Nicholas I (Patriarch)

Nikolaus I (historicizing image)

Nicholas I , called Mystikos (* 852 ; † May 11, 925 ) was Patriarch of Constantinople from 901 to 907 and from 912 to 925. He refused to give the Emperor Leo VI. a fourth marriage and conspired unsuccessfully against him in the so-called tetragamy dispute . Afterwards, Nicholas was forced to baptize Leo's son from the unauthorized relationship. Subsequently, in 907, he was deposed and banished for several years to the Galakrenai monastery he had founded near Chalcedon , where he would later find his final resting place.

When Leo's brother Alexander became emperor in 912, Nicholas was reinstated and appointed to a seven-member reign for Constantine VII shortly before Alexander's quick death in 913 . The reign crushed a coup by General Konstantin Dukas . Nicholas soon asserted himself as the actual head of the reign. He made an unpopular peace with the Bulgarians and crowned their ruler Simeon as the " Basileus (Emperor) of Bulgaria". In 914 he was deposed as regent by Leo's widow Zoe Karbonopsina , but was allowed to remain patriarch until his death.

On May 16, he is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church.

literature

• Georgios Fatouros :  Nikolaos I. Mystikos. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 6, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-044-1 , Sp. 854-857.
• Johannes Karayannopulos ; Günter Weiß: Source studies on the history of Byzantium (324 - 1453) , Wiesbaden 1982, p. 389f. No. 309 ISBN 3-447-02244-2
• Alexander Kazhdan : N. Mysticos . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 6, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-8906-9 , Sp. 1165 f.
• Ralph-Johannes Lilie , Claudia Ludwig, Thomas Pratsch, Beate Zielke, Harald Bichlmeier, Bettina Krönung, Daniel Föller, Alexander Beihammer , Günter Prinzing : Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine Period . 2nd department: (867-1025). Volume 5: Niketas (# 25702) - Sinapes (# 27088). Created after preliminary work by F. Winkelmann . Published by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. De Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-016670-5 , pp. 78-89 No. 25885.
• Günter Weiß: Nikolaos I. Mystikos . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume Munich 1979, p. 325 f.

Web links

• Νικόλαος Α´ Μυστικός on the pages of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (Greek)
• Publications on Nikolaos Mystikos in the Opac der Regesta Imperii

See also: Orthodox Church

predecessor	Office	successor
Antonios II	Patriarch of Constantinople 901–907	Euthymios I.
Euthymios I.	Patriarch of Constantinople 912–925	Stephanos II.