Photios I of Constantinople

Life events

1. Born

   Photios was born into a noble Constantinopolitan family; his father Sergios was a prominent iconophile who suffered persecution during the second Iconoclasm (begun 814), and his great-uncle was Patriarch Tarasius of Constantinople (784–806). The exact year of his birth is unknown; most sources give c. 810, others c. 820.

2. Educated

   After his family returned to imperial favor following the restoration of icons in 842, Photios accumulated an education spanning theology, history, grammar, philosophy, law, the natural sciences, and medicine. His private library — one of the largest assembled by a Byzantine scholar — served as the foundation for the Bibliotheca.

3. Consecrated — 858

   On 20 December 858, still a layman, Photios was tonsured a monk; over the four following days he was ordained lector, sub-deacon, deacon, and priest. On Christmas Day 858 he was consecrated bishop and installed as Patriarch of Constantinople at Hagia Sophia — the entire sequence from layman to patriarch completed in six days.

4. Council — 867

   In 867, having been deposed as patriarch by Emperor Basil I — who sought alliance with Rome — Photios was condemned at the Council of 869–870 (the Fourth Council of Constantinople recognized by the Catholic Church), which anathematised him and reinstated Ignatius. Eastern Orthodoxy does not recognize this council as ecumenical.

5. Exiled — 867

   Photios was removed from the patriarchal office and banished around the end of September 867, spending his first exile at the Skepi monastery. During this period he wrote letters to Basil I pressuring for his restoration and served as tutor to the emperor's children after regaining imperial favor.

6. Council — 879

   A council convened at Constantinople in November 879 gave Photios formal recognition from the Christian world; legates of Pope John VIII attended and acknowledged him as legitimate patriarch. The council — recognized by Eastern Orthodoxy as the true Fourth Council of Constantinople — rejected the Filioque addition to the Nicene Creed.

7. Exiled — 886

   When Basil I died in 886 and Leo VI became emperor, Photios was deposed a second time and exiled to a monastery in Armenia. In 887 he and his associate Theodore Santabarenos were put on trial for treason before a tribunal headed by Andrew the Scythian; the chronicle of Pseudo-Simeon records that he was then banished to the monastery of Gordon.

8. Died — 893

   Photios died in exile, most likely 6 February 893 (some sources give between 890 and 895), at the monastery of Gordon. According to several chronicles, his body was permitted to be buried in Constantinople.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Photios composed the Bibliotheca (also called Myriobiblon), a collection of extracts and summaries of 280 volumes of earlier authors, many of whose originals are now lost — including works by Ctesias, Conon, and lost books of Diodorus Siculus and Arrian. (certain)
• At the council of 867, Photios attempted to excommunicate Pope Nicholas I on grounds of heresy, specifically over the Latin addition of Filioque ('and from the Son') to the Nicene Creed — a controversy that became a formal marker of the East-West theological divide. (likely)
• Historian John Julius Norwich described one episode as 'perhaps the only really satisfactory practical joke in the whole history of theology': Photios invented a theory that humans have two souls solely to embarrass Patriarch Ignatius into publicly endorsing an absurdity, then withdrew it. (likely)
• Photios twice attempted to bridge the confessional differences between the Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches — in 862 and again in 877 — but his reunification efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful. He also actively pursued reconciliation with the Syrian Orthodox. (likely)
• Veneration of Photios as a saint began near Constantinople after his death and is attested in a manuscript of the Typicon of the Great Church of Constantinople dated to the mid-tenth century, which names 6 February as his day of commemoration. He is not in the Roman Catholic calendar. (likely)