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Saint Ignace de Constantinople, mosaïque à Sainte-Sophie
Saint Ignace de
Constantinople
Patriarche de
Constantinople (+ 878)
Son grand-père était
l'empereur Nicéphore Ier, mais son père Michel II ne régna que deux ans,
renversé par l'empereur Léon V. Nicétas, puisque tel était son nom, fut fait
eunuque de force et devint moine à 14 ans, sous le nom d'Ignace, dans le
monastère de l'île aux Princes. Moine austère, il fut le disciple fidèle de
saint Théodore Studite. Higoumène quelques années plus tard, il contribua à
l'essor de nombreux monastères et fut élevé à la dignité patriarcale. Il
gouverna l'Église avec sagesse pendant quinze ans, mais l'humeur de l'empereur
changea et saint Ignace fut exilé et remplacé par saint Photius. Rappelé après la mort de
Michel III, il garda l'Église en paix durant onze nouvelles années.
À Constantinople, en 877,
saint Ignace, évêque, qui subit de multiples affronts et fut envoyé en exil par
l’empereur Bardas, à qui il reprochait d’avoir répudié son épouse, mais le pape
saint Nicolas Ier lui fit restituer son siège et il s’endormit enfin dans la
paix.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/2065/Saint-Ignace-de-Constantinople.html
Saint Ignace de
Constantinople
Patriarche de
Constantinople
Fête le 23 octobre
Églises d’Orient
Constantinople [Istanbul,
Turquie] v. 799 – † id. 23 octobre 877
Second fils de l’empereur
romain d’Orient Michel Ier Rangabé (811-813), Ignace se fit moine dès l’âge de
quatorze ans. En 846, il fut nommé patriarche de Constantinople, mais sa
défense des droits de l’Église et sa violence à dénoncer vices et intrigues le
firent exiler en 858. Il fut rétabli en 867 par l’empereur Basile.
Patriarche de 847 à 858
et de 867 à 877, il présida le concile œcuménique Constantinople IV (869-877),
qui condamna et déposa Photius, son adversaire, qui avait usurpé le patriarcat
de Constantinople.
SOURCE : http://www.martyretsaint.com/ignace-de-constantinople/
Saint Ignatius of
Constantinople
Also
known as
Ignatios
Nicetas
Profile
Son of the Byzantine emperor
Michael I. Imprisoned for
political reasons in a monastery in 813 by
Leo the Armenian; there he learned about and entered the religious
life, taking the name Ignatius. Monk. Priest. Abbot. Patriach of Constantinople in 842.
Fought corruption in civil and religious life, even in the highest offices;
refused communion to
Bardas Caesar due to his acts of incest. Because of his high standards,
Ignatius was exiled from 858 to 867,
but eventually returned in triumph.
Born
c.799 in Constantinople as Nicetas
23
October 877 of
natural causes
relics in
the church of Saint Michael, Constantinople
SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/saint-ignatius-of-constantinople/
Ignatius of
Constantinople B (RM)
Born in Constantinople,
c. 799; died 877. St. Ignatius finds a place on both the Eastern and Western
calendars. He was the son of the Byzantine Emperor Michael I. His maternal
grandfather was Emperor Nicephorus I. Originally he was named Nicetas. He and his
brother were mutilated and exiled to a monastery when their father was deposed
by Leo the Armenian in 813.
Ignatius later became a
monk, was ordained, and elected abbot of his monastery. He was name patriarch
of Constantinople in 846 and vigorously assailed evil in high places. He was an
upholder of the rigorist party in the Byzantine church, opposing the influence
of the imperial court and its clergy in ecclesiastical affairs. In 857 he
refused communion to Michael III's uncle, Bardas, who was accused of living in
incest; this action helped to provide Ignatius's opponents with a pretext for
getting rid of him.
He was deposed and exiled
to the island of Terebinthos. Bardas secured the election of his secretary
Photius, a layman, as patriarch. A long factional struggle ensured, and in 867
Michael was murdered and his successor, Basil the Macedonian, deposed Photius
and recalled Ignatius, as much to secure the support of Ignatius's followers as
to secure justice.
Ignatius then asked Pope
Adrian II to convoke a council, and at the 8th general council, 869-70, Photius
and his supporters were condemned, and Photius was excommunicated.
Ignatius later came into
conflict with Rome when he claimed jurisdiction over the Bulgars and convinced
their prince to expel Latin priests and replace them with the Greek priests he
sent. Pope John VIII's legates, threatening Ignatius with excommunication,
arrived in Constantinople to find he had died on October 23. Though he is
recognized as personally holy, he was evidently deeply engaged in the politics
of his times (Attwater, Delaney).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1023.shtml
St. Ignatius of
Constantinople
Born about 799; died 23
October, 877; son of Emperor Michael I and Procopia. His name,
originally Nicetas, was changed at the age of fourteen
to Ignatius. Leo the Armenian having deposed the Emperor Michael (813),
made Ignatius a eunuch and incarcerated him in a monastery,
that he might not become a claimant to his father's throne.
While thus immured he voluntarily embraced
the religious
life, and in time was made an abbot.
He was ordained by Basil, Bishop of Paros,
on the Hellespont. On the death of Theophilus (841) Theodora became
regent, as well as co-sovereign with her son, Michael III, of
the Byzantine
Empire. In 847, aided by the good will of the
empress, Ignatius succeeded to
the Patriarchate of Constantinople, vacant by the
death of Methodius. The Emperor Michael III was a youthful
profligate who found a worthy companion for his debauchery in Bardas, his
maternal uncle. At the suggestion of the latter, Michael sought the
assistance of Ignatius in an effort to force Theodora to
enter a convent,
in the hope of securing for himself an undivided authority and a free
rein for his profligacy. The patriarch indignantly refused to be a
party to such an outrage. Theodora, however, realizing the determination
of her son to possess at any cost an undivided rule, voluntarily abdicated.
