EUTYCHIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE

Patriarch from 552 to 565 and 577 to 582; b. Theium, Phrygia, 512; d. Constantinople, April 5, 582. Eutychius made his studies in Constantinople and returned to Amasea, where he was ordained, became a monk and archimandrite or abbot. While stationed as the apocrisiarius of the metropolitan of Amasea at Constantinople, he was selected by Justinian I to replace Patriarch Mennas (d. Aug. 24, 552); he entered into relations with Pope Vigilius I, residing in the capital because of the controversy over the Three Chapters, and presided over the Council of Constantinople II (June 553). He was banished by Justinian (565) for his opposition to Aphthartodocetism to which the Emperor had been persuaded in his old age; but was restored as patriarch by Justin II in 577. With the papal apocrisiarius at Constantinople, later Pope Gregory I, he engaged in a controversy on the resurrection of the flesh, resulting apparently from a tract on Origenism written by the patriarch that has not been preserved. He likewise wrote against the Monophysite interpretation of the Trisagion. Fragments of a treatise on the Eucharist have been preserved, as have his letter to Pope Vigilius and the decision of the Council of Constantinople prepared under his guidance. He died during Vespers for the octave of Easter, having received a visit from the Emperor Tiberius. His vita was written by his disciple and companion Eustratius; and in 1246 his body was brought to Venice, where it was interred in the church of St. George the Great.

Feast: April 6 (Oriental Church).

Bibliography: Patrologia Graeca 86.2:2267–2406. r. janin, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 16:94–95. Das Konzil von Chalkidon: Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich 380, 410. k. baus, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 3:1215. Histoire du Bas-Empire, ed. j. r. palanque 2:654–681. v. grumel, Les Regestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople 244–249, 260–263.

[j. bentivegna]