Ecumenical Patriarch Dionysius IV of Constantinople

Who is Ecumenical Patriarch Dionysius IV of Constantinople?

Dionysius IV Mouselimes was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople for five times, in 1671–1673, 1676–1679, 1682–1684, 1686–1687, and 1693–1694. He was born in Istanbul, where he grew up. He studied at the Phanar Greek Orthodox College and worked as an administrative officer at the Patriarchate. On 9 August 1662 he was elected bishop of Larissa, where he remained until 1671, when he was first elected Patriarch of Constantinople.

After his second term as Patriarch of Constantinople, from 1676 to 1679, he settled in Wallachia, a historical region of Romania. Dionysius was in conflict with Patriarch James, Patriarch of Constantinople from 1679 to 1682, whom he forced to resign in 1682. After is third term, when Parthenius IV was restored for his fourth time, he moved to Chalcedon until 1686. He returned to Constantinople on 7 April 1686 and, on 17 October 1687, overthrew James again, who was restored for the first time.

He was imprisoned by the Ottoman Turks twice, in 1679, and from 1687 until 1688. After his final removal from the patriarchal throne in 1694, he retired in Bucharest, Romania. Dionysius died on 23 September 1696 at Târgoviște in Wallachia and was buried in Radu Vodă Monastery, a Romanian Orthodox monastery in Bucharest, where he lived his last years.