PHOTIUS

PHOTIUS, Patriarch of Constantinople, theologian, St. (ca. 810-ca. 895). Patriarch from 858 to 867 and from 878 to 886, Photius was the most learned man of the 9th c., the principal patron of the so-called Byzantine renaissance of classical learning, patron of the missionary venture of Constantine-Cyril and Methodius (qq.v.), and an outstanding theologian. His Library, a running commentary on a collection of several hundred books of classical and Christian antiquity (many now lost), has proved of enormous significance for the history of the ancient world and the Church. Written during his first exile, the “Amphilochia” treats exegetical and doctrinal problems. Photius is doubtless best remembered in the Roman Catholic Church (q.v.) for his sharp critique of the Latin filioque (q.v.) and for his quarrel with Pope Nicholas I, with whom he exchanged decrees of deposition and excommunication. The anti-Photian council of 869, insisted on by Pope Nicholas’s successor, Hadrian II, was later reckoned as the Eighth Ecumenical Council (q.v.) by Roman canonists. On Photius’s return to the patriarchal throne a second council was held in 879 exonerating the patriarch and making peace with Pope Joh n VIII, in particular on the basis of a mutual agreement not to alter the text of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (q.v.). Given the convocation of another ecumenical council, the Orthodox Church would almost certainly recognize the synod of 879 as the Eighth Ecumenical Council.