Photios I of Constantinople

Who was Photios I of Constantinople?

Photios I, also spelled Photius or Fotios, was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 858 to 867 and from 877 to 886; He is recognized in the Eastern Orthodox churches as St. Photios the Great.

Photios is widely regarded as the most powerful and influential Patriarch of Constantinople since John Chrysostom, and as the most important intellectual of his time, "the leading light of the ninth-century renaissance". He was a central figure in both the conversion of the Slavs to Christianity and the Photian schism.

Photios was a well-educated man from a noble Constantinopolitan family. Photius's great uncle was a previous Patriarch of Constantinople, Tarasius. He intended to be a monk, but chose to be a scholar and statesman instead. In 858, Emperor Michael III deposed Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople, and Photios, still a layman, was appointed in his place. Amid power struggles between the pope and the Byzantine emperor, Ignatius was reinstated. Photios resumed the position when Ignatius died, by order of the Byzantine emperor. The new pope, John VIII, approved Photios's reinstatement.