Photios I of Constantinople (; also spelled Photius;Fr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., and Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materials in Canon Law - A Textbook for Ministerial Students, Revised Edition" [Collegeville, Minn., The Liturgical Press, 1990]), p. 61 ; 815 – 6 February 893) was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 858 to 867 and from 877 to 886. He is recognized in the Eastern Orthodox Church as 'Saint Photius the Great'.
Photios I is widely regarded as the most powerful and influential church leader of Constantinople subsequent to John Chrysostom's archbishopric around the turn of the fifth century. He is also viewed as the most important intellectual of his time—"the leading light of the ninth-century renaissance".; . He was a central figure in both the conversion of the Slavs to Christianity and the Photian schism, and is considered "[t]he great systematic compiler of the Eastern Church, who occupies a similar position to that of Gratian in the West," and whose "collection in two parts... formed and still forms the classic source of ancient Church Law for the Greek Church".
Photios was a well-educated man from a noble Constantinopolitan family. His mother was the sister of the previous patriarch of Constantinople John VII of Constantinople,Warren Treadgold, "Photius Before His Patriarchate", The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 53:1–17, 2002. and his great-granduncle was another previous patriarch of Constantinople, Saint Tarasius.. He intended to be a monk but chose to be a scholar and statesman instead. In 858, Emperor Michael III (r. 842–867) decided to confine Patriarch Ignatius in order to force him into resignation, and Photius, still a layman, was appointed to replace him.. Amid power struggles between the pope and the Byzantine emperor, Ignatius was reinstated. Photios I resumed the position when Ignatius died (877), by order of the Byzantine emperor. The new Pope John VIII, approved Photios's reinstatement.. Catholics regard as legitimate a Fourth Council of Constantinople (Catholic Church) anathematising Photios I, while Eastern Orthodox regard as legitimate a subsequent Fourth Council of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox), reversing the former. The contested councils mark the end of unity represented by the first seven Ecumenical Councils.
Photios also worked actively toward reconciliation with the Oriental Orthodox Churches.
Secular life Most of the sources about Photios's life were written by persons hostile to him especially his bitter enemy, Niketas David Paphlagon. Modern scholars are thus cautious when assessing their accuracy.
Little is known of Photios's origin and early years apart from the fact that he was born into a notable family and his uncle Saint Tarasius had been the patriarch of Constantinople from 784–806 under both Empress Irene of Athens (r. 797–802) and Emperor Nikephoros I (r. 802–811).Photius, Epistola II, CII, 609; . During the second Iconoclasm, which began in 814, his family suffered persecution since his father, Sergios, was a prominent iconophile. Sergios's family returned to favor only after the restoration of the icons in 842.. Certain scholars claim that Photius was, at least in part, of Armenian descent, but this has been challenged. Others refer to him as a "Greek Byzantine".: "Something of it, though, has been saved for posterity in the extracts made later by the Greek Byzantine patriarch Photius..." Byzantine writers also report that Emperor Michael III (r. 842–867) once angrily called Photios "Khazar-faced", but whether this was a generic insult or a reference to his ethnicity is unclear.; .
Although Photios had an excellent education, we have no information about how he received this education. The famous library he possessed attests to his enormous erudition (theology, history, grammar, philosophy, law, the natural sciences, and medicine).. Most scholars believe that he never taught at Magnaura or at any other university;; . Vasileios N. Tatakes asserts that, even while he was patriarch, Photios taught "young students passionately eager for knowledge" at his home, which "was a center of learning". He was a friend of the renowned Byzantine scholar and teacher Leo the Mathematician.
Photios I says that, when he was young, he had an inclination for the monastic life, but instead he started a secular career. The way to public life was probably opened for him by (according to one account) the marriage of his brother Sergios to Irene, a sister of Empress Theodora, who upon the death of her husband Emperor Theophilos (r. 829–842) in 842, had assumed the regency of the Byzantine Empire. Photius became a captain of the guard (protospatharios) and subsequently chief imperial secretary (Protasekretis). At an uncertain date, Photios participated in an embassy to the Abbasids of Baghdad.; .
Photios achieved a dazzling reputation as a scholar. In a feud with Patriarch Ignatius, Photios invented a fanciful theory that people have two souls, for the sole purpose of tricking Ignatius into embarrassing himself by being seen to take it seriously, whereupon Photios withdrew his proposal and admitted he had not been serious. The historian John Julius Norwich described this as "perhaps the only really satisfactory practical joke in the whole history of theology".
Patriarch of Constantinople
Photios's ecclesiastical career took off spectacularly after Caesar Bardas and his nephew, the youthful Emperor Michael III, put an end to the administration of the regent Theodora and the Logothetes tou dromou Theoktistos in 856. In 858, Bardas found himself opposed by the then Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople, who refused to admit him into Hagia Sophia, since it was believed that he was having an affair with his widowed daughter-in-law. In response, Bardas and Michael engineered Ignatius's confinement and removal on the charge of treason, thus leaving the patriarchal throne empty. The throne was soon filled with a kinsman of Bardas, Photios himself, who was tonsured a monk on 20 December 858, and on the four following days was successively ordained lector, sub-deacon, deacon and priest, and then on Christmas Day, the patronal feast of Constantinople's cathedral, Hagia Sophia, Photios I was consecrated a bishop and installed as patriarch.
