Mark of Ephesos

Mark of Ephesos (Mark Eugenikos) was the sole Eastern bishop who refused to sign the union decree at the Council of Florence (1439), which attempted to reunify the Eastern and Western churches. His inclusion in the Philokalia is through texts that carry the mature Palamite theological tradition into its final Byzantine expression.

Mark represents the tradition at its historical end-point — the last generation of Byzantine theologians writing before the fall of Constantinople in 1453. His texts carry the authority of a tradition that has been tested, defended, and refined over a millennium.