NICOLA THE MYSTIC. - Patriarch of Constantinople (901-907; 912-25), b. around the middle of the 9th century in Byzantine Italy. He was a senator and intimate counsellor (whence the title of "Mystic") of his predecessor Ant. Caullas. At the beginning of his patriarchate, he maintained good relations with the papacy. When, however, the emperor Leo VI addressed himself to the other patriarchs and to Pope Sergius III in order to obtain a dispensation to contract a fourth marriage (after the death of his first three wives), N. showed himself irritated and therefore avoided meeting the ambassadors of Pope Sergius who came to Constantinople in 906. His intransigent conduct was the cause of his deposition decreed by the Emperor.
The latter, having first secured the diploma of abdication from N., raised to the patriarchal see his spiritual father Euthymius, who accepted this dignity when he learned of N.'s abdication and came to know the tenor of the letters of the other patriarchs and of the Pope which permitted the fourth marriage of Leo VI. After the death of the latter (912), his successor and brother Alexander sent Euthymius into exile and recalled N. to the chair. During his second patriarchate (912-25) N. wrote several times letters to the popes Anastasius III and John X, in order to obtain peace between his own followers and those who had remained faithful to Euthymius, and peace between Byzantium and Rome; and he resumed much of his rigor in the face of the tetragamy of the deceased Emperor. Thus he obtained from Pope John X, after various fruitless attempts, an embassy in 923. The result was happy for Byzantine internal peace and for the cause of the union. N. died on 15 May 925; the Greek Church celebrates his memory on the same day. His 63 letters were edited by Card. Mai in 1844 and reproduced by PG 111, 1-406.
Bibliography2 works
Giorgio Hofmann