SIFILINO, GIOVANNI VIII, patriarch of COSTANTINOPOLI. – B. between 1010 and 1012 in Trebizond, d. 2 August 1075 in Constantinople.
He was director of the juridical section of the Imperial Academy of Constantinople. Elevated to the dignity of patriarch in 1064, he promoted ecclesiastical reforms in matrimonial legislation and distinguished himself through his pastoral zeal; he also worked tirelessly for the union of the Armenians. Michele Psello delivered his funeral oration because of the close relations he had had with him; just as S. had introduced Michele Psello to juridical science, so the latter taught him philosophy. S. left homilies and decrees (PG 120, 1201–92).
BIBL.: V. Grumel, Les regentes des actes du patriarchat de Constantinople, I, 3, Paris 1947, nos. 893–906, pp. 20–27; Krumbacher, 433–44; H. Fuchs, Die höheren Schulen von Konstantinopel im Mittelalter, Leipzig 1926; E. Stollreiter, Johannes VIII. Xiphilinus, in LThK, V, col. 537. Giorgio Hofmann