MICHELE di ANCHIALO. — Greek Patriarch of Constantinople (1170–78). He showed zeal concerning the discipline of the clergy and vigilance against Christological errors. While he made attempts at union with the Armenian katholikai, Nerses IV and Gregorio IV, he displayed great intransigence in the negotiations conducted in the name of the Greek emperor Manuele I Comneno with the Roman Church, which he effectively obstructed, as demonstrated by his still-preserved dialogue with the Emperor at the conference of 1171 (or 1176). M. rejected the three main points of the proposed union, namely, the juridical primacy of the pope, the right of appeal to the pope, and the liturgical commemoration of the pope.
BIBL.: V. Laurent, Michel d'Anchialon, in DThC, X, cols. 1668–74; V. Grumel, Les régestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople, I, III, Paris 1947, nos. 1109–50, pp. 143–69.
Giorgio Hofmann