This refusal to participate in his iniquitous schemes, added to
a courageous rebuke,
which Ignatius had administered to Bardas for having repudiated his
wife and maintained incest intercourse with his daughter-in-law,
determined the Cæsar to bring about the disgrace of
the patriarch.
An insignificant revolt,
led by a half-witted adventurer, having broken out, Bardas laid the
blame at the door of Ignatius, and having convinced the emperor of
the truth of
his accusation, brought about the banishment of the patriarch to the
island of Terebinthus. In his exile he was visited by the emissaries of Bardas,
who sought to induce him to resign his patriarchal office. Their
mission failing, they loaded him with every kind of indignity. Meanwhile a
pseudo-synod, held under the direction of Gregory of Syracuse,
an excommunicated bishop, deposed Ignatius from
his see.
Bardas had selected his successor in the person of Photius,
a layman of
brilliant parts, and a patron of learning, but thoroughly
unscrupulous. He stood high in the favour of the emperor, for whom
he acted as first secretary of state. This choice having been
approved by the pseudo-synod, in six days Photius ran the gamut
of ecclesiastical orders from
the lectorate to the episcopate. To intensify the feeling
against Ignatius, and thereby strengthen his own
position, Photius charged the exiled bishop with
further acts of sedition. In 859 another synod was called
to further the interests of Photius, by again proclaiming
the deposition of Ignatius. But not all the bishops participated
in these disgraceful proceedings. Some few, with the courage of
their episcopal office, denounced Photius as a usurper
of the patriarchal dignity. Convinced that he could enjoy no sense of
security in his office without the sanction of the pope, Photius sent
an embassy to Rome for
the purpose of pleading his cause. These ambassadors represented
that Ignatius, worn out with age and disease, had voluntarily retired
to a monastery;
and that Photius had been chosen by the
unanimous election of the bishops.
With an affectation of religious zeal,
they requested that legates be
sent to Constantinople to suppress a recrudescence of Iconoclasm,
and to strengthen religious discipline.
Nicholas
I sent the required legates,
but with instructions to investigate the retirement of Ignatius and
to treat with Photius as with a layman.
These instructions were supplemented by a letter to the emperor, condemning
the deposition of Ignatius. But the legates proved faithless.
Itimidated by threats and quasi-imprisonment, they agreed to decide in favour
of Photius. In 861 a synod was convened, and
the deposed patriarch cited to appear before it as a
simple monk.
He was denied the permission to speak with the
delegates. Citing the pontifical canons to prove the irregularity of
his deposition, he refused to acknowledge the authority of
the synod and appealed to the pope.
But his pleading was in vain. The prearranged programme was carried through and
the venerable patriarch was condemned and degraded. Even after
this, the relentless hatred of
Bardas pursued him, in the hope of wringing from him the
resignation of his office. Finally an order for his death was issued, but he
had fled to safety. The legates returning
to Rome,
merely announced that Ignatius had been canonically deposed and Photius confirmed.
The patriarch, however, succeeded in acquainting the pope,
through the archimandrite Theognostus,
with the unlawful proceedings taken against him. To the imperial secretary,
therefore, whom Photius had sent to him to obtain the approval of
his acts, the pope declared
that he would not confirm the synod that
had deposed Ignatius. In a letter addressed to Photius, Nicholas
I recognized Ignatius as the legitimate Patriarch of Constantinople.
At the same time a letter was dispatched to the eastern patriarchs,
forbidding them to recognize the usurper. After another unsuccessful effort to
obtain papal confirmation, Photius gave
vent to his fury in a ludicrous declaration of excommunication against
the Roman
Pontiff.
In 867
the Emperor Michael was assassinated by Basil the Macedonian,
who succeeded him as emperor. Almost his first official act was
to depose Photius and recall Ignatius, after nine years of
exile and persecution,
to the patriarchate of Constantinople,
23 November, 867. Adrian
II, who had succeeded Nicholas
I, confirmed both
the deposition of Photius and the restoration
of Ignatius. At the recommendation of Ignatius, Adrian
II, on 5 October, 869, convoked the Eighth cumenical Council. All
the participants of this council were obliged to
sign a document approving the papal action in
regard to Ignatius and Photius. Ignatius lived ten
years after his restoration, in the peaceful exercises of the duties of
his office. He was buried at St.
Sophia, but afterwards his remains were interred in
the church of
St. Michael, near the Bosphorus. The Roman Martyrology (23 Oct.)
says: "At Constantinople St. Ignatius, Bishop, who, when he
had reproved Bardas the Cæsar for having repudiated his wife, was
attacked by many injuries and sent into exile; but having been restored by
the Roman
Pontiff Nicholas, at last he went to his rest in peace."
Sources
NICETAS, Vita
Ignatii in MANSI, Amplissima Collectio Conciliorum, XVI, 209 sqq.;
GEDEON, Patriarchal Archives (Greek) (Constantinople, 1890); Letters
of Pope Nicholas I in MANSI, ibid., XV, 159 Sqq.; HARDUIN, Vita
Ignatii, V, 119 sqq.; PHOTIUS, Epistle to Nicholas I in Baronius, ad
an. 859; ANASTASIUS, Preface to Eighth Council ; STYLIANUS, Epistle
to Stephen VI; METROPHANES or SMYRNA, Epistle to Manuel in
MANSI, XVI, 295, 414, 426; NATALIS ALEXANDER, diss. iv, In S c. IX et X; LEQUIEN, Oriens
Christianus, Ign. et Phot. I, 246; FORTESCUE, The Orthodox Eastern
Church (London, 1907), gives (160-61) good appreciation of the character
of Ignatius apropos of the anti-Roman attitude adopted by the latter after his
restoration, when he persuaded the Bulgarian prince to expel the Latin
hierarchy from that land, and thus caused the loss of Bulgaria to the Roman
patriarchate; J. HERGENRÖTHER, Photius, Patriarch von Constantinopel (3
vols., Ratisbon, 1867), the classical work on the subject; HEFELE, Hist.
des Conciles, new French version by LECLERCQ (Paris, 1907), with recent bibliography
and excursus.
