ANTONIO III STUDITA, patriarch of CONSTANTINOPLE. - A Studite monk, he became syncellus to Patriarch BASIL. When the latter resigned because he supported the Pope of Rome against the anti-pope BONIFACE VII, a guest of the Byzantine court, Antonio, already elderly, accepted the vacant position (March 974). Leo the Deacon praised his gentleness and moderation (PG 117, 892); but because he defended the ecclesiastical liberties secured by Polyeuctus (969), he too was forced to resign (before April 979). He died shortly thereafter (979). An exhortation to monks on confession survives from him (in Nèz Lòw, 2 [1905], 807-15); under his governance, the Menologion known as that of Emperor BASIL was compiled, of which the Vatican Library possesses a sumptuous illuminated copy.
BIBL. G. Schlumberger, L'Épopée byzantine à la fin du Xe siècle, Paris, 1896, pp. 446-541; V. Grumel, Les Recettes des Actes du Patriarcat de Constantinopole, I, Kadiköy 1936, p. 228. Alfonso Races