IGNATIUS, Patriarch of Constantinople, saint. — Nicetas (Ignatius is the later name), born in Constantinople in 797; he was patriarch from 847–58 and from 867–77; his father was Emperor Michael (811–13).
After his father was driven from the throne, he lived with him in a monastery on the island of Proti; in 840 he became its igumen (abbot) and later founded three other monasteries. During the iconoclastic persecution he proved himself an intrepid defender of the veneration of sacred images.
After the death of Patriarch St. Methodius (843–47), he became his successor under the name of Ignatius. His patriarchate was very troubled. He condemned three bishops and informed the Holy See, to which the condemned also appealed. Ignatius courageously prohibited
the Holy Communion and entry into the church of St. Sophia to Bardas, a most influential man at the imperial court, because of his immoral life. Bardas took revenge and had him condemned to exile on the island of Terebintus, replacing him with the highly learned president of the imperial chancery, Photius, and securing approval for this maneuver through a pseudo-synod presided over by the excommunicated Bishop Gregory of Syracuse.
Whether Ignatius abdicated for the good of the Church is today debated; those who support this view, however, speak almost all of a conditional abdication and emphasize that Photius did not observe its conditions. Neither Pope Nicholas I (858–67) nor Adrian II (867–72) recognized Photius as the legitimate patriarch; only after Ignatius’ death did John VIII (872–82) confirm Photius under certain conditions.
Emperor Basil of Macedonia, from the beginning of his reign (867), resolutely deposed Photius, recalled Ignatius after nine years of bitter exile and persecution to the patriarchate of Constantinople, and sought the approval of the Holy See. This, under Adrian II, in a Roman synod (June 869) and in the Eighth Ecumenical Council (869–70), through its legates and with subsequent approval, restored Ignatius. Despite the various benefits received from the popes, Ignatius deemed it necessary to adopt a stance contrary to Rome’s decisions on the question of jurisdiction over Bulgaria, so that John VIII threatened him with conditional excommunication in April 878 if he did not recall the Greek priests and bishops from Bulgaria within thirty days. But this papal sentence was issued when Ignatius was already dead (23 Nov. 877). The Byzantine Church and also the Roman Church honor Ignatius as a saint.