GREGORY II CYPRIUS, PATRIACH OF CONSTANTINOPLE

1283 to 1289; b. Cyprus, 1241; d. Constantinople, 1290. He was baptized George. Gregory studied at a Frankish school in Cyprus, but traveled to Ephesus, Nicaea, and Constantinople in search of the learning of his Greek heritage, which he found under Gregory Acropolites (1266–73). He became lector and cleric in Constantinople, and under the Emperor michael viii palaeologus (1259–82) strongly supported the movement for reunion with Rome.

However, in 1283 he changed his position; he supported the Emperor andronicus ii, took part in the synod that condemned John Beccos, and wrote against Beccos. On the death of the Patriarch Joseph (1283), Gregory was selected to succeed him. In his attempt to refute Beccos on the procession of the Holy Spirit, he published a new theory in his Tome on Faith (Tomos pisteos ), and was attacked by both the enemies and supporters of reunion. He defended himself in an apology, a confession (homologia ), and a letter to Andronicus II; but in 1289 he had to resign as patriarch and retire to a monastery, where he died the following year. Gregory composed encomia in honor of his patron St. Gregory, St. Marina, Dionysius the Areopagite, and St. Euthymius of Madyta. He wrote also a life of the monk St. lazarus the confessor of Mt. Galesius. He wrote an autobiography (Diegesis Merike ) as an introduction to a collection of his letters and several treatises on rhetoric and mythology.

Bibliography: Patrologia Graeca, ed. j. p. migne, 161 v. (Paris 1857–66) 142-19-30, autobiography, 233–300. f. cayrÉ, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables Générales 1951–) 6.1:1231–35. h. g. beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 677–679, 685–686. k. baus, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 4:1207–08. g. misch, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Erziehung 21 (1931) 1–16. w. lameere, La tradition de la correspondance de Grégoire de Chypre (Brussels 1937). Acta Sanctorum Nov. 3:588–606, St. Lazarus. His letters have been edited by s. eustratiades (Alexandria 1910).

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