Photius

Photius , c.820-892?, Greek churchman and theologian, patriarch of Constantinople, b. Constantinople. He came of a noble Byzantine family. Photius was one of the most learned men of his time, a professor in the university at Constantinople and, under Byzantine Emperor Michael III , president of the imperial chancellery. When the head of the sterner orthodox faction, St. Ignatius of Constantinople was deposed (858) from the patriarchate, Photius, a layman, was rushed through the stages of the holy orders and installed in the position. In 861 the legates of Pope St. Nicholas I approved the election of Photius, but the pope refused to recognize him. In 867, Photius called a synod that challenged the rights of the pope in Bulgaria, questioned certain Latin practices, and challenged the pope's right to judge the canonicity of the election of the patriarch. Nicholas died without learning of the synod's work. When Basil I became Byzantine emperor (867), Photius was banished to Cyprus and St. Ignatius became patriarch again. Although Photius was condemned two years later (see Constantinople, Fourth Council of ), he reconciled with Basil and Ignatius, and on the death of Ignatius he again became patriarch (877). Pope John VIII recognized him as patriarch and sent legates to a synod, held in 879-80, which the Orthodox Eastern Church regards as an ecumenical council. This synod affirmed that Photius had been legally elected, nullified those synods that had condemned him, ruled against the elevation of laymen to the episcopacy, and agreed that Constantinople would relinquish authority in Bulgaria. The acts of this council were apparently approved by Pope John VIII, but without any retraction of his predecessors' condemnations. Photius continued as patriarch until the accession of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI in 886, when he was forced to resign under imperial pressure; he died in exile. Photius is a figure of controversy. In later years the deep cleavage between East and West was reckoned from the schism of Photius, even though the formal schism did not occur until the 11th cent. Certainly Photius encouraged the growing self-consciousness in the Greek church, not only through his exposition of the theological differences between the two churches, but also through his humanist and scholarly works. He is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Eastern Church. Many of his letters, homilies, and dogmatic and polemical works are extant. His writings include the Myriobyblion, or Bibliotheca, a collection of extracts from 280 volumes of classical authors, which contains many quotations from lost Greek writings; a Lexicon to assist in reading the works of older authors; and the Nomocanon, a collection of the acts and decrees of the councils and ecclesiastical laws of the emperors.

Bibliography: See J. H. Freese, The Library of Photius (1920); F. Dvornik, The Photian Schism (1948); A. Gerostergios, St. Photios the Great (1980).

Photius (sometimes called ‘ The Great’, c.810–c.895). Patriarch of Constantinople. A high official at the Byzantine court, Photius succeeded the patriarch Ignatius who was deposed by the emperor in 858. His election, at first endorsed by the legates of Pope Nicholas I, was then (863) annulled by the pope and a schism ensued. Divisions were sharpened by an encyclical of 867 in which Photius attacked the filioque in the W. creed, and by the rival claims of Rome and Constantinople to the newly evangelized territory of Bulgaria. The Photian schism anticipated the final East–West schism of the 11th cent., and Photius is remembered in the E. Church as a champion against Rome.

Photius' learning was amazing. His most important work, his Biblioteca, describes several hundred books and is a mine of information.

Photius (c.810–c.895), Patr. of Constantinople. When the Emp. Michael III deposed the Patr. Ignatius in 858, Photius, still a layman, was appointed his successor. On Ignatius' refusal to abdicate, Michael and Photius sent an embassy to Pope Nicholas I. Although Nicholas's delegates took part in the Synod at Constantinople in 861 which deposed Ignatius, at a Synod in Rome in 863 Nicholas annulled the proceedings; he declared Ignatius still Patriarch and Photius deposed. In 867 Photius in an encyclical denounced the presence of Latin missionaries in Bulgaria as an intrusion, and gave an exposition of his objections to the Filioque clause in the Creed. Also in 867 a Council at Constantinople pronounced sentence of deposition against the Pope. With the accession of the Emp. Basil (867), the situation changed. Ignatius was reinstated, and Photius was restored only after his death (877). At a Council in Constantinople in 879–80 the Papal legates seem to have approved Photius, but he still faced difficulties within the Byzantine Church and, when Leo VI became emperor in 886, he resigned.

The Photian schism accentuated the conflict between the Roman claim to be the centre of unity for Christendom and the Greek conception of five patriarchates of almost equal status. Photius was also the first theologian to accuse Rome of innovating in the matter of the Filioque. He was a scholar of wide interests and encyclopaedic knowledge. His main work, the Bibliotheca or Myriobiblion, is a description of several hundred books, often with exhaustive analyses and copious extracts. In the E. Church he is venerated as a saint; feast day, 6 Feb.