Philotheos Kokkinos

Philotheos Kokkinos ( medium Greek Φιλόθεος Κόκκινος , * in 1300 in Thessaloniki , † 1377 / 1378 ) was from September 1353 to 1354 and again on 8 October 1364 to 1376 Patriarch of Constantinople Opel . He was the author of homiletic and hagiographic works and an important representative of the Palamitic ( hesychastic ) theology.

Career up to patriarchal status

Philotheos Kokkinos was born around 1300 in Thessalonica in poor conditions. He served as a cook in the household of the scholar Thomas Magistros and was thus able to acquire a higher education. Philotheos became a monk and later a priest monk on Holy Mount Athos ; around 1340/1341 he returned to Thessalonike and was there in front of the Philokalou monastery. Around 1344 he returned to Mount Athos and became head of the largest monastery there, the Megisti Lavra . In 1347 the synod elected him Metropolitan of the port city of Herakleia in Thrace . During his tenure, Herakleia was conquered by the Genoese and heavily devastated in November 1351 ; Philotheos Kokkinos subsequently stood up for the captured residents of the city and was able to obtain their release.

First patriarchy and deposition

Emperor John VI Kantakuzenos made Philotheos Kokkinos his candidate for the patriarchal throne in 1353 after Patriarch Callistus I refused to crown the son of John VI, Matthaios Kantakuzenos, as co-emperor, and so did he since the end of the first civil war between Kantakuzenoi and palaeologists ( 1347) to push the co-ruling John V Palaiologos into the background. Callistus I went into exile and Philotheos Kokkinos ascended the patriarchal throne. But John V. Palaiologos was able to prevail in the civil war that broke out again, John VI. Kantakuzenos abdicated in 1354 and became a monk. Philotheos Kokkinos was also deposed and excommunicated as patriarch, and Callistus I returned to the patriarchal throne.

Rehabilitation and second patriarchy

In 1357/1358 Philotheos Kokkinos was rehabilitated and was able to reign as Metropolitan of Herakleia. When Callistus I died, Philotheos again became Patriarch of Constantinople in October 1364. As patriarch, Philotheos campaigned for the final implementation of the hesychastic theology of Gregorios Palamas , which was declared binding on synods in 1347 and 1351 , and who was canonized in 1368. In the same year, several prominent opponents of palamism, including the Athos monk and scholar Prochoros Kydones , were condemned by the Synod under Philotheos. The patriarch also had to accept that Emperor John V Palaiologos personally recognized the authority of the Pope in Rome on a trip to Italy in 1369 ; Talks for a real union between the Roman Catholic and the Byzantine Orthodox Church and talks that the Emperor also promoted to obtain help from Western Europe against the growing power of the Ottomans failed. In return, Philotheos Kokkinos was able to reach an agreement with the Serbian ruler Jovan Uglješa von Serres (in Macedonia) and return the dioceses under his rule, which the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan had withdrawn from the Church of Constantinople, back to the Constantinople Sprengel. In the dispute over the ecclesiastical unity of the great Russian church district of Kiev, which at that time was still subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Philotheos Kokkinos tried to enforce a unified church leadership, but had to split up in view of the disputes between the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland the metropolis of all Russia accept.

Renewed deposition as patriarch and death

The troubled political situation in the interior of the Byzantine Empire also put an end to the second patriarchate of Philotheos: in 1376 Andronikos IV. Palaiologos overthrew his father John V Palaiologos. Philotheos Kokkinos was also deposed and interned in a Constantinople monastery, where he died about a year later.

literature

• Georgi Kapriev: Philotheos Kokkinos. In: Laurent Cesalli, Gerald Hartung (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of the Middle Ages. Volume 1: Byzantium, Judaism. Schwabe, Basel 2019, ISBN 978-3-7965-2623-7 , p. 156 f., 280
• Alexander Kazhdan et al. a. (Ed.): Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Volume 3. New York-Oxford 1991, p. 1662.
• Erich Trapp u. a. (Ed.): Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit. Vienna 1976–1996 (CD-ROM version Vienna 2001), No. 11917.

Web links

• Edition project that is dedicated, among other things, to the publication and translation of the documents issued under Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos

predecessor	Office	successor
Callistus	Patriarch of Constantinople 1364–1376	Makarios