The confinement and removal of Ignatius and the speedy promotion of Photius at first caused only internal controversy within the Church of Constantinople, and in 859 a local council was held, examining the issue and confirming the removal of Ignatius and election of Photios. In the same time, partisans of Ignatius decided to appeal to the Holy Roman and Catholic Church, thus initiating ecclesiastical controversy on an ecumenical scale as the Pope and the rest of the western bishops took up the cause of Ignatius. The latter's confinement and removal without a formal ecclesiastical trial meant that Photios's election was uncanonical, and eventually Pope Nicholas I sought to involve himself in determining the legitimacy of the succession. His legates were dispatched to Constantinople with instructions to investigate, but finding Photios well ensconced, they acquiesced in the confirmation of his election at a synod in 861. On their return to Rome, they discovered that this was not at all what Nicholas had intended, and in 863 at a synod in Rome, the Supreme Pontiff deposed Photios I, and reappointed Ignatius as the rightful patriarch, triggering a schism. Four years later, Photios I was to respond on his own part by calling a Council and attempting to excommunicate the Holy Father on grounds of heresy—over the question of the double procession of the Holy Spirit.; ; . The situation was additionally complicated by the question of papal authority over the entire Church and by disputed jurisdiction over newly converted Bulgaria..
This state of affairs changed with the murder of Photios's patron Bardas in 866 and of Emperor Michael III in 867, by his colleague Basil I, who now usurped the throne. Photios I was deposed as patriarch, not so much because he was a protégé of Bardas and Michael, but because Basil I was seeking an alliance with the Pope and the Western emperor. Photios I was removed from his office and banished about the end of September 867, and Ignatius was reinstated on 23 November. Photios I was condemned by the Council of 869–870, thus putting an end to the schism. During his second patriarchate, however, Ignatius followed a policy not very different from that of Photios I.
Not long after his condemnation, Photios I had reingratiated himself with Basil I and became tutor to the Byzantine emperor's children. From surviving letters of Photios I written during his exile at the Skepi monastery, it appears that the ex-patriarch brought pressure to bear on the Byzantine emperor to restore him. Ignatius's biographer argues that Photios forged a document relating to the genealogy and rule of Basil I's family, and had it placed in the imperial library where a friend of his was a librarian. According to this document, the Byzantine emperor's ancestors were not mere peasants as everyone believed but descendants of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia.. True or not, this story does reveal Basil I's dependence on Photios I for literary and ideological matters. Following Photios I's recall, Ignatius and the ex-patriarch met and publicly expressed their reconciliation. When Ignatius died on 23 October 877, it was a matter of course that his old opponent replaced him on the patriarchal throne three days later. Shaun Tougher asserts that from this point on Basil I no longer simply depended on Photios, but in fact he was dominated by him..
Photios I now obtained the formal recognition of the Christian world in a council convened at Constantinople in November 879. The legates of Pope John VIII attended, prepared to acknowledge Photios I as legitimate patriarch, a concession for which the pope was much censured by Latin opinion. The patriarch stood firm on the main points contested between the Eastern and Western Churches: the demand of an apology to the Pope, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Bulgaria, and the addition of the Filioque to the Nicene Creed by the Western church. Eventually, Photios refused to apologize or accept the Filioque, and the papal legates made do with his return of Bulgaria to Rome. This concession, however, was purely nominal, as Bulgaria's return to the Byzantine rite in 870 had already secured for it an autocephalous church. Without the consent of Boris I of Bulgaria (r. 852–889), the papacy was unable to enforce its claims. Pope Adrian III chose a policy of appeasement and sent between 884 and 885 bishop Theodosius of Oria to transmit notice of his election and a synodal letter to Photios about faith and the Filioque.
Photios I also promoted a policy of religious reconciliation with the Armenian kingdom to the east of the empire. He sought to bridge the confessional differences between the Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches on two separate occasions, once in 862 and again in 877, but his efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful..
During the altercations between Emperor Basil I and his heir Leo VI the Wise, Photios took the side of the Byzantine emperor. In 883, Basil I accused Leo VI of conspiracy and confined the prince to the palace; he would have even had Leo VI blinded had he not been dissuaded by Photios I and Stylianos Zaoutzes, the father of Zoe Zaoutzaina, Leo's mistress.. In 886, Basil I discovered and punished a conspiracy by the domestic of the Hikanatoi John Kourkouas and many other officials. In this conspiracy, Leo VI was not implicated, but Photios I was possibly one of the conspirators against Basil I's authority..