O'Connor, John
Bonaventure. "St. Ignatius of Constantinople." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 23 Oct. 2016
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07647a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter. Dedicated to the
Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07647a.htm
St. Ignatius, Patriarch
of Constantinople, Confessor
THE ORIGIN of the Greek
schism, commenced by the usurper Photius, renders the life of this holy prelate
an interesting part of the history of the Church. His birth was most
illustrious; for his mother Procopia was daughter to the emperor Nicephorus,
and his father Michael, surnamed Rangabè, was at first curopolates, or master
of the household to the emperor; and on the death of his father-in-law,
Nicephorus, who was slain by the Bulcarians, was himself raised to the imperial
throne. His piety and mildness promised the greatest happiness both to the
Church and State; but this was a blessing of which the sins of the people
rendered them unworthy. Leo the Armenian, the impious and barbarous general of
the army, revolting, the good emperor, to avert the calamity of a civil war,
resigned to him the diadem after a reign of only one year and nine months. He
had then two sons living, and two daughters, with whom and his wife he retired
into the isle of the Princesses, where they all embraced a monastic state.
Theophilactus, the elder son, took the name of Eustratus; and the younger, who
is the saint who is here spoken of, changed his former name, Nicetas, into that
of Ignatius: he was at that time fourteen years of age. The father was called
in religion Athanasius, and survived thirty-two years—to 845. The new emperor,
to secure to himself the dignity which he had got by injustice and treachery,
parted all his family, banishing them into several islands, and keeping them
under a strict guard; and the two sons he made eunuchs, that they might be
rendered incapable of raising issue to their family. During the reigns of this
Leo, of Michael Balbus, or the Stammerer, and Theophilus, they enjoyed a sweet
tranquillity, which they consecrated with great fidelity to the exercises of
devotion and penance; in which, by their fervour and love, calm resignation to
all the appointments of heaven, and by the unction of divine grace, they found
more solid pleasure than a court could afford; and by curbing the activity of
their desires, and by the regulation of their passions enjoyed an interior
peace which the whole world could not take from them. Ignatius, indeed,
underwent a most severe trial, being placed in a monastery which was governed
by a furious Iconoclast abbot, from whom he had daily much to suffer: but this
very circumstance became to him a spur to watchfulness, and a continual
exercise of patience and other Christian virtues, by which he learned daily to
die more perfectly to himself. For it is not the tranquillity of monastic
solitude, nor a distance from the busy scenes of the world, but the mastery
over a man’s domestic passions, and the government of his own heart which is
the source of that peace of mind which invites the Holy Ghost into a soul, and
is the greatest blessing on this side heaven. So conspicuous was the virtue of
our saint that, upon the death of his persecutor, he was unanimously chosen
abbot. The prudence and meekness, zeal and charity with which he governed this house,
and instructed and walked before his brethren in the paths of evangelical
perfection, gained him universal love and veneration: and he founded three new
monasteries in three little islands, and one called St. Michael’s, on the
continent. In 842 the empress Theodora, by the death of her husband,
Theophilus, became regent for her son Michael III. a minor, restored holy
images, expelled John the Iconoclast, patriarch of Constantinople, and raised
Saint Methodius to that dignity. After his death, in 846, St. Ignatius, who
then led a monastic life in the islands of Hiatres and Terebinthus, which he
had peopled with monks, was dragged out of his secure harbour into the stormy
ocean of the world, and made patriarch.
His spirit of
mortification, his humility, charity, intrepidity, zeal, and other virtues
shone forth in this public station with bright lustre; but the generous liberty
which he used in opposing vice, and reprimanding public offenders, drew on him
severe persecutions, the ordinary portion of the elect. Bardas Cæsar, brother
to the empress, had a great share in the government, for which his great
abilities would have qualified him if the corruption of his heart had not
rendered him unfit to be a member of civil society, much more to be intrusted with
the care of the republic, and the protection of the Church and people. For
eloquence, he was superior to most of his contemporaries: he was well versed in
all profane literature, and a great lover and promoter of learning; but withal
false, crafty, cruel, and so scandalously debauched in his morals, that he put
away his lawful wife, and incestuously took his own daughter-in-law to his bed,
with whom he had fallen desperately in love. The patriarch could not bear such
enormous scandals, and tenderly exhorted this hardened sinner to have pity on
his own soul. But the miserable man was so far from giving ear to his
charitable admonitions, as impudently to present himself to receive the holy
communion in the great church on the feast of the Epiphany. The patriarch
refused to admit him to the holy table, and declared him excommunicated.
Bardas, stung with resentment, threatened to stab him; but the prelate remained
firm, and set before his eyes the divine judgments. Bardas took an opportunity
to seek revenge. The young emperor being of a depraved heart, suffered himself
to be carried headlong down the precipice of vice; so that it was not hard for
the wicked uncle, by flattering his passions, to gain an ascendant over him.
Bardas, who for some time had made it his whole study to ruin the pastor of his
soul, set himself first to remove his mother, who was the protectress of St.
