PRÓCLO, saint. — Bishop of Constantinople, d. 446; in 426 he was appointed bishop of Cyzicus, but had to remain in Constantinople because of the refusal of his diocesan flock.
In 428–30 he rose from the pulpit against the bishop of Constantinople, Nestorio, who attacked the title “Theotokos” attributed to the Madonna. Having become bishop of Constantinople in 434, P. worked to preserve the concord between the Antiochenes and the orthodox achieved in 433, paved the way for union with the “Ioanniti” (uncompromising devotees of the memory of Crisostomo), and informed the Armenians about the errors contained in the books of Teodoro di Mopsuestia. P. introduced the Trisagion into the liturgy and was the author of the formula “One of the Trinity was crucified,” over which there was much controversy in the sixth century because of the Monophysite meaning that some wished to attribute to II.
P., an elegant orator somewhat reminiscent of Crisostomo, left some forty homilies (the fifth seems rather to be by Attico), important for their Mariological content, and seven letters, including the Tomus ad Armenos. Whether P. was also the author of some eighty pseudo-Chrysostomic sermons, as B. Marx maintains, remains doubtful. Feast day: 24 November.