PIRRO I, patriarch of Constantinople. — Succeeded SERGIUS in the patriarchate (639), died in Constantinople between 19 and 23 May 655. Of a volatile disposition, he initially supported the Ekthesis of Heraclius in favor of Monophysitism.
Constans II, however, deposed and exiled him to North Africa. Pope Theodore wished PIRRO to be judged in a council, but this shifted toward orthodoxy following a solemn disputation held at Carthage (645) with St. Maximus the Confessor. Having come to Rome, PIRRO abjured Monothelitism before Pope Theodore, who later had to excommunicate him for relapsing into his former errors. The Lateran Council of 649 ratified PIRRO’s condemnation, though he later proposed a new formula of faith to Pope Eugenius I and, in December 654, reclaimed the Monothelite patriarchate of Constantinople. He was condemned by the Sixth Ecumenical Council (681). Almost all of his works have disappeared.