Ecumenical Patriarch St. Ignatios passed away on this day in 877. The restoration of Orthodoxy in 843 (the end of the second iconoclasm) eradicated the religious dissent that had been undermining the Eastern Roman Empire. Naturally, the next step of Empress Theodora was to bring the Church under Imperial control. To this end, she appointed Patriarch Ignatios over the bishops, following the recommendation of St. Ioannikios (d. 846), a famous hermit and defender of icons. Ignatios was a son of Emperor Michael I (d. 844) and had been a monk since 813 (albeit initially under duress). At the time of his appointment, he was the superior of the monastery of Satyros in Constantinople. Patriarch Ignatios belonged to the “monastic party”, most vividly represented by St. Theodore of the monastery in Studion, in Constantinople. St. Theodore argued for living the Gospel to the uttermost (pros tin akribein tou Evangleion) through following all the canons, traditions, and ethical norms of the Church in their exactness. This approach had caused conflicts between the Stoudite monks and the church authorities. Ignatios’ predecessor, Patriarch St. Methodios (d. 747), demanded that the Studites admit they were wrong in their conflict with Patriarchs Sts. Tarasios and Nikephoros. Having become Patriarch, Ignatios disregarded Methodios’s orders to anathematize Theodore’s tracts, and restored the deposed abbots Naukratios (d. 848) and Athanasios (d. after 846). By 856, the political environment in Byzantium had changed. After Theoktistos, a powerful advisor to the Empress Theodora, was murdered in a plot by the Empress’ brother Caesar Bardas, the future Michael III was forced by the empress to marry a certain Eudokia Dekapolitissa (d. 867). Ignatios’s involvement with this arranged marriage probably caused a rift between him and Michael. On March 15, 856, the Senate proclaimed the sixteen-year-old Michael the sole ruler. A patron of secular studies, Bardas became Michael’s highest-level official, serving as both commander of the army and as private secretary, thus assuming authority that properly belonged to both Theoktistos and Theodora. While Theodora and Theoktistos counted on support from the akreibists (those who argued for rigor in the application of laws), Bardas and Michael relied on the oikonomists (those who believed that laws could be applied at the discretion of episcopal authority). At the same time, Patriarch Ignatios, based on a rumor, accused Bardas of incest with his daughter-in-law, Eudokia. On the feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 858, Patriarch Ignatios declined to give Communion to Bardas “as one who does not obey the canons or [the patriarch’s] exhortation.” As a result, Bardas “declared war” against the patriarch. Various plots by Theodora from her family convent in Gastria to overturn Bardas faltered. As a reaction to them, Bardas compelled Michael to summon Ignatios so that he would forcibly tonsure his mother and sisters to remove them as candidates for the throne. Ignatios refused to do so, and Bardas accused him of treason before the emperor. Ignatios was deposed on November 23, 858. Ignatios was then sent into exile on the island of Terebinthos. He proved to be the last holdout of the old regime. He believed his deposition was attributable to his refusal to tonsure Theodora and her daughters. With his abdication, the succession to the Patriarchate was open. The tumultuous events that followed led to the “Photian schism” between Rome and Constantinople, described in the report for September 28th. One of the issues at stake concerned ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Bulgaria, and for over a decade, Photian and Ignatian dioceses continued to coexist in the Empire. Around 873, Photios was returned to the palace to teach the sons of Emperor Basil I. Following the death of Patriarch Ignatios on October 23, 877, Photios ascended to the patriarchal throne in accordance with the will of Basil. It was Photios himself who thereafter canonized Ignatios. |
