Photios I of Constantinople

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The Patriarch Photios sitting on a throne by John Skylitzes

Photios I was born c. 810 or 820 in Constantinople and died 891 in Bordi (Armenia). He was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 858 to 867 and from 877 to 886. In the Eastern Orthodox churches he is called St. Photios the Great. Photios a powerful and influential Patriarch of Constantinople. As a scholar, Photios possessed a tremendous knowledge of Greek literature.[1] He was a leading intellectual of his time, "the leading light of the ninth-century renaissance".[2][3] He was a central figure in both the religious conversion of the Slavs to Christianity and the Photian schism.[4]

References[change | change source]

  1. Vasilios Makrides, Hellenic Temples and Christian Churches: A Concise History of the Religious Cultures of Greece from Antiquity to the Present (New York: New York University Press, 2009), p. 164
  2. Andrew Louth, Greek East and Latin West: The Church, AD 681-1071 (New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2007), p. 159
  3. Cyril A. Mango, Byzantium: The Empire of New Rome (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980), p. 168
  4. Warren T.Treadgold, 'Review: Patriarch Photios of Constantinople: His Life, Scholarly Contributions, and Correspondence together with a Translation of Fifty-Two of His Letters by Despina Stratoudaki White; The Patriarch and the Prince: The Letter of Patriarch Photios of Constantinople to Khan Boris of Bulgaria by Despina Stratoudaki White; Joseph R. Berrigan Jr.". Speculum (Medieval Academy of America) Vol 58, No. 4 (October 1983), pp. 1100–1102. JSTOR 2853829