Ignatius, and moreover stood in his way, and often checked his ambitious and
wicked designs. He therefore persuaded his nephew Michael, that it being time
for him now to reign by himself, he ought to send away his mother and his
sisters into some monastery. The unnatural and ungrateful son relished this
advice, that he might be more at liberty to follow his vicious inclinations,
sent for the patriarch, and ordered him to cut off the hair of his mother and
three sisters as a mark of their engaging in a monastic life. His refusal to
commit such an unjust and irreligious act of violence was represented by Bardas
in the most odious colours, and the holy patriarch was charged with fomenting
rebellions. Michael, in the mean time, caused his mother and sisters to be
shaved, and shut up in a monastery: and on the 23d of November, by his order,
St. Ignatius, when he had been patriarch eleven years, was driven from his see
by Bardas, and banished to the isle of Terebinthus, where one of his
monasteries stood. All means were used to extort from him a resignation of his
dignity; but he refused by such an act to deliver up his flock to wolves: nor
could his constancy be moved by artifices, persuasions, buffets, chains or
dungeons. At last, however, Bardas declared Photius, the eunuch, patriarch,
without so much as the formality of an election. This extraordinary man was of
high birth, nephew to the patriarch Tarasius, and nearly related to the emperor
and Bardas Cæsar. He was a prodigy of genius and learning, being well skilled
in all the profane arts, and not altogether unacquainted with ecclesiastical
matters, in which also, by application after his promotion, he acquired great
knowledge. So passionately fond was he of books, that he often spent whole
nights at his studies. But he was a mere layman, and had two considerable
employments at court, being Protospatharius and Protosecretis, that is, master
of the horse and chief secretary to the emperor. His great qualifications were
debased by a consummate depravity of soul; for he was the most cunning and
deceitful of men; and always ready to sacrifice every thing to an unbounded
ambition. He was also a schismatic, and adhered to Gregory Abestas, bishop of
Syracuse, in Sicily, who had raised a faction against St. Ignatius, from the
time of his promotion to the patriarchate. The saint had endeavoured to reclaim
this prelate, sparing neither words nor good turns, but in vain; so that at
length in a council, in 854, he condemned and deposed him for his crimes.
Photius continued to protect him, and being nominated patriarch by Bardas, was
ordained bishop in six days; on the first, he was made a monk: on the second, reader:
on the third, subdeacon; on the fourth, deacon; on the fifth, priest: and on
the sixth, which was Christmas-day, patriarch. This was done in the year 858.
The election of Photius
having been made by Bardas alone, notoriously against the canons, no bishop
could be prevailed upon to ordain him till he had gained some of them by
promising to renounce the schism, which he had abetted, to embrace the
communion of Ignatius, to acknowledge him as lawful patriarch, to honour him as
his father, and to do nothing without his consent. Yet in less than two months
after his ordination, in contempt of his oaths, he persecuted most outrageously
all the clergy that adhered to Ignatius, and caused several to be scourged or
otherwise tormented. In order to destroy Ignatius, he persuaded Bardas, and,
through his means, the emperor, to commence an information against him as
having secretly conspired against the state. Commissioners were sent to the
isle of Terebinthus, and the saint’s servants put to the question to compel
them to accuse their master; but nothing could be extorted from them. However,
the saint was conveyed to the island Hieria, where a goat-house was his prison;
thence he was removed to Prometa, a suburb near Constantinople, where two of
his teeth were knocked out by a blow given him by a captain of the guards, and
he was confined in a narrow dungeon with his feet put in the stocks, and
fastened to two iron bars. Several bishops of the province of Constantinople
assembled in the church of peace in that city, and excommunicated Photius. On
the other side, Photius, supported by Bardas, in a council, pronounced a
sentence of deposition and excommunication against Ignatius, who, in August,
859, with many of his adherents, was put on board a vessel, loaded with chains,
and sent to Mitylene, in the isle of Lesbos. Photius sent messengers with a
letter to Pope Nicholas I., in which he signified, that Ignatius had resigned
his see by reason of his age and craziness, and had withdrawn into a monastery,
where he lived in great esteem with the princes and the people; that himself
had been chosen by the metropolitans, and compelled by the emperor to take upon
him that dreadful burden, which he hypocritically lamented; but begged the pope
to send two legates to ratify these proceedings, and condemn the Iconoclasts. 1 The
emperor also sent an embassy, consisting of a patrician and four bishops, on
the same errand, with rich presents to the church of St. Peter. The Pope
received no messengers from Ignatius, whose enemies did not suffer him to send
any. He therefore answered these letters very cautiously, and sent two legates
to Constantinople, Rodoald, bishop of Porto, and Zachary, bishop of Anagnia,
with orders to decide in council the questions concerning holy images,
according to the definitions of the seventh general council. But as to the
affair of Ignatius and Photius, the legates had orders only to take
informations and to send them to the pope. In his answer to the emperor, he
complains that Ignatius had been deposed without consulting the holy see, and
that a layman had been chosen against the canons. In that to Photius he
expresses his joy to find his confession of faith orthodox; but takes notice of
the irregularities committed in his election. In the mean time Ignatius was
brought back from Mitylene to the isle of Terebinthus, about the time that his
monasteries with the neighbouring isles were all plundered, and twenty-three of
his domestics massacred by a fleet of the Scythian nation, called Rossi or
Russians. The pope’s two legates being arrived at Constantinople, Photius and the
emperor found means to gain them after they had long resisted.
