Câteva considerații asupra indisolubilității căsătoriei în Biserica Ortodoxă, cu aplecare asupra disputei tetragamice și numărului de reăcăsătoriri admis
Some considerations on the indissolubility of marriage in the Orthodox Church, with a focus on the Tetragamy Controversy and the number of remarriages allowed

Summary/Abstract: The orthodox marital teaching has basis on the Holy Scriptures and the writings of Church Fathers. Blessed by Christ Himself at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, marriage is an indissoluble Sacrament. This idea was supported and defended by the Fathers of the Church through their canons and writings. However, as a result of human weaknesses, the Orthodox Church accepted in certain situations the dissolution of the marriage and allowed the Christians to remarry. Until the tenth century it was not defined concretely the maximum number of times an Orthodox can be remarried, neither by civil laws nor by ecclesiastical canons. The Byzantine emperor Leon the Philosopher took advantage of this situation, who got married four times. This event led to a schism within the Orthodox Church and a conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. Finally, a synod was held in Constantinople. The synod established that the fourth marriage is strictly forbidden, and the second and third marriages are allowed under certain conditions. The purpose of this article is to capture the essence of the Orthodox theology regarding the topic of the indissolubility of marriage and to identify the number of remarriages admitted for a Christian Orthodox in the context of the Tetragamy Controversy. In order to achieve these objectives, I have done some research on the main Byzantium legislative collections and the canons of the Holy Fathers who wrote about remarriage in the Orthodox Church.

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