Germanos I of Constantinople

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Germanos, fresco, Studeniza Monastery (Serbia)
Germanos asks the icon of Our Lady of Lod for assistance in the iconoclast

Germanos I (Greek Πατριάρχης Γερμανός Α΄ ; * 650/660 ?; † after 730) was the patriarch of Constantinople (715 to 730). He is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches . His feast day is May 12th .

Life

Germanos was born around 650/660 as the son of Patrikios Justianos. In 668 his father was murdered and Germanos was castrated. Germanos became a monk. Later he was Bishop of Cyzicus .

In 712 he also agreed to a synod in Constantinople, which rejected the resolutions of the Council of Constantinople (680-681) and represented positions of monotheleticism .

He became patriarch on August 11, 715 (or 714) . In 715, at the instigation of Emperor Anastasios, a synod took place in Constantinople, which reversed the statements of the 712 synod.

Germanos advocated a union of the Byzantine and Armenian churches.

In 726, Emperor Leo III. to take action against the worship of Christian images . Details of this policy are unclear. Germanos expressed himself against it in several received letters and in personal conversations with the emperor, without success. On January 17, 730 he resigned from office. He went to a monastery. He died in 740.

Work and effect

Theological writings and some letters from Germanos have survived.

  • Church history , an important source of events in Byzantine church and secular history
  • About the divine liturgy , one of the most important Orthodox scriptures for understanding the divine liturgy

A homily ascribed to Germanos probably dates from the end of the 9th century at the earliest. In Bulgarian customs, the name of the idol figure German used as rain magic is derived from Germanos.

literature

  • Leslie Brubaker: Inventing Byzantine Iconoclasm . Bristol Classical Press, London 2012.
  • J. Hahn: Germanos I. Homologetes . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 2. Munich 1976, p. 40
  • Robert G. Hoyland : Seeing Islam as other saw it. A survey and evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian writings on early Islam. Princeton 1997, pp. 103-107.
  • Peter Plank: Germanos I. In: Lexicon for theology and church . Vol. 4. 3rd edition. Freiburg 1995, p. 532.
  • Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 3: Faber Felix - Juwayni, Al- . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2012, ISBN 978-2-503-53243-1 , pp. 105-107.
  • Dietrich Stein: Germanos I . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 4, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7608-8904-2 , Sp. 1344 f.

Web links

Commons : Germanos I of Constantinople  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Meyendorff: St Germanus of Constantinople on the Divine Liturgy. The Greek Text with translation, introduction and commentary , St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY 1984.
  2. ^ Paul Speck: Classicism in the 8th Century? The homily of the Patriarch Germanos on the salvation of Constantinople. In: Revue des études byzantines Année , Vol. 44, No. 1, 1986, pp. 209–227, here pp. 210f
predecessor Office successor
John VI Patriarch of Constantinople
715–730 		Anastasius
personal data
SURNAME Germanos I of Constantinople
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Patriarch of Constantinople
DATE OF BIRTH around 660
DATE OF DEATH after 730