A synod, therefore, was
held at Constantinople in 861, in which the legates prevaricating and exceeding
their power and commission, St. Ignatius was unjustly deposed, with much harsh
and tyrannical usage, seventy-two false witnesses having been heard against
him, who alleged that his election had not been canonical. 2 After
this, Photius caused the saint to be shut up in the sepulchre of Constantine
Copronymus, which was in the same church where the council had been held: here
the prisoner was most cruelly beaten and tormented, kept for a fortnight always
standing, and a whole week without meat or sleep. In the weak condition to
which he was reduced, Theodorus, one of the three ruffians that tormented him,
in order to compel him to sign his own condemnation, and the resignation of his
see, took his hand by force, and made him sign a cross upon a paper which he
held. This he carried to Photius, who caused an act of his renunciation to be
written over it. This paper Photius delivered to the emperor, who thereupon
sent an order that Ignatius should be released, and suffered to retire to the
palace of Posa, his mother’s house, where he enjoyed a little respite, and had
an opportunity of drawing up a petition to the pope. It was signed by ten
metropolitans, fifteen bishops, and an infinite number of priests and monks.
Theognostus, a monk archimandrite of Rome, and abbot at Constantinople, was the
bearer, and informed the pope of all that had passed.
Photius not thinking
himself yet secure, advised the emperor to cause Ignatius to read his
condemnation in the Ambo or pulpit of the church of the apostles; then to have
his eyes pulled out, and his hand cut off. On Whit-Sunday Ignatius saw his
house on a sudden encompassed with soldiers; and made his escape only by
putting on the poor secular clothes of a slave, and carrying a great pole upon
his shoulders, to which two baskets were hung. In this disguise he went out in
the night-time, being taken by the guards for a porter. He walked weeping, and
lived a long time, sometimes in one island, sometimes in another; often
changing his habitation, and concealing himself in caves, mountains, and desert
places, where he subsisted on alms, being reduced to beg, though he was
patriarch, and the son of an emperor. Photius and the emperor had caused strict
search to be every where made for him, and the Drongarius, or admiral of the
fleet, was sent with six light vessels in quest of him. All the islands in the
Archipelago, and all the coasts were narrowly searched: Ignatius was often met
by the soldiers, but was so disguised as never to be known. The Drongarius had
orders to kill him upon the spot wherever he should be found. A terrible
earthquake, which shook Constantinople for forty days together, terrified the
citizens, who cried out that it was a just punishment for the persecution
Ignatius suffered. The emperor and Bardas were both alarmed, and both swore
publicly, and caused it to be proclaimed that no harm should be done to
Ignatius, and that he might with safety return to his own monastery; which he
did. The pope, after the return of his legates, and after he had received the
acts of the pretended council, and the informations that were sent him,
expressed great affliction for the prevarication of his legates, and disowned
what they had done, declaring he gave them no commission for the deposition of
Ignatius, or for the promotion of Photius. 3 In
his answers to the emperor and Photius he strongly shows that Ignatius was the
only rightful patriarch, and that Photius’s election was every way irregular,
nor does he address him otherwise than as a layman. In that to the emperor he
says: 4 “We
have in our hands your letters, as well to Leo our predecessor as to us,
whereby you gave testimony to the virtue of Ignatius, and the regularity of his
ordination: and now you allege his having usurped the see by the secular
power,” &c. At the same time the pope sent a third letter, directed to all
the faithful in the East, wherein he condemned the prevarication of his legates
who had acted against his orders; and, directing his words to the three
patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, to the metropolitans and
bishops, he says: “We enjoin and order you, by the apostolical authority, to
have the same sentiments with us in regard to Ignatius and Photius; and to
publish this letter in your diocesses, that it may be known to all men.” 5 Photius,
than whom there never was a more daring impostor, suppressed the letter he had
received, and forged another in the name of the pope, as if of a later date
than the rest, in which he intimates the pope to be in his interest, and to
charge Ignatius with having imposed upon him. Eustratus, who pretended to have
brought this letter from Rome, was convicted of the cheat, and condemned by
Bardas himself to be severely scourged, notwithstanding the pressing
solicitations of Photius, who, for his recompence procured him an honourable
and lucrative employment. It was afterwards affirmed that Photius had contrived
this whole cheat. All this while he connived at the impiety of the emperor, who
ridiculed the sacred ceremonies of religion, and mimicked them with the
companions of his parties of debauchery. Photius assiduously made his court to
the emperor, and ate at his table with these sacrilegious jesters. One of these
buffoons called Theophilus, used to act the part of the patriarch, and others
that of the rest of the clergy, in a ludicrous manner, which was condemned in
the eighth general council. The emperor rallied Photius for his want of
religion, saying: “Theophilus (the buffoon) is my patriarch, Photius is Cæsar’s
patriarch, and Ignatius is the patriarch of the Christians.” The two wicked
princes were soon after cut off like Baltassar. Bardas was put to death by the
emperor for conspiring against his life, in 866.
Photius having in vain
courted the pope to draw him to his side, resolved at length to be revenged of
him, and having exasperated the impious emperor against him, with his
concurrence, held a council at Constantinople in the same year, 866, in which
he presumed to pronounce sentence of deposition and excommunication against
Pope Nicholas: this was the first origin of the Greek schism. Photius had only
twenty-one bishops who joined him in this council; but forged false acts as if
it had been œcumenical, adding false subscriptions, as of deputies from the
other three eastern patriarchs, and of about a thousand bishops. What much
exasperated Photius was, that the Bulgarians having been lately converted to
the faith, the legates which Pope Nicholas had sent among them, rejected the
chrism which Photius had consecrated and sent thither, and they made a new
chrism to confirm as well the great men as the people of that nation. Photius,
therefore, resolved to keep no longer any measures with the pope; but held this
pretended synod against him; and when it was over, drew up a circular letter
which he sent to the other Oriental patriarchs and chief bishops, in which he
trumped up a general charge against the Latin church. 6 But
he soon after lost both his protector and his usurped dignity. The emperor, who
had slain his uncle Bardas on the 29th of April, in 866, immediately adopted
and declared master of the offices, Basil the Macedonian, a soldier of fortune
who had a great share in the death of Bardas. And as Michael wanted both
application and capacity for business, and could not do without another to
govern for him, he soon after associated this Basil with him in the empire, and
had him crowned in the church of St. Sophia on the 26th of May. But seeking
soon after to depose him again, he was murdered by his guards while he was drunk,
in September, 867.
