Athanasios I (Constantinople)

Athanasios I (Greek Ὅσιος Ἀθανάσιος ὁ Α ' ) (* 1230 in Adrianople ; † 1310 in Constantinople ) was Patriarch of Constantinople (1289-1293, 1303-1309). He is venerated as a saint in the Greek Orthodox Church . Remembrance day is October 28th .

Life

In 1289 Athanasios became patriarch of Constantinople with the support of Emperor Andronikos II and was an opponent of the union with the Roman Catholic Church, which was concluded in Lyon in 1274 . During his tenure, he introduced reforms that provoked fierce opposition from parts of the episcopate, clergy, monasticism and people. In 1293 he resigned for the first time. In 1303 he was again elected patriarch. In the famine winter of 1306/07 there was a veritable strike by the liturgists of Hagia Sophia against the patriarch. In 1309 he had to give up his office again after losing all necessary support.

Athanasios died before 1323, probably between September 1310 and August 1313. He found his grave in the Xerolophos monastery in the western part of Constantinople, which he founded. His younger contemporary Theoktistos Studites promoted his veneration as a saint with various writings . It was approved by the Synod in 1368 and in the Synaxarion of the Hagia Sophia Cod. Athens. EBE 2434 + 2435 codified.

Relics

Athanasios' relics were kidnapped to Venice in 1455 and there - for the church father of the same name, Athanasios d. Size held - first in S. Croce della Giudecca, venerated in San Zaccaria since 1806 . At the request of the Copts , relics of the supposedly Alexandrian church father were transferred to Cairo in 1973, and in 2009 more Athanasios relics, now historically correctly identified as in Venice today, were handed over to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

literature

• The Correspondence of Athanasius I Patriarch of Constantinople. Letters to the Emperor Andronicus II, Members of the Imperial Family, and Officials . An Edition, Translation, and Commentary by Alice-Mary Maffry Talbot. Washington DC 1975:
• Alice-Mary M. Talbot: Faith healing in late Byzantium: The posthumous miracles of the Patriarch Athanasios I of Constantinople by Theoktistos the Stoudite . Brookline, Ma. 1983;
• Eirini Afentoulidou-Leitgeb: The hymns of Theoktistos Studites on Athanasios I of Constantinople. Introduction, edition, commentary (= Vienna Byzantine Studies, 27). Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2008;
• John L. Boojamra. Church Reform in the late Byzantine Empire: A study of the patriarchate of Athanasius of Constantinople, 1289-1293, 1303-1309 . Brookline, MA 1980;
• Ekaterini Mitsiou: The double monastery of Patriarch Athanasios I in Constantinople: Historical-prosopographical and economic observations . In: Yearbook of Austrian Byzantine Studies 58 (2008) 87-106:

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Daniel Stiernon: Le quartier du Xérolophoros à Constantinople et les reliques Venitiennes de saint Athanase . In: Revue des Études Byzantines 19. 1961, 165–188; Renato D'Antiga: Il testo autentico della traslazione di Sant'Atanasio nel monastero della S. Croce a Venezia . In: Benedictina 58. 2011, 307-324.

predecessor	Office	successor
Gregory II of Cyprus	Patriarch of Constantinople 1289–1293	John XII.
John XII.	Patriarch of Constantinople 1303-1310	Nephon I.