Synod of Jassy (Iași)
The synod examined Peter Mogila's Orthodox Confession and made corrections before the confession's wider circulation and patriarchal approval.
Historical context
Seventeenth-century Orthodox leaders were answering theological pressures from both Protestant and Roman Catholic settings. The text associated with Jassy is not simply identical to Mogila's first draft.
Reception
No ecumenical authority in Oriental Orthodoxy is assigned here. Read the named witnesses and differences in reception.
Perspective note
Comparative historical/source study. The original author's or church's reception is retained; inclusion does not make every claim Oriental Orthodox teaching. Historical documents retain their original claims. The reception label follows the selected church perspective; library access does not imply assent.
Key points
- Distinguish Mogila's initial composition from the corrected confession.
- The meeting is an important local synod, not one of the seven ecumenical councils.
- Read its catechetical formulations within the seventeenth-century debates that prompted them.
Scripture
- James 2:24-26 — The first answer of the confession cites James on justification, works and living faith.
Primary sources
In Part I, Question 1, the catechism answers:
The later approved Orthodox Confession associated with Jassy opens its first answer by joining right faith with good works.
Right Faith and good Works; for whosoever holdeth these two, the same is a good Christian, and hath certain Hope of eternal Salvation
Passage context and translation
Question 1 asks what a Catholic and Orthodox Christian must believe and do to have eternal life. Its answer joins right faith with good works and cites James 2:24 and 2:26, then 1 Timothy 1:19 and 3:9. The linked 1898 edition transmits the later approved confession associated with Jassy, not minutes of the synod or the first draft of Mogila's catechism.
Before the excerpt
What doth it behove a Catholic and Orthodox Christian Man to believe and do, that he may have eternal life? Answer.
After the excerpt
, as saith the Scripture
Sources and further reading
- OCA: Peter Mogila and the Synod of Jassy
- Orthodox Confession, Part I, Question 1 (Overbeck edition, 1898)
- Reception: Eastern-Oriental Orthodox Joint Commission · Second Agreed Statement
Joint commission agreement. Section 8 explicitly distinguishes the families' reception of later councils; section 10 submits recommendations to churches for action. - Reception: Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church · Encyclical
A 2016 Orthodox conciliar reception witness naming 1341, 1351 and 1368; not the original definition of each meeting.