The emperor Basil no
sooner saw himself at liberty and master of affairs, but the very next day he
banished Photius into the isle of Scepe, and honourably restored St. Ignatius;
who was conducted with great pomp to the imperial city, and reinstated in the
patriarchal chair on the 3rd of November in 867, after a banishment of nine
years. If pride makes men haughty and insolent, or fond of themselves and of
the esteem of others in prosperity, it leaves them pusillanimous, abject, and
fawning in adversity. But he who is master of himself and his passions, is the
same in all vicissitudes: his heart, under the steady influence of reason and
virtue, is neither darkened with clouds, nor agitated by violent storms, but
preserves itself in an even state of tranquillity by a noble firmness which it
derives from an interior sentiment of religion. Such was the character of this
saint, who appeared not less magnanimous in the greatest disgraces, than humble
amidst honours and applause. Having recovered his dignity, he solicited the
emperor and the pope that a general council might be called. This was held at
Constantinople in the church of St. Sophia, in 869, and is called the eighth.
The legates of Pope Adrian II. who had succeeded Nicholas in 867, presided. The
council held by Photius was here condemned: that schismatic himself, after a
long hearing, was excommunicated, and those who had adhered to him were, upon
confessing their fault, admitted to penance. Nicetas relates, that among
Photius’s archives, which the emperor had seized, were found in sacks sealed
with lead, two books in purple covers, adorned with gold and silver, the inside
being curiously written in fair characters, with marks that they might appear
ancient when they should be found by posterity. In the one, were contained
forged acts of a pretended council against Ignatius (which never was held), in
the other was a synodal letter against Pope Nicholas, “both full of outrageous
slanders and invectives. Photius was banished by the emperor; but, eight years
after this, by drawing a pedigree of that prince from Tiridates, king of
Armenia, and certain old Thracian heroes, he pleased his vanity, and prevailed
to be allowed to return to Constantinople, and to abide in his palace of Magnaurus.
St. Ignatius applied himself to his pastoral functions with so much prudence,
charity, zeal, and vigilance, as showed his sanctity and experience were much
improved by his sufferings. He died on the 23rd of October, in the year 878,
being near fourscore years old. His body, inclosed in a wooden coffin, was
carried to the church of St. Sophia, where the usual prayers were offered for
his soul. It was then removed to St. Menna’s, where two women possessed by
devils were delivered in the presence of these relics. They were deposited in
the church of St. Michael, which he had built near the Bosphorus, not far from
the city. Both Latins and Greeks keep his festival on the day of his death. See
his life written by the elegant Nicetas David, bishop of Paphlagonia,
afterwards of Constantinople, who knew him; also Zoneras, Cedrenus, the eighth
tome of the councils, Nat. Alexander diss. 4, in sæc. 9 et 10; Le Quien, Or.
Chr. in Ign. et Phot, t. 1, p. 246, and especially Baronius, with notes and
amendments, in the new edition published by Veturini at Lucca.
Note 1. Ap. Baron.
ad an. 859. [back]
Note 2. Conc. t. 8.
p. 1266. 1512. [back]
Note 3. Nic. 1, Ep.
10 et 13. [back]
Note 4. Ib. ep.
5. [back]
Note 5. Nic. 1, ep
4. [back]
Note 6. Photius at first commended all the doctrine and discipline of the Latin church, as is evident from his confession of faith in his first synodal letter, which he wrote to Pope Nicholas seven years before this; where he said that each church ought to follow its own customs, assigning for instances the custom in the West of fasting on Saturdays, and that among the Greeks of permitting priests who were married before their ordination to keep their wives, which they had practised since their council in Trullo, or the Quinisext council, held in 692, or 707; though they never allow such persons to be made bishops, or any one to take a wife after he is engaged in priest’s orders.
The points which Photius objected to the Latins, when, out of resentment, and because they would not be gained over to approve his crimes, he resolved to keep no measures with them, are such as make it evident he sought only to make a breach. In his circular letter, in 866, he accuses the Latins first of cutting off the first week in Lent, and of fasting on Saturdays, which the Greeks do not, and allowing in it the eating of milk, butter, and cheese: secondly, of refusing to admit to the priesthood married men, who had not by mutual free consent engaged to live continent: thirdly, of rejecting chrism consecrated by priests, and reserving that function to bishops: fourthly, of an error in faith by teaching, and professing in the Creed, that the Holy Ghost proceeds not from the Father alone, but from the Father and the Son. On this he chiefly enlarges, in a transport of fury, calling this doctrine the height of impiety. Most of the Greek schismatics, by denying the procession of the Holy Ghost jointly from the Father and the Son, have added heresy to their schism; yet, as the separation began by schism, this name has been chiefly applied to them.
