Everything about Photius totally explained
Photios I (also spelled
Photius or
Fotios), also known by the Eastern Orthodox Church as
St. Photios the Great (
Greek: Φώτιος,
Phōtios) (c. 820 –
February 6,
893) was
Patriarch of Constantinople from
858 to
867 and from
877 to
886. Photios is widely regarded as the most powerful and influential Patriarch of Constantinople since
John Chrysostom. He is recognized as a
saint by the
Eastern Orthodox Church and some of the
Eastern Catholic Churches of
Byzantine tradition. His feast is celebrated on
6 February.
Life
Little is known of his origin or family, but Photios was a relative of the Patriarchs
Tarasios and
John VII Grammatikos. Photios was, at least in part, of Armenian descent. Byzantine writers report that Emperor
Leo VI once angrily called Photios "
Khazar-faced", but whether this was a generic insult or a reference to his ethnicity is unclear.
As soon as he'd completed his own education, Photios began to teach
grammar,
rhetoric,
divinity and
philosophy. 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 the Empress
Theodora, who upon the death of her husband
Theophilos in
842, had assumed the regency of the empire. Photios became a captain of the guard and subsequently chief imperial secretary (
prōtasēkrētis). At an uncertain date, Photios participated in an embassy to the
Arabs.
The dissension between the patriarch
Ignatios and the Caesar
Bardas, the uncle of the youthful Emperor
Michael III, concerning Bardas' relationship with his daughter-in-law, brought promotion to Photios. Ignatios was arrested and imprisoned in 858, and upon refusing to resign his office was deposed, while Photios was inducted into the priesthood within six days, and was installed as patriarch in his place.
Ignatios continued to refuse abdication, and his supporters appealed to
Pope Nicholas I when Photios began to alter his predecessor's policies. When in 863 Nicholas anathematized and deposed Photios, the latter replied with a counter-
excommunication. 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' patron
Bardas in 866 and of the emperor Michael in 867, by his colleague
Basil the Macedonian, who now usurped the throne. Photios was deposed as
patriarch, not so much because he was a protegé of Bardas and Michael, but because Basil I was seeking an alliance with the Pope and the western emperor. Photios was removed from his office and banished about the end of September 867, and Ignatios was reinstated on
November 23. During his second patriarchate, Ignatios followed a policy not very different from that of Photios. This perhaps helped improve relations between the two, and in c. 876 Photios was suddenly recalled to Constantinople and entrusted with the education of the emperor's children. On the death of Ignatios in October 877, Photios, after the requisite show of reluctance, was restored to the patriarchal throne.
Photios 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 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 demanded apology to the Pope, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction over
Bulgaria, and the introduction of the
filioque clause into the
creed. 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, the papacy was unable to enforce its claims.
During the altercations between Basil I and his heir
Leo VI, Photios took the side of the emperor. Consequently, when Basil died in 886 and Leo became senior emperor, Photios was dismissed and banished, although he'd been Leo's tutor. Photios was sent into exile to the monastery of Bordi in
Armenia. From this time Photios disappears from history. No letters of this period of his life are extant. The precise date of his death isn't known, but it's said to have occurred on
February 6,
893.
For the Eastern Orthodox, Photios was long the standard-bearer of their church in its disagreements with the pope of Rome; to Catholics, he was a proud and ambitious schismatic: the relevant work of scholars over the past generation has somewhat modified partisan judgments. All agree on the virtue of his personal life and his remarkable talents, even genius, and the wide range of his intellectual aptitudes. Pope Nicholas himself referred to his "great virtues and universal knowledge." It may be noted, however, that some anti-papal writings attributed to Photios were apparently composed by other writers about the time of the
East-West Schism of 1054 and attributed to Photios as the champion of the independence of the Eastern Church.
The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates Photios as a saint; he's also included in the
liturgical calendar of
Eastern Catholic Churches of
Byzantine Rite, though not in the calendars of other Eastern Catholic Churches. His feast day is February 6.
Writings
The most important of the works of Photios is his renowned
Bibliotheca or
Myriobiblon, a collection of extracts and abridgments of 280 volumes of classical authors (usually cited as Codices), the originals of which are now to a great extent lost. The work is specially rich in extracts from historical writers.
There has been discussions on whether the Bibliotheca was in fact compiled in
Baghdad at the time of Photius' embassy to the
Abbasid court in
Samarra in
june 845, since many of the mentioned works - the majority by
secular authors - seems to have been virtually nonexistent in both contemporary and later Byzantium. The Abbasids showed great interest in
classical Greek works and Photius might have studied them during his years in
exile in Baghdad.
To Photios we're indebted for almost all we possess of
Ctesias,
Memnon,
Conon, the lost books of
Diodorus Siculus, and the lost writings of
Arrian. Theology and ecclesiastical history are also very fully represented, but poetry and ancient philosophy are almost entirely ignored. It seems that he didn't think it necessary to deal with those authors with whom every well-educated man would naturally be familiar. The literary criticisms, generally distinguished by keen and independent judgment, and the excerpts vary considerably in length. The numerous biographical notes are probably taken from the work of
Hesychius of Miletus..
The
Lexicon, published later than the
Bibliotheca, was probably in the main the work of some of his pupils. It was intended as a book of reference to facilitate the reading of old classical and sacred authors, whose language and vocabulary were out of date. The only manuscript of the Lexicon is the
Codex Galeanus, which passed into the library of
Trinity College, Cambridge.
His most important theological work is the
Amphilochia, a collection of some 300 questions and answers on difficult points in Scripture, addressed to Amphilochius, archbishop of Cyzicus. Other similar works are his treatise in four books against the
Manichaeans and
Paulicians, and his controversy with the Latins on the Procession of the
Holy Spirit. Photios also addressed a long letter of theological advice to the newly-converted Boris I of Bulgaria. Numerous other
Epistles also survive.
The chief contemporary authority for the life of Photios is his bitter enemy,
Niketas David Paphlagon, the biographer of his rival Ignatios.
Further Information
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