JOSEPH I, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE

Flourished 1267 to 1275 and 1282 to 1283; b. Asia Minor, c. 1200; d. Constantinople, March of 1283. A priest and chaplain at the imperial court of Nicaea, Joseph, upon the death of his wife, entered the monastery of Mt. Galesios between Smyrna and Ephesus. However, he continued to take part in ecclesiastical affairs and was excommunicated by the Patriarch Arsenius Autorianus for interference with the patriarch's jurisdiction. But Arsenius was deposed soon after; and after a short incumbency of Germanus III, Joseph was enthroned as patriarch on Jan. 18, 1267. He proved an intransigent opponent of the reunion projects of Emperor michael viii palaeologus and was aided in his opposition by the controversialist Job Jasites. In defiance of the reunion achieved at the Council of lyons (1274), Joseph took an oath never to recognize the Roman Church unless it gave up its errors or a panorthodox council ruled on the question. Joseph was urged to this position by the emperor's sister Eulogia. He wrote a Confession in support of his oath; and when the Emperor Michael persuaded him to reconsider the problem, Joseph retired from the patriarchate because of his oath (1275). He was reinstated by the Emperor andronicus ii on Dec. 31, 1282 and, on his death, was hailed as a confessor by the emperor. His letters and testament are unedited, but several excerpts of an anti-Latin work on the filioque are contained in a manuscript attributed to Joseph II.

Feast: Oct. 30.

Bibliography: f. dÖlger, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 5:1127–28. l. petit, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 v. (Paris 1903–50) 8.2:1541–42. v. laurent, "Le Serment anti–latin du patriarche Joseph I^er," Échos d'Orient, 26 (1927) 396–407. Byzantinische Zeitschrift 30 (1929–30) 489–496, his excommunication. h. g. beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 676–677. j. carellius, ed., Confessio, in Nuova raccolta d'opuscoli scientifici e filologici, ed. f. mandelli, v. 23 (Venice 1755) 20–23. l. brÉhier, Le Monde byzantin, 3 v. (Paris 1947–50) 1:392–41l. g. ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State, tr. j. hussey from 2d German ed. (Oxford 1956) 411, 433. d. j. geanakoplos, Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West, 1258–1282 (Cambridge, Mass. 1959).

[f. chiovaro]