Upon the death of St. Ignatius, in 878, Photius with armed men took possession of the church of St. Sophia; and the Emperor Basil solicited Pope John VIII. to consent to his restauration, for the good of peace, and the reunion of men’s minds. The pope assented, on condition that he begged pardon for his past crimes in a synod. His legates presided in a numerous council held at Constantinople in 879, which Photius called the eighth general council. In it the pope’s letters to the emperor and Photius were read; but falsified by Photius, who had erased all his holiness said concerning Ignatius, and his injunction to Photius to ask pardon; which passages were supplied with high commendations of the emperor and Photius, and the condemnation of St. Ignatius’s council. In this synod the said council was condemned, and Photius restored, without complying with the conditions required. When Pope John was informed hereof, he disowned what his legates had done; and, going to the church, fulminated an excommunication against Photius, deposed his legates, and sent Marinus legate into the East, who strenuously maintained what had been done by Pope Nicholas, and by the eighth council against Photius. This Marinus, who succeeded John VIII. in the pontificate, and his successors, Adrian III. and Stephen V., condemned Photius. The letters of this last arrived in the East after the death of Basil the Macedonian in 886, and were delivered to his son and successor, Leo the Wise, who immediately turned out Photius, and banished him into a monastery in Armenia, where he died after having lived thirty years in schism. The Greek schismatics substitute this false synod for the eighth general council: to which some Protestants, with the learned Bishop Beveridge, in his edition of the canons of the Greek church, willingly subscribe; though the chief articles of Protestantism were as certainly condemned by the Greeks and their synods in that age as by the popes. Against the Iconoclasts no stronger decrees could be framed than those of Photius and of the Greek councils of that age.
Photius’s extensive and profound learning, the fineness of his wit, and some degree of delicacy of style are conspicuous in his two hundred and forty-eight letters, translated by Bishop Montague, and printed at London in 1651; in his theological tracts, (published in the additional fifth tome of Canisius, and in F. Combefis’s last supplement to the Bibliotheca Patrum;) in his Nomocanon, which is an excellent methodical collection of the canons of councils, canonical epistles, and some imperial laws concerning ecclesiastical matters: but chiefly in his Library, in which work, without observing any method or order, either of matter or time, he has left us abstracts of two hundred and seventy-nine volumes of ancient authors of all kinds, many of which are not now extant. In the first part of this work he sets down only the general arguments, or heads of books, with most judicious censures upon the character and style of the writers. Towards the end, his abstracts are long, he omits choice reflections, and falls short in exactness. This was composed at the request of his brother Tarasius, when he was yet a layman, in a public employment in Assyria. It must, however, be owned that the style of Photius is not altogether clear from the faults of the age in which he lived. The Greeks, who wrote after Bardas Cæsar, had revived the taste of polite literature, (which wars and revolutions had impaired,) but did not come up to a classical smoothness and elegance. Their style is declamatory, diffusive, and full of studied or strained figures, which are like the irregular ornaments with which Gothic buildings are loaded, and which, to a true taste, appear monstrous or ridiculous, when compared with the beautiful simplicity of nature. This we may observe in the best Greek writers of that epoch: as in the works of the Emperor Leo the Wise, or the philosopher, who wrote panegyrics on St. Chrysostom and St. Nicholas, and sermons on the chief feasts, of which some are published by Combefis, (Auctar. Bibl. Patr.) Gretser, &c. Others are preserved in MS. in the Vatican and other libraries, with his precepts, riddles, (or mysterious sayings,) Constitutions and Tactics, or treatise on the manner of ranging an army in battalia. The same faults in a less degree depreciate the voluminous writings of this Leo’s son, the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogeneta, though most useful in giving us an exact knowledge of the geography and state of the Greek empire in the middle ages. Nevertheless, the style of Nicetas David in that age is very good, and free from those blemishes; neither are they very remarkable in that of Photius: but the Latin translation is very inaccurate, though it bears the name of the learned Jesuit F. Andrew Scot. A complete edition of all his works is much wanted, many, said to be useful, being only extant in MS. See Histoire de Photius, par le P. Ch. F. Paris, 1772, one vol. 12mo.
After the expulsion of Photius, the harmony was restored between the
Latin and Greek churches for seventy years; though in several instances the
Greeks betrayed a rancour, and it appeared that the Latins were hated and
slighted by them. In 1053, the great schism was renewed by Michael Cerularius,
who founded his separation upon the most frivolous pretences and notorious
slanders imaginable; but added, that if these objections were answered he would
make a thousand others, which words show a resolution bent obstinately to form
a schism at all rates. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume X: October. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/10/234.html
St Ignatius the Patriarch
of Constantinople
Commemorated on October
23
Saint Ignatius, Patriarch
of Constantinople (847-857; 867-877), in the world Nicetas, was of imperial
lineage. When his father, the emperor Michael I (811-813), was deposed from the
imperial throne by Leo the Armenian (813-820), the fifteen-year-old youth
Ignatius was imprisoned in a monastery. Life in the monastery strengthened St
Ignatius in faith and in piety. Soon he was made igumen of the monastery, and
later he was chosen Patriarch of Constantinople.
When Michael III
(855-867) ascended the throne he was still a minor, so the country was actually
governed by his uncle, Bardas, an impious and unchaste man. Patriarch Ignatius
urged Bardas to forsake his sinful life and when he refused, Ignatius boldly
denounced him for his iniquity.
Bardas attempted to force
St Ignatius to tonsure the holy Empress Theodora, mother of the emperor, in
order to remove her from governance of the realm. Patriarch Ignatius did not
consent to this, and also publicly excommunicated Bardas. Bardas had Ignatius
tortured for fifteen days to force him to resign, and then they sent him into
exile. When the new emperor came to power, St Ignatius was recalled from prison
and was Patriarch for another ten years. He died in the year 877 in a
monastery.
