[July 3] St. Anatolius, patriarch of Constantinople

Date of Birth: 449
Predecessor: Flavian
Reign: 451 – 458
Summary: Like so many other early church leaders, little is known about Anatolius' early life. He had been the apocrisiarius (representative) of Dioscorus I, patriarch of Alexandria, at Constantinople in the years immediately prior to his coronation. In that capacity, he attended the Second Council of Ephesus and witnessed the deposition of Bishop Flavian of Constantinople, his predecessor. He was chosen to replace Flavian soon after with the support of Roman Emperor Theodosius II. Almost immediately fter his election, Anatolius purged the church of the heretical sect called Eutychianism by condemning Eutyches, its leader, as well as Nestorius, another heretical leader. Unlike many other church leaders in Constantinople, Anatolius remained on good terms with the Roman pontiff. He worked with Pope Leo to denounce the popular heresies of the day and prosecute those leading them. Together, they held the Council of Chalcedon in 451 which turned Constantinople into a patriarchate on par with Rome. Anatolius was now able to act in equality with the Roman pope.


Disputes arose soon after between the pope of Rome and the patriarch of Constantinople. The pope complained to Emperor Marcian that Anatolius was arrogant in appointing Maximinus as patriarch of Antioch, an appointment previously allowed only to the pope of Rome. The feud was never settled, nor was it ever ended in future reigns on either side of the conflict. When Timothy usurped the title of patriarch of Alexandria, Anatolius requested aid from Emperor Leo I. Leo was able to remove him in 460, but Anatolius had already died by then. One of Anatolius' last acts was to crown Roman Emperor Leo I at Constantinople. It was the first time that the local patriarch was involved in a coronation ceremony and it heralded the end of Roman Papal control over the Roman monarchy. Anatolius was killed in 458 by followers of the heretic Dioscorus. He is honored by both the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches as a saint.
Date of Death: 3 July 458 CE
Successor: Gennadius I

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Mehmed V, sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1918)

[June 2] St. Nicephorus I, patriarch of Constantinople

True Name: Νικηφόρος Α΄

Parents: Theodore and Eudokia

Date of Birth: circa 758

Predecessor: Tarasios

Reign: 806 – 815

Summary: The son of an exiled iconoclast, the likelihood that Nicephorus would rise to the highest position in Orthodox Christianity was unlikely at the time of his birth. He became a cabinet secretary under Empress Irene and was an imperial commissioner at the synod of 787. Soon after, he retired to a cloister on the eastern side of the Bosporus until 802 when he became the director of a home for the destitute in Constantinople. The emperor, seeing something in the iconoclast Nicephorus that others did not, supported his nomination as patriarch in 806. The clerics strongly disagreed with the decision but Nicephorus was installed all the same.

His term as patriarch lasted only nine years, during which time most of the Orthodox clergy refused to acknowledge his overlordship. In December 814, he was excommunicated by his own clerics and forced to retire to one of his monasteries. He maintained his staunch support of iconodules in the synod of 815 and recommended himself as patriarch to a new emperor in 820. He died mostly forgotten in 829 as a confessor, and the patriarch Methodios interred the former patriarch in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. His reputation was revived in later years due to his universal history of the world, which documented the Biblically-based history of the world from Adam and Eve to his own time. He also documented the history of the iconoclastic movement, which was viewed by both iconoclasts and opponents with respect. He was later canonized despite his controversial views.

Date of Death: 2 June 829

Successor: Theodotos I

Other Monarch Deaths:

Shane, king of Ulster (1567)

[April 5] St. Eutychius, patriarch of Constantinople

Parents: Alexander

Date of Birth: circa 512

Predecessor: Mennas 

Reign: 552 – 565, 577 – 582

Date of Death: 5 April 582

Successor: John Nesteutes

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

Charles XI, king of Sweden (1697)

[February 6] St. Photios I, patriarch of Constantinople

Surnamed: The Great

Parents: Sergios

Date of Birth: c. 820

Reign: 858 – 867, 877 – 886

Predecessor: Ignatios

Summary: Photios was a nobleman from a family that had produced at least one other patriarch, Tarasios, his uncle. It is highly possible that Photios was, on his mother's side, an Armenian. Virtually nothing is known of his upbringing except that he often taught students from his home. His brother, Sergios, was married to a sister of Empress Theodora, and thus all paths were open to Photios. He became a captain of the guard and chief imperial secretary. He also served as an ambassador to the Abbasid Caliphate. When Theodora was deposed by her son, Michael, and Bardas, Photios became a political pawn. The patriarch Ignatios was a thorn in their sides and they orchestrated his deposition and confinement on charges of treason. Photios took over as the new patriarch, with little in the way of church titles prior to that.

For Photio's first reign, he was constantly under attack by the church. The Pope and western bishops would not acknowledge him as the rightful patriarch since Ignatios was still alive. He was not accepted as patriarch by them until 861, but was again renounced in 863. Photios retaliated in 867 by excommunicating the pope on grounds of heresy. Photios was deposed in 867 when Bardas and Michael III were both murdered by Basil the Macedonian and Ignatios was reinstated. Photios, however, was not seen as an enemy to Basil and was soon tutoring his children within the imperial palace. When Ignatios died in 877, Basil reinstated Photios to the patriarchate, this time as the fully-recognized and legitimate patriarch of Constantinople. He sought to end the conflict over Bulgaria between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. The result was odd, as Rome was granted control of the region but the Orthodox church retained de facto control as most of the inhabitants had become Orthodox Christians in the confusion. Photios became a major sponsor of the conversion of Slavs to Christianity throughout the Balkan Peninsula during his reign. Unfortunately, his reign also saw the end of unity between West and East. Two ecumenical councils were held to resolve disputes between patriarchal authority and church law. One of the issues, that of adding "and from the son" to the Nicene Creed, became a breaking point two centuries later when the East-West Schism ended all formal unity of the church. Photios was deposed again in 886 by the new emperor, Leo VI, who placed his brother, Stephen, on the throne instead. Photios spent the rest of his life at a monastery in Armenia, though his reputation was revived by Leo VI prior to his death.

Date of Death: 6 February 893

Successor: Stephen I

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Ogimachi, emperor of Japan (1593)
• Charles II, king of England, Scotland and Ireland (1685)
• Clement XII, pope of Rome (1740)
• George VI, king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland (1952)