Meletios I. Pegas

Meletios I Pegas (Greek Μελέτιος Πηγάς; * 1549 in Candia , Kingdom of Candia, Crete ; † September 12, 1601 in Alexandria ) was the Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria (1580-1601) and temporarily served as administrator of the cathedra of the Patriarch of Constantinople (1596 -1598). He is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox churches. His feast day is September 13th .

Life

He studied classical philology, philosophy and medicine in Padua , then in Venice . After returning to Crete, he became a monk and took the name Meletios. After 1575 he may have worked for the Patriarchate of Constantinople and protosync of the Patriarch of Alexandria.

In 1580 he became Patriarch of Alexandria. He turned against the influence of the Catholic Church on the Coptic Church , but failed to reach an agreement with the Byzantine Orthodox Church.

Meletios was at times also locum tenens (= caretaker ) of the vacant patriarchal chair of Constantinople (from December 1596 to February 1597 and from March 1597 to March or April 1598). As such, he rejected the union of Brest (1596) of the Orthodox bishops in Poland-Lithuania with the Roman Catholic Church. In a letter to King Sigismund III. of Poland he spoke out against the primacy of the Pope and the filioque in the creed.

Numerous other letters and theological writings have survived from Meletius.

Web links

• Meletius I Pegas of Alexandria Orthodoxwiki

predecessor	Office	successor
New Year's Eve	Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria 1580–1601	Cyril III Loukaris
Gabriel I.	Patriarch of Constantinople (acting) 1596–1597	Theophanes I.
Theophanes I.	Patriarch of Constantinople (acting) 1597–1598	Matthew II