TIMOTHEUS I, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE

Reigned 511 to 518; b. ?; d. April 5, 518. He was a presbyter and Keeper of the Sacred Treasures of the Great Church, whom Emperor anastasius i selected (October 511) to replace the deposed, pro-Chalcedonian patriarch Macedonius II. Timotheus attempted to pursue religious policies acceptable to the Monophysites of the Byzantine Empire, but this proved difficult. His attempt to restore relations with John III Nikeotes, Monophysite patriarch of Alexandria, failed when John insisted that Timotheus explicitly condemn Chalcedon and the Tome of Leo.

Many of the clergy and laity at Constantinople and in the provinces refused to accept the deposition of Macedonius as legitimate. On November 4 and 6, 512, the attempt of Anastasius to introduce the Monophysite formula crucifixus pro nobis into the trisagion caused serious rioting. Timotheus ultimately adopted a more definite monophysite policy. In 515 he apparently accepted the acts of the Synod of Tyre (514–15), which abrogated Chalcedon, and he expressly condemned that council in letters to Elias of Jerusalem and later to John of Jerusalem. He ordered the recitation of the nicene creed in the liturgy (previously it had been said only on Good Friday). His own personality does not emerge clearly. He never succeeded in becoming more than a malleable tool of the Emperor Anastasius.

Bibliography: v. grumel, Les Regestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople (Kadikoi-Bucharest 1932–47) 1.1:193–205. l. duchesne, L'Église au VIe siècle (Paris 1925) 25–42. j. lebon, Le Monophysisme sévérien (Louvain 1909) 50–57, 63, 65. p. charanis, Church and State in the Later Roman Empire (Madison, WI 1939) 36–77.

[w. e. kaegi, jr.]