SOURCE : https://oca.org/saints/lives/2016/10/23/103041-st-ignatius-the-patriarch-of-constantinople
Sant' Ignazio Patriarca
di Costantinopoli
m. 23 ottobre 877
Martirologio Romano: A
Costantinopoli, sant’Ignazio, vescovo, che, reso oggetto di molti oltraggi da
parte dell’imperatore Barda, al quale aveva rimproverato di aver ripudiato la
moglie, fu mandato in esilio, ma, richiamato dal papa san Nicola I, riposò infine
in pace.
Ignazio, il cui nome di battesimo era Niceta, discendeva da famiglia nobile: figlio minore dell'imperatore d'Oriente Michele I, era anche, da parte di madre, nipote di un altro imperatore, Niceforo I. Quando il padre fu deposto (813), egli e suo fratello vennero mutilati e rinchiusi in un convento: Niceta si fece monaco e prese il nome di Ignazio. Eletto poi abate del suo monastero, nell'846 divenne patriarca di Costantinopoli. Uomo pio ma di temperamento piuttosto tirannico, mise uno zelo nella riforma della Chiesa e nella disputa sul culto delle immagini che gli creò molti nemici e lo costrinse a una vita sempre piena di conflitti.
Nell'848 egli depose un arcivescovo sgradito (Gregorio Asbestas di Siracusa), ma non riuscì a ottenere in questo il necessario appoggio di Roma e anzi scoprì anche che si stava formando a corte un partito anti-ignaziano. I rapporti con i vertici dello stato si rovinarono progressivamente finché, nell'857, Ignazio rifiutò pubblicamente la comunione al reggente Bardas, zio del sedicenne imperatore Michele III, colpevole di incesto. Bardas persuase l'imperatore a far allontanare Ignazio: furono inventate accuse contro il patriarca ed egli fu deposto ed esiliato. Forse fu il vescovo stesso a dimettersi e, sebbene i dettagli della vicenda non siano del tutto chiari, potrebbe anche essere stata nelle intenzioni una misura temporanea, ma in ogni caso ciò fu sufficiente a Bardas per sostituire Ignazio con il suo segretario Fozio. Il nuovo patriarca, facendosi consacrare da Gregorio di Siracusa, si mise subito in aperto contrasto con Ignazio e si aprì un'epoca di dure lotte. Fozio era per molti versi un candidato ideale, assai istruito, religioso e molto capace come amministratore, ma ebbe la colpa di lasciarsi manovrare dalla fazione di corte, desiderosa non solo di vendicarsi di Ignazio, ma ancor più di confermare la propria autorità sulla Chiesa, indebolendo, in particolare, la posizione dei rigoristi che volevano una Chiesa totalmente indipendente dallo Stato.
Dal contrasto tra Fozio e Ignazio nacque il cosiddetto scisma foziano tra Costantinopoli e Roma (tradizionalmente considerato in Occidente come un tentativo del patriarca di ottenere l'indipendenza completa dal papa, è storicamente più spiegabile come una lotta di potere all'interno della Chiesa stessa d'Oriente). Entrambe le parti si appellarono a papa Niccolò I che incaricò alcuni suoi inviati di investigare sull'intera faccenda; essi tuttavia, oltrepassando i limiti del mandato, presero parte a un sinodo a Costantinopoli che condannò e depose Ignazio. Da Roma il papa dichiarò nulla la sentenza e, convocato un concilio romano nell'863, reintegrò nel patriarcato Ignazio e depose Fozio e tutti quelli nominati da lui. Un esito effettivo di tale decreto non si vide e anzi sorse un ulteriore motivo di contesa, quando dei predicatori latini furono mandati in Bulgaria: i nuovi battezzati sarebbero stati sotto l'obbedienza del papa, da cui dipendevano i missionari, o del patriarca, che storicamente aveva la responsabilità di quelle terre? L'atmosfera era incandescente e nell'867 un concilio a Costantinopoli depose e scomunicò il papa.
Ma ecco nuovi repentini sconvolgimenti alle porte: Basilio il Macedone, dopo essere salito al trono assassinando Michele III, reintegrò Ignazio al posto di Fozio e infine, almeno per quanto ci riguarda, il IV concilio di Costantinopoli (869-870, ottavo concilio ecumenico della Chiesa) scomunicò Fozio, ripristinando ufficialmente Ignazio come patriarca.
Ripresi i propri compiti con invariato zelo ed energia, anche se non sempre con prudenza, Ignazio incoraggiò il principe Boris di Bulgaria a espellere sacerdoti e vescovi latini dai propri territori e sostituirli con greci inviati da lui stesso; nell'870 consacrò un arcivescovo e dei vescovi per le sedi bulgare e papa Giovanni VIII lo minacciò di scomunica. Nell'877 giunsero nella città imperiale i delegati papali con un ultimatum, ma scoprirono che Ignazio era già morto, il 23 ottobre, nel monastero dei Santi Arcangeli costruito dal patriarca stesso. Gli succedette allora Fozio, e proprio lui, che ne era stato tanto nemico, lo canonizzò, mentre un altro concilio di Costantinopoli, tenutosi nell'879-880 e al quale parteciparono anche delegati papali, revocava, a quanto sembra, la sentenza del precedente.
L'indubbia santità personale di Ignazio, il suo coraggio nel rimproverare
l'immoralità nelle alte sfere e la sua pazienza durante la persecuzione sono le
qualità che fanno di lui un santo. Nella Chiesa d'Oriente è venerato insieme a
Fozio, sebbene i due uomini siano stati in vita grandi avversari su importanti
questioni di principio. Resoconti precedenti che consideravano questa
opposizione come una semplice risonanza di controversie tra Oriente e Occidente
non sono a tutt'oggi da ritenersi più validi.
