Chalcedon
Chalcedon ( or ;
, sometimes transliterated as "Chalkedon") was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor. It was located almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari (modern Üsküdar) and it is now a district of the city of Istanbul named Kadıköy. The name "Chalcedon" is a variant of Calchedon, found on all the coins of the town as well as in manuscripts of Herodotus's "Histories", Xenophon's "Hellenica", Arrian's "Anabasis", and other works. Except for a tower, almost no above-ground vestiges of the ancient city survive in Kadıköy today; artifacts uncovered at Altıyol and other excavation sites are on display at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
Syriac Orthodox Church
The Christological controversies that followed the Council of Chalcedon in 451 resulted in a long struggle for the Patriarchate between those who accepted and those who rejected the Council. In 518, Patriarch Severus of Antioch was exiled from the city of Antioch and took refuge in Alexandria. Non-Chalcedonians continued to recognize Severus as the legitimate patriarch even after his exile in 518 until his death in 538. Jacob Baradeus continued to ordain patriarchs after Severus continuing the Non-Chalcedonian succession of patriarchs of the Church of Antioch, in opposition to the government-backed Patriarchate of Antioch occupied by the pro-Chalcedonian partisans, today known as Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch; leading to its being known popularly as the "Jacobite" Church while the Chalcedonian entity were known popularly as "Melkites" coming from the Syriac word for king (malka), an implication of the Chalcedonian church's relationship to the Roman Emperor. On account of many historical upheavals and consequent hardships which the church had to undergo, the Patriarchate was transferred to different monasteries in Mesopotamia for centuries.