Written by Gustave - Updated on Jul 21, 2025
Are you looking for information about the Schism of 1054? You've come to the right place!
Before telling you more about the causes of the separation between the East and the West, we would like to remind you that we post new articles about Christianity every week.
If you would like to learn more about the difference between the Catholic and Orthodox religions, here is an article that provides more information:
- The difference between Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity
And if you would like to know the difference between Catholicism and Protestantism, here is another article for you to discover below:
- The difference between Catholicism and Protestantism
Without further ado, let's start reading the article! 🙏
The great schism that divided the East and the West
In 1054, Pope Leo IX sent an emissary, Cardinal Humbert, from Rome to Constantinople. The cardinal's visit to Patriarch Cerularios was supposed to be a mission of reconciliation. It became anything but that.
The cardinal excommunicated the patriarch, who in turn excommunicated the cardinal. The main point of contention was the use of leavened bread during the celebration of Mass, according to MacMillan Publishing's
While it is commonly accepted that the separation of Rome and Constantinople into two Christian churches was the result of centuries of conflict, the event became known as the Great Schism of 1054. The schism, which reflected many long-standing tensions between the Eastern and Western Roman empires, was perhaps inevitable. The Church had remained united for centuries without resolving several theological conflicts. Political and cultural differences between East and West further fueled the separation.
The problems between the two Christian churches
“The problems had been brewing for some time,” said Father William Saunders, president of the Notre Dame Institute in Alexandria. “There were conflicting centers of power with different cultural traditions.” Mediterranean civil centers became strongholds for the early Christian Church. Disciples carried their ministries into the population centers of the day. “Cities such as Antioch, Rome, and Alexandria attracted the apostles and became centers of evangelization,” writes John Faris in
The conversion of Emperor Constantine provided the Church with a political superstructure in which it could flourish. The history of the Church after this event was, in some respects, parallel to the history of the Roman Empire during the rest of the millennium.
When the sleepy fishing village of Byzantium was transformed into Constantinople—the “New Rome”—in 330, that city also became a center of Christianity.
The Church was soon organized into patriarchates. Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem became the official evangelical headquarters.
In the 20th century, the modern locations of these ancient cities may seem like a short suburban flight from each other. For the inhabitants of the Mediterranean rim in the early Church, they stretched from one end of the world to the other.
Despite the political unity of the empire, the patriarchates represented distinct peoples and cultures. These distinctions became part of the universal Church.
“The liturgies were born in the second, third, and fourth centuries,” said Chorepiscopus Seely Beggiani of the Maronite Seminary in Washington and professor at Catholic University. “These liturgies reflect local cultures. They used different vestments, music, and art. Even among the different Eastern churches, there can be many differences.”
Constantinople, officially established as the political capital of the Eastern Roman Empire by Emperor Theodosius in 395, also became the most important of the Eastern patriarchates.
The liturgical tradition of Constantinople, known as the Byzantine Rite, is attributed to St. John Chrysostom. Due to the city's importance and subsequent missionary activity, the Byzantine Rite became widely practiced. In an attempt to maintain unity among the various developing traditions and to define Catholic doctrine, the idea of the ecumenical council was born. The first seven councils—all of which are still recognized as valid by the Catholic Church—were held from 325 to 787.
These proclamations of the early councils are also recognized by Christians of the Byzantine rite. For Eastern churches currently not in communion with Rome, the proclamations of later councils are not recognized. Vatican II is the 21st ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Although intended to promote unity, the councils raised issues that led to the first major divisions in the Catholic Church. The Trinitarian doctrine of the first two councils was universally accepted. But at the third council, the theology of Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople was condemned, causing a schism and the development of a Nestorian Church separate from the Catholic Church.
A more significant break occurred at the fourth council, held in Chalcedon in 451. The terminology concerning the dual nature of Christ—both divine and human—was rejected by many representatives of the Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, and Armenia.
Alexandria, established in Egypt by Alexander the Great in 331, accepted the liturgical rite developed by St. Mark, considered an adaptation of the Antiochian rite. The patriarchate had apostolic responsibility for Egyptian and Ethiopian Christians. It was the first indigenous African church, 600 years before Islam.
The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church: more information on the causes of the Schism of 1054
Many Christians of the Alexandrian rite broke away from the Catholic Church and became known as non-Chalcedonians. Cultural differences and “terminological misunderstandings” aggravated the disagreement, according to the
External pressures on the Roman Empire also weighed on Christian unity. After Muhammad's death in the 7th century, his followers launched a jihad “with the aim of conquering the whole world,” according to Faris. Muslims quickly took control of three patriarchates—Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria—leaving Constantinople as the only unoccupied Eastern patriarchate.
The Western Empire faced repeated attacks from the north and eventually fell to the Barbarians. The papacy remained the dominant political entity in Rome. Subsequent popes exercised political authority, while the Byzantine patriarchs controlled only church affairs.
This too was a cause of friction, as several patriarchs felt that the papacy had assumed excessive importance, according to Father Saunders.
Continued invasions and the growth of the Islamic world further isolated Rome from Constantinople. Travel between the two cities was dangerous. For the Roman popes, contact with the developing cultures of Western Europe became more widespread than with the Eastern Empire.
The different orientations were reinforced by missionary activity. Constantinople had little access to Western Europe, but found Eastern Europe ripe for missionary work.
Byzantine missionaries carried their liturgical rite into Slavic lands and as far north as Russia and Ukraine in the 10th century. Two of the most famous of these missionaries were Ss. Cyril and Methodius. The two brothers were sent from Constantinople when the prince of Great Moravia requested Christian missionaries from the Roman emperor.
Although relations between Rome and Constantinople were strained, St. Cyril requested and obtained the pope's approval to translate the Scriptures into the vernacular languages—the first translations of this kind. In doing so, he discovered that the Greek alphabet was inadequate for the task, which led him to develop the Cyrillic alphabet.
Missionary expansion was partly responsible for a temporary schism in the 9th century. From 861 to 867, Pope Nicholas I and Patriarch Photius excommunicated each other when they both attempted to exercise control over the nascent church in Bulgaria. This also involved the Western insertion of the filioque, “and the Son,” into the Nicene Creed. Ecclesiastical relations between Rome and Constantinople were restored, but the root of the problem—papal primacy—was never resolved between that date and 1054. For Rome, it was a Roman Church, led by a papacy established by Christ.
Rome had been established as the principal patriarchate by the early ecumenical councils, but the Eastern patriarchs did not always recognize the pope's authority in all matters. And after the 11th century, few Eastern Christians recognized that authority at all.
The Byzantine or Orthodox Church emerged from the schism. It shared a common heritage and doctrine, as set out in the first seven ecumenical councils, but was no longer aligned with the Roman Catholic Church.
The Orthodox Church still exists in many forms today, but many Eastern Rite Christians are now in communion with the pope. The series will continue next week with the reunification of these Eastern Rite Catholics into the Catholic Church.
