Gregory Mammas

GREGORY MAMMAS. - Catholic Patriarch of Constantinople, successor of Metrophanes (d. 1443), also a Catholic. In 1451 he had to take refuge in Rome, where he died in 1459. G. took part in the Council of Florence in the years 1438-39 in the capacity of vicar of the Greek Patriarch of Alexandria, protosyncellus of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and confessor of the Byzantine Emperor John VIII, who was present at that assembly. He subscribed to the bull of Union of 6 July 1439 and always remained faithful to the unity of the Roman Church; indeed he became a defender of it with his two apologetic treatises directed against the bitterest opponent Mark Eugenicus and with a theological writing addressed to the Emperor of Trebizond in defense of Catholic doctrine.

These 3 works have already been published, while 3 others, of which he himself speaks (PG 160, 198 C), are still unpublished; these too deal with the articles of faith defined in the bull of Union of the Greeks. G. M., a man of noble character, was greatly esteemed by the popes Eugene IV, Nicholas V, Callistus III and Pius II. The latter left it written of him that he had died "not without the reputation of sanctity." His sepulchral inscription is known, but unfortunately his tomb, probably at S. Giorgio in Velabro in Rome, has not yet been discovered.