ATTICUS, Patriarch of CONSTANTINOPLE. — Born in Sebaste, in Armenia, he went to Constantinople and became one of the most bitter opponents of St. John Chrysostom, testifying against him at the Oak Council (404). He was immediately called to succeed him on the see of the capital (March 406 – Oct. 425). The unjust
deposition of John, which was not recognized by Pope Innocent I, produced a schism between the Roman Church and the Eastern patriarchs. It also caused a local schism within the Church of Constantinople. The Johannites were numerous in the capital until around 417, when A., imitating Alexander of Antioch, reinstated John’s name in the diptychs, thus restoring relations with the Pope. Interest, perhaps more than love for ecclesiastical unity, drove him to this act. Like his predecessors, and more so than they, he worked to extend the jurisdiction of the see of Constantinople over the ecclesiastical provinces of Asia Minor (dioceses of Thrace, Asia, and Pontus) and doubtless inspired the decree of Emperor Theodosius II of 14 July 421, which removed the patriarch of Rome’s jurisdiction over the eastern Illyricum and placed it under the high supervision of the bishop of the New Rome. A. was a mediocre orator but always orthodox. He raged against heretics more with threats than with deeds. He showed himself harsh only toward the Messalians and the Johannites.
The Council of Ephesus and St. Cyril cite a passage from one of his homilies on the Incarnation, preserved in Syriac and published in full by M. Brière in *Revue de l’Orient chrétien*, 29 (1933–34), and by J. Lebon in *Museon*, 1933, pp. 167–202. The passage indeed corresponds to the first part of the fifth of the homilies published under the name of Proclus, found in *PG* 65, 716–21. Apart from this homily, only fragments and four letters remain of A.
Despite the shadows that darken his memory, A. is listed among the saints in several synaxaria, and the Bollandists have defended his memory (cf. *Acta SS. Ianuarii*, I, Antwerp 1643, pp. 473–83; *Augusti*, I, Antwerp 1750, pp. 32–37; and *PG* 65, 637–50).