Ignatios I (Patriarch)

Ignatius of Constantinople, Northern Tympanum , Hagia Sophia , Istanbul

Ignatios I (also St. Ignatius, Ignatius of Constantinople, Greek : Ιγνάτιος, * 797 ; † October 23, 877 in Constantinople ) was Patriarch of Constantinople from July 4, 847 to October 23, 858 and from November 23, 867 to his death on October 23, 877. He is recorded as a saint in the Martyrologium Romanum of the Roman Catholic Church ; his festival is October 23rd.

Ignatios, originally named Nicetas, was a son of the Byzantine Emperor Michael I Rhangabes and the Prokopia, daughter of Emperor Nicephorus I. Although still a child, Nicetas became the nominal commander of the new corps of imperial guards, the Hikanatoi, appointed. After the overthrow of his father by Emperor Leo V in 813, he and his older brother, the co-emperor Theophylactus , were forcibly castrated (and thus could not become emperor) and exiled to the island of Proti near Constantinople. There he became abbot and founded three other monasteries on the Prince Islands , which he also chaired.

The empress mother Theodora II appointed Ignatius, who was a staunch opponent of the iconoclasm , on July 4, 847 as successor to Methodios I as Patriarch of Constantinople. Ignatios soon got caught up in the conflict between the monks from the studio monastery and the moderates in the church, who argued over the question of how to deal with the clergy who had sympathized with the iconoclasts in the past. Ignatios sided with the conservative Studites and deposed the Archbishop of Syracuse, Gregorios Asbestas, the leader of the moderate party. Asbestas asked Pope Leo IV for help. This began a period of tension in the relations between the Roman and Constantinople churches.

Ignatios, who had excommunicated the regent Bardas for incest, lost his support when Emperor Michael III. and Bardas in 857 ousted Theodora. Ignatios was forced to resign on November 23, 858, expelled from the city and replaced by Photios . After being held in various prisons for a long time, Ignatios lived in exile in his monastery on the island of Terebinthos until he was allowed to return to Constantinople in 860.

Since Photios made some changes to the politics of his predecessor, Ignatios' supporters appealed to Pope Nicholas I , who first tried to stay out of the controversy, but then in April 863, Photios denied all church ordinations and reinstated Ignatius in the office of patriarch. Michael III rejected the papal decision in 865.

867 took Basil I of the throne, Michael III. murdered, banished Photios and put Ignatios on the patriarchal throne again on November 23, 867. Ignatios sent priests and bishops to Bulgaria , which the Roman See claimed for itself. Bulgaria returned to the sphere of influence of the Byzantine Church in 870. Since Ignatios and Photios followed the same policy, the latter was brought back and hired as a tutor to the emperor's children. When Ignatios died on October 23, 877, Photios became patriarch again and supported Ignatios' canonization. Photius is said to have donated his mosaic portrait in the Hagia Sophia in honor of Ignatius .

literature

• J. Hahn: Ignatios, Patriarch of Constantinople , in: Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe . Vol. 2. Munich 1976, p. 215 f.
• Josef Hergenröther : Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople: His life, his writings and the Greek schism according to handwritten and printed sources, 3 volumes, Regensburg 1867–69, reprint Darmstadt 1966.
• Christos Theodoridis (Ed.): Photii Patriarchae Lexicon, Vol.1, A – D. Gruyter, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-11-008530-5
• Nigel Guy Wilson (Ed.): Photius, The Bibliotheca. Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., London 1994, ISBN 0-7156-2612-4 . P. 272.
• Laura Lapenna: La Vita di Ignazio di Niceta di Paflagonia . In: Nicolaus Rivista di Teologia ecumenico-patristica, 2009, pp. 7-80.
• Nicetas David: The Life of Patriarch Ignatius. Text and transl. by Andrew Smithies with notes by John M. Duffy. Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks 2013. XXXVII, 194 pp. (CFHB 51). ISBN 978-0-88402-381-4 .

Web links

• Short biography on www.glaubenszeugen.de

predecessor	Office	successor
Methodios I.	Patriarch of Constantinople 847-858, 867-877	Photios I the Great