METROPHANES OF SMYRNA. - He already occupied this see in 857, at the time of the deposition of the patriarch of Constantinople St. Ignatius. M. placed himself resolutely at the head of the opponents of the new patriarch Photius, and drew upon himself the wrath of the emperor Michael III, who condemned him to imprisonment and exile. The fall of Photius in 867 brought him back to his see and allowed him to take an active part in the Eighth Ecumenical Council, at Constantinople, in 869. But when, after the death of St. Ignatius, Pope John VIII recognized Photius as legitimate patriarch, M. persisted in his position of intransigence, even against the pontifical legates, who ended by excommunicating him in 880.

M. is the author of a Commentary on Ecclesiastes, preserved in Georgian translation and edited by K. S. Kekelidze (Tiflis 1920), of several hymns in honor of the Most Holy Virgin, collected in the Θεοτοκάριον (Venice 1880, pp. 15, 47, 65, 91, 105) and of two panegyrics, one in honor of St. Polycarp (Ἐκκλησιαστικὴ Ἀλήθεια, III [1882-83], pp. 298-302), the other in honor of the archangels Michael and Gabriel (ibid., VII [1887], pp. 386-93). In addition, some letters survive.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: J. Hergenröcher, Photius, II, Ratisbona 1868, pp. 97-132; R. Janin, Metrophane de Smyrne, in DThC, X, coll. 1627-28; M. Jugie, Le schisme byzantin, Parigi 1941, pp. 105-20; F. Dvornik, The photian schism, Cambridge 1948, pp. 43-59.

Maurizio Gordillo

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Metrophanes of Smyrna

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