St. Patriarch Methodios of Constantinople passed away on this day in 847. St. Methodios was born in Sicily into a wealthy family. By the calling of God, while still young, he went to a monastery on the island of Chios and renovated it at his own expense. During the reign of the iconoclast Emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820), he held the high position of apokrisari under St. Patriarch Nikephoros. He was sent by the patriarch to Rome with an errand to the pope and stayed there. At this time, Leo the Armenian overthrew St. Nikephoros from the throne and elevated the iconoclast Theodotos I Kassiteras to his throne (815-822). After the death of Leo the Armenian, St. Methodios returned to the East and, in the rank of presbyter, tirelessly fought against the iconoclastic heresy. Emperor Michael the Stammerer (820-829) initially showed himself to be merciful and freed many prisoners who were imprisoned by his predecessor for venerating icons, but then resumed the persecution of Orthodoxy. St. Methodios was imprisoned. After the death of Michael, his son Theophilos (829-842), also an iconoclast, reigned. More educated than his father, he released St. Methodios as a learned man, excellently versed in affairs not only of the church but also of civil affairs. Having received freedom, St. Methodios resumed the fight against heretics. The emperor tolerated him for some time; after his defeat in the war against the Arabs, he turned his anger on St. Methodios, saying that God had punished him for bringing an “idolater” closer to himself, as the iconoclasts called the admirers of holy icons. The saint was tortured; he was given many blows to the cheeks, causing his jaw to be crushed. There was an ugly scar on his face. Saint Methodios was exiled to the island of Antigonus and, together with two robbers, was imprisoned in a deep cave. There, in a gloomy prison where sunlight did not penetrate, St. Methodius languished for 7 years until the death of Emperor Theophilus. When Emperor Theophilos died in Constantinople on January 20, 842, his son Michael III was just two years old. Theophilos appointed the regents. Initially, Theodora did not want to change the ecclesiastical policy set by Theophilos, and for a year, she ensured that the iconoclastic Patriarch, John the Grammarian (d. before 867), remained in office. However, icon veneration was part of Theodora’s family tradition. The reality convinced the new regency to restore the veneration of icons to garner support from iconodule Orthodox believers. In restoring Orthodoxy, Theodora relied on the monk and presbyter Methodios. On March 3, 843, St. Methodios was elected patriarch. At the same Council, icon veneration was restored. Since then, the “Rite of Orthodoxy” compiled by Saint Methodios has been performed during the first week of Great Lent. The monks of Stoudios, Mount Olympus, and other monastic houses, played a critical role in Empress Theodora’s restoration of the veneration of icons. At the same time, the monastics represented a challenge to the authority of the patriarch. Monks now substituted for bishops who, due to their Iconoclasm, were defrocked in large numbers. Regarding the reception of the reformed iconoclast clerics into the Imperial Church, the following principle was applied: since the Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicea, 787) had already described Iconoclasm as heresy, all clergy who embraced Iconoclasm after its reintroduction by Emperor Leo V had to be excluded from holy orders. This was because they had been ordained by bishops who had embraced a teaching already identified as heretical by an ecumenical council (Nicea, 787). On the one hand, St. Methodios paid tribute to the confessors of Orthodoxy, and in January 844, he solemnly translated to Constantinople the relics of the two Stoudite leaders, St. Theodore (the abbot) and his brother Archbishop Joseph of Thessaloniki (d. 830). On the other hand, St. Methodios had required the Stoudites to anathematize whatever pamphlets their leader, St. Theodore of Stoudios, had written against the oikonomist policies of the previous patriarchs, St. Tarasios and St. Nikephoros. The crisis with the Stoudites had not been resolved, and sometime before November 846, St. Methodios issued an epistle excommunicating them. St. Methodios continued his campaign of strengthening the authority of the patriarchate, and in March 847, he arranged the solemn translation of Patriarch Nikephoros’s relics to the capital. When St. Methodios died suddenly on June 14, 847, the Stoudites remained in a state of excommunication. During his confrontation with the Stoudites, St. Methodios amplified the exclusive status of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Arguably, this stance became a foundation of today’s perception of the Ecumenical Patriarch and also of Patriarch Nikon in Russia (1605-1681), who believed in the exceptional status of a patriarch. |
