JOHN XI BEKKOS, Catholic Patriarch of Constantinople. - A descendant of a Byzantine family, born on an unknown date, he was patriarch from 1275 to 1282. In 1265 he was chartophylax, that is, chancellor of the patriarchate, archivist and ordinary judge of the Church. Since the patriarch Arsenius was then little acceptable to the emperor Michael Palaiologos, so too was G., who however later formed friendly relations with Michael at Thessalonica, to the detriment of the patriarch's trust. When the latter was deposed (1267), G., besides retaining his former honors, was entrusted by Michael, together with the new patriarch Joseph, with the legation to Serbia (1268), to facilitate there the entry of the princess Anna.
In 1270 a new imperial legation placed G., not yet a Catholic, face to face with the problem of the union of the Churches, already previously attempted by Palaiologos. In fact G. and Constantine Meliteniotes, archivist of the Empire, have the honor of bringing back to France the legates of the holy King Louis IX, bearers to Byzantium of the first proposals for union and of assurances of help against Charles of Anjou. Unfortunately the Byzantine legation found King Louis dying at Carthage, and G. witnessed there his most pious death (25 Aug. 1270).
From this moment a period of internal religious struggle opens for G. In his heart he believes the Latins to be heretics because of the doctrine of the Filioque (v.), and he is afraid of thereby jeopardizing the favor of the emperor, who was inclined to accept the Catholic dogma. Always sincere, however, at the Synod of 1273, convoked by Michael to make known his relations with Pope Gregory X, G. strove to demonstrate the lack of orthodoxy of the Latins. By this he lost the Emperor's trust and was confined in the fortress of Anema, where, having devoted himself to a thorough study of the Trinitarian dogma and examining the Filioque in the writings of Niketas Blemmydes, as a true theologian, thoroughly versed in the teaching of the Fathers and in dialectic, he soon came to know the truth and embraced it until death. The sole purpose of his life was that of union, and he asked for the Greeks the preservation by Rome of the traditional usages not opposed to the faith. His conversion earned G. the return of the Emperor's favor; indeed from that point he became the leading figure in the political and religious sphere of his time.
When the union of the Greeks was concluded at the Second Council of Lyon (6 July 1274) and proclaimed at Constantinople the following year (16 Jan.), the patriarch Joseph had to abdicate and G. assumed the office by the will of the Sovereign (26 May), having been consecrated at Hagia Sophia on 2 June 1275. Great, however, were the difficulties that G. as a Catholic had to face for the consolidation of the union, not only from the party of the deposed patriarch, but even more from the clergy in general and singularly from George of Cyprus, his most stubborn adversary. The emperor Michael himself, wavering in policy and of a rough character, perhaps so as not to contradict Andronikos II, associated in the Empire, began to listen to the accusations brought against G., to such a degree that the latter presented his resignation (1279) and withdrew to the monastery of the Panachrantos. But he returned to the patriarchate after some months and continued the struggle until, during the pontificate of Martin IV, the union was denounced (1282) and excommunication was launched against Michael Palaiologos. Then G., from the prison of Brusa, where he was chained by the despot Andronikos, saw first the deposed Joseph and then George (Gregory) of Cyprus succeed one another in the patriarchate. Amidst torment and abuse G. still defended the cause of union with most learned theological treatises. He died worn out in prison at the end of March 1296.
G. carried on a literary activity of no common order. His work as a great theologian is, however, interwoven with polemic in a very agitated life. Nevertheless, writings of his of a monumental character are not lacking, such as, for example, the two treatises Περὶ τῆς ἑνώσεως καὶ εἰρήνης ἐπὶ τῆς ἐκπορεύσεως τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος. Others are universally celebrated, such as that of the Ἐσυγραφαί, edited together with the objections of Palamas and the replies of Bessarion, to demonstrate the identity of the formulas δι' Υἱοῦ ἐξ Υἱοῦ, and that passage of his Σημείωμα συνοδικόν, where G. exposes the bad faith of the adversaries, who erased the particle ἐκ (ἐκ τοῦ Υἱοῦ) from a text of the Nyssen openly favorable to the Latins. Some works of G. still remain unpublished; the majority of those published are collected in PG 141.
Bibliography7 works
Emanuele Candal