Orthodox Churches in Southeastern Europe. During the nineteenth century, the once great Ottoman Empire became known as "the sick man of Europe." By 1914 this empire had lost all of its European possessions except a small region around Constantinople (now Istanbul). Two factors contributed to the decline of these Muslim Turks: the growing strength of Russia and the intensification of nationalism among the peoples of southeastern Europe. One manifestation of this nationalism was the attempt to make the Christian Eastern Orthodox churches into national churches, independent from the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople, who was under the control of the Turkish rulers. For this reason the patriarchs of Constantinople were often despised as outsiders in southeastern Europe, as were the Greek bishops and clergy that the patriarchs sent to administer the rites of the Orthodox Church. During the century before World War I...