Holy Hierarch Gennadios, Patriarch of Constantinople

Saint Gennadios of Constantinople

The seventeenth of November is the feast-day of Saint Gennadios, the Patriarch of Constantinople. He lived during the reign of Emperor Leōn the Thracian, and his life was committed to writing by Saints John Moschos and Sōphronios of Jerusalem, in the popular Byzantine travelogue The Spiritual Meadow. Although he lived much of his life in the capital city, he originally hailed from Antioch and was a representative of the Antiochian School of Catechesis. As such, he may rightly be considered among the Antiochian saints, just as is Saint John Chrysostom – his prædecessor in office.

Saint Gennadios [Gk. Γεννάδιος, L. Gennadius, Ar. Ġiynâdiyyûs غيناديوس] was born in Antioch in the early fifth century. He was already a priest serving in Constantinople when he was chosen to succeed Patriarch Saint Anatolios. His reign as Patriarch of Constantinople was distinguished by his meekness, his patience, his purity of mind and his abstinence. The power of his prayer may be observed from the following instance. There was a certain man named Charisios living in Constantinople, who served as a reader in a temple dedicated to Saint Eleutherios the Chamberlain. Now, this reader was an all-around lout. He was lazy and filthy, and he even stole from the parishioners and performed blood sacrifice and sorcery in private.

Even with such a man Saint Gennadios exhibited great patience and long-suffering. Gently he admonished him for many months, using meek exhortations. However, these had no effect on the incorrigible Charisios, and Saint Gennadios began rebuking him more sternly, and ordered that Charisios be disciplined. However, even the harsher measures he took had little effect upon the crooked character of the tonsured reader. At last, the Patriarch sent an emissary into the church of Saint Eleutherios in his own name. The emissary, doing as the Patriarch had instructed him, stretched out his hand and placed it upon the altar beneath which Saint Eleutherios lay buried, and spoke:

Holy Martyr Eleutherios! Patriarch Gennadios declares to you, through me a sinner, that the cleric Charisios, serving in your temple, does much iniquity and creates great scandal; therefore, either improve him or cut him off from the Church.

The reader Charisios was found dead, the following day.

At another time, there was a certain iconographer who, daring to follow his own will rather than the rubrics of his craft, portrayed the face of Christ with the features of the pagan Zeus. The hand of this impious painter had no sooner done this blasphemy, but it withered. Stricken with remorse he went to the saintly Patriarch, to confess all of his sins. Saint Gennadios prayed over the repentant sinner, and his hand was restored to its former strength and health.

Again, Saint Gennadios was – as a member of the Antiochian School of Catechesis – incredibly well-versed in the Holy Scriptures. He was the author of a series of commentaries, which are sadly no longer extant, on the book of the Prophet Daniel. Furthermore, he demanded that the clergy for whom he had direct responsibility show similar knowledge and reverence and devotion to the Word of God. No scholar who had not learned the Psalter by heart would pass muster to be ordained a priest by Saint Gennadios.

His standards for priestly comportment were as high as those for knowledge: he forbade and punished simony – that is to say, the sale of church offices and sacraments – among the clergy of Constantinople in a local council. This same local council condemned the extreme monophysitism of the Alexandrian hæresiarch Eutychēs. Early in his reign he penned several polemical treatises against Saint Kirillos of Alexandria, though the two men later reconciled to each other. He also worked to deny a Eutychian, Timothy II Ailouros, accession to the Papacy of Alexandria – though this was to little avail.

During the reign of Saint Gennadios, a temple to Saint John the Forerunner was constructed in Constantinople. In addition, a certain senator named Stoudios founded a monastery nearby which was dedicated to the same kinsman of Christ. This was the famous Studium or Studion monastery. The steward for Saint Gennadios is also recognised as a saint in the Orthodox Church: Saint Markianos the Presbyter; and Saint Gennadios was himself responsible for ordaining the Syrian holy man, Saint Daniēl Stylitēs – which he evidently had to do from the base of the holy man’s perch, for he would not let the Patriarch ascend to perform the ordination. Saint Gennadios reigned in Constantinople for thirteen illustrious years, before he reposed peacefully in the Lord in the year 471. Holy hierarch Gennadios, righteous archpastor and divider of the word of truth, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!