fasts and feast days of the church calendar, saying the Jesus Prayer constantly, setting priorities and living a Christian life, being watchful of your life and others’, being aware of your sins and trying to eliminate your bad passions, giving selflessly to others, spending time with and educating other Orthodox Christians, and reading and following the Scriptures, the Commandments, and Epistles” (Translating Orthodox Christian Ideals Into Daily Life). These ideals are meant to guide Orthodox Christians into keeping the ways that their founding fathers