Antimus I, Patriarch of Constantinople

ANTIMO I, patriarch of CONSTANTINOPLE. — He occupied the see from July 535 to March 536. A secret adherent of Monophysitism, he was a favorite of the empress Theodora. First appointed to the see of Trebizond around 533, he was subsequently transferred to the see of Constantinople, upon the death of the patriarch Epiphanius (535), through the empress’s efforts. Pope St. Agapitus came to Constantinople during this interval, exposed the heretic, deposed him, and consecrated the patriarch Menna as his successor. The latter, after the Pope’s death, which occurred shortly thereafter, presided over the important Council of Constantinople (2 May–4 June 536) and again condemned A., together with the other leaders of Monophysitism: Severus of Antioch, Peter of Apamea, and the monk Zoara. On the following 6 August, Justinian confirmed the Council’s sentence by a law of the state (Novella 42). From this moment onward, history loses sight of A. There remain of his writings the Anathamatismi, still unpublished, preserved in book X of Nicetas Acominatus’s Text of Orthodoxy, and a fragment of a Treatise Addressed to Justinian (Ἀόμος πρὸς Ἰουστινιανόν: Mansi, XI, col. 440).