Nectarius, Patriarch of Constantinople

NECTARIUS, Patriarch of Constantinople. - Born at Tarsus, in Cilicia, in the first half of the 4th century, died 27 September 397 at Constantinople, where he was the eleventh bishop and the first patriarch (381-97).

He was praetor at Constantinople when, during the Second Ecumenical Council (381), he was called to govern that Church, after the death of Meletius and the resignation of Gregory of Nazianzus. He was still a catechumen; but his election was accepted by Theodosius, by the bishops of the Council and by the people. Immediately after the election and under his presidency, the Council approved the famous canon III concerning the primacy of honor of Constantinople, after Rome. N. always remained faithful to the Catholic faith, but did not prove himself a man of great authority. In 388, during a riot, the Arians attempted to set fire to the episcopal palace. Socrates (Hist. eccl., V, 19) and Sozomen (Hist. eccl., VII, 16) relate that N., toward the end of his episcopate, abolished public penance and the office of penitentiary, on account of a grave scandal that occurred at Constantinople. In 394 he assembled at his see a general Council of the bishops of the East. A discourse of his on the feast of the martyr Theodore is preserved (PG 39, 1821-40). The Byzantine Church venerates him as a saint (27 Sept. and 11 Oct.): he was succeeded in the episcopal see by John Chrysostom.

Emanuele Romanelli