September 596-606 A.D. Cyriacus—Constantinople’s 59th
September
596-606 A.D. Cyriacus—Constantinople’s
59th
Cyriacus II of Constantinople
References
Cyriacus II of Constantinople
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Cyriacus was the thirtieth Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (595–606). He was previously presbyter and steward, oikonomos, of the great church
at Constantinople(Chronicon
Paschale, p. 378). Gregory the Great received the legates bearing the synodal letters which
announced his consecration, partly from a desire not to disturb the peace of
the church, and partly from the personal respect which he entertained for
Cyriac; but in his reply he warned him against the sin of causing divisions in
the church, clearly alluding to the use of the term oecumenical bishop, which
Gregory interpreted as meaning "universal" or even
"exclusive" bishop (Gregory, Ep.
lib. vii. 4, Patrologia Latina lxxvii. 853). The personal feelings of Gregory
towards Cyriac appear most friendly.
Cyriacus did not attend to
Gregory's entreaties that he abstain from using the title, for Gregory wrote
afterwards both to him and to the emperor Maurice, declaring that he could not allow his legates to remain in communion with
Cyriac as long as he retained it. In the latter of these letters he compares
the assumption of the title to the sin of Antichrist, since both exhibit a
spirit of lawless pride. "Quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vocat, vel
vocari desiderat, in elatione sua Antichristum praecurrit" (whosoever
calls himself universal priest, or desires to be called so, is the forerunner
of the Antichrist) (Gregory Ep.
28, 30). In a letter to Anastasius I of Antioch,
who had written to him to remonstrate against disturbing the peace of the
church, Gregory defends his conduct on the ground of the injury which Cyriac
had done to all other patriarchs by the assumption of the title, and reminds
Anastasius that not only heretics but heresiarchs had before this been
patriarchs of Constantinople. He also deprecates the use of the term on more
general grounds (Ep. 24). In spite of all this Cyriacus was firm in his
retention of the title, and appears to have summoned, or to have meditated
summoning, a council to authorize its use. For in 599 Gregory wrote to Eusebius of Thessalonica and some other bishops, stating that he had heard
they were about to be summoned to a council at Constantinople, and most
urgently entreating them to yield neither to force nor to persuasion, but to be
steadfast in their refusal to recognize the offensive title (ib. lib. ix. 68 in
Patr. Lat.).
Cyriacus appears to have
shared in that unpopularity of the emperor Maurice which caused his deposition and death (Theophanes Chronicle, A.M. 6094; Niceph. Callis.
H. E. xviii. 40; Theophylact. Hist. viii. 9). He still, however, had influence
enough to exact from Phocas at his coronation a confession of the orthodox faith and a pledge not to
disturb the church (Theophanes Chronicle,
A.M. 6094). He also nobly resisted the attempt of Phocas to drag the empress Constantina and her daughters from their sanctuary in a church
of Constantinople (ibid., A.M. 6098).
Perhaps some resentment at
this opposition to his will may have induced Phocas to accede more readily to
the claims of Pope Boniface III that Rome should be considered to be the head of
all the church, in exclusion of the claims of Constantinople to the oecumenical
bishopric (Vita Bonifacii III, in Labbe, Acta Concil. t. v.
1615).
Cyriac died in 606, and was
interred in the church of the Holy Apostles (Chronicon Paschale, p. 381). He appears to have been a man of
remarkable piety and earnestness, able to win the esteem of all parties. He
built a church dedicated to the theotokos in a street of Constantinople called Diaconissa
(Theophanes Chronicle,
A.M. 6090; Niceph. Callis. H. E. xviii. 42).
References
Attribution
·
This article incorporates text
from a publication now in the public domain: Wace, Henry; Piercy, William C., eds. (1911). "Cyriac, patriarch of Constantinople". Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the
End of the Sixth Century (third ed.). London: John Murray.
Patriarch of Constantinople
596–606 |
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