METHODIUS I, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE, ST.

Patriarchate, 843–47; b. Syracuse, c. 788 or 800; d. Constantinople, June 14, 847. As a young man Methodius, called "the Confessor," studied in Constantinople, where he became a monk in the monastery of Chenolakkos. During the second iconoclastic persecution, after 815, he took refuge in Rome and seems to have been instrumental in the papal rejection of advances made by the legates of the iconoclastic patriarch. He returned to Constantinople in 821 with a letter from the pope to the Emperor Michael II and was persecuted by the iconoclasts and imprisoned in a tomb on the island of St. Andrew. Upon his liberation, probably in 831, he lived at the court of the Byzantine Emperor theophilus, who had a high esteem for his erudition and employed him as his adviser. At the death of Theophilus (Jan. 20, 842), Methodius returned to his monastery; but upon the deposition of the iconoclastic patriarch, john the grammarian, Methodius was appointed patriarch (March 4, 843). He convoked a local synod to reestablish the cult of images and legislated that the restoration of image veneration was to be remembered by the introduction of the feast of Orthodoxy, which is still celebrated by the Orthodox Churches on the first Sunday in Lent. The Synodicon (Patrologia ) (Graeca 120:724–736) explaining the true faith that is read during the Liturgy of this feast is also ascribed to him, but it has been changed and expanded at different periods. He treated the penitent iconoclasts with moderation in spite of the protest of the zealots led by the monks of Studios monastery; but he was obliged to excommunicate the fanatic monks, who remained in schism until his death. Methodius composed several hagiographic texts, especially in honor of the martyrdom of SS. Marina, cosmas and damian, of agatha (patron saint of Syracuse), and of theophanes, as well as the life of Euthymius of Sardes.

Feast: June 14.

Bibliography: j. b. bury, A History of the Eastern Roman Empire … A.D. 802–867 (London 1912). v. laurent, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 10.1: 1597–1606. Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich 496–497. j. gouillard, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 53 (1960) 36–46, Vita Euthymii. f. dvornik, The Photian Schism (Cambridge, Eng. 1948). v. grumel, Revue des études byzantines 18 (1960) 19–44.

[f. dvornik]