Synodic act on the heretic of Armenia, the monk Martin

[4] Later, even though this debate had already occurred, the Patriarch of Antioch Macarius dismissed the work of Arseny and announced at the Moscow Local Council in 1656 that those who continued baptizing with the two-finger sign of the cross were "arrogant imitators" of the Armenians' supposed "heresy".

Less than a year before his death, during the reign of Peter the Great, Dimitry of Rostov create the forged work The Synodic Act on the Heretic of Armenia, the Martyr Martin.

Especially for his heresy of making the sign of the cross with two fingers, he was condemned at the Council of Kiev in 1160, under the Grand Duke Rostislav Mstislavich and Metropolitan Constantine, both saints.

The first mention of the imaginary Council on the never-existing heretic Martin is found in the book "Mirror of the Orthodox Confession" (1709 year) from the Metropolitan Dimitry of Rostov, he writes: "To depict the same sign of the cross should be with three large fingers of the right hand, combined together.

Pitirim in his book "Prashchitsa dukhovnaya" (translated: "Spiritual sling") says that he helped to find him "The synodic act of the heretic of Armenin, the monk Martin".

In 1717, Pitirim addressed the occasion with a request to Patriarchal locum tenens Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky and asked him to send the faithful monk to Kiev with the Tsar's decree for the sake of finding the original ancient document, Synodic Act, and for the Kyivan bishop to order to search in all book depositories without obstruction.

Thanks to the petition, by the decree of Metropolitan Stephen in August 1717, the monk Theophylact of the Dormition Kerzhebel'mashskiy Monastery, administered by Pitirim, was sent to Kiev to find the true Synodic Act.

In addition, Dimitry of Rostov was canonized, and in the late 18th century, an akathist included a section about Martin and was written by a priest of the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior, John Alexeyev.

A rough translation of the akathist to Dimitry of Rostov, the fourth kontakion:The storm of heresies, from the underworld through Aria in Greece, was revived in the latter days by the machinations of Martin Armenin; and through the [Old Believers] in the Fatherland, still attempts to silence and destroy the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

You, the good shepherd, for the love of your sheep, you drove away these soul-destroying wolves, you tamed the storm of insanity, and you taught the faithful to say to the Trinitarian God: Alleluia.

[10]The Troparion in Tone VIII hints at his work against the Old Believers as well:O lover of Orthodoxy and uprooter of schism, healer of Russia and new advocate before God, by thy writings thou didst heal the minds of the foolish.

Old Believers argued that the Synodic Act and the heretic Martin were myths from the time of the document's publication by pointing out that it contains historical inconsistencies regarding the life of princes and metropolitans.

"The synodic act on the heretic of Amenia, the monk Martin, in the summer from the creation of the world 6665, and from the flesh of the Nativity of Christ 1157 of the month of Iunia on the 7th day." The pictured manuscript is from the second half of the 18th century, and is located in the library of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra . In the margin: "This act of the Council is translated from the Acts of the Council, which was written in Belorussian, and it was translated by His Eminence the Metropolitan of Rostov, Demetrius, in the very place that it was found in Kiev."
Dimitry of Rostov
The section of St. Dimitry of Rostov's akathist which praises him for "discovering" the Synodic Act