d. 552
Patriarch of Constantinople from 536 to 552 under Justinian, known for pastoral service and defense of Orthodoxy.
Our Father among the Saints Menas, Patriarch of Constantinople
Menas was Patriarch of Constantinople from 536 to 552, serving through much of the reign of the Emperor Justinian I. Before his elevation he was a presbyter of the capital and the supervisor of the Home of Saint Sampson the Hospitable, a charitable institution caring for the poor and the sick, a background that marked his patriarchate as one of pastoral and practical service.
He was raised to the patriarchal throne following the removal of his predecessor Anthimus, who had been deposed for his rejection of the Council of Chalcedon. Menas was consecrated with the participation of Pope Agapitus I of Rome, who had come to Constantinople; sources note this as the first occasion on which a bishop of Rome consecrated a patriarch of Constantinople. He ruled the Church of the capital for roughly sixteen years and died peacefully in 552. He is commemorated on August 25.
In truth you were revealed to your flock as a rule of faith,
an image of humility and a teacher of abstinence;
your humility exalted you;
your poverty enriched you.
Hierarch Father Menas,
entreat Christ our God
that our souls may be saved.
Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).
Before becoming patriarch, Menas was a presbyter at Constantinople and the supervisor of the Home of Saint Sampson the Hospitable, an institution devoted to the care of the poor and needy during the reign of Justinian I. The sources attribute his elevation to his virtue and his firm confession of Orthodoxy following the deposition of the heretic Anthimus.
Menas's patriarchate coincided with the theological disputes that Justinian sought to resolve. He took a position against the writings of Origen and was involved in the controversy over the Three Chapters. In 551 the emperor pressed for the council that would become the Second Council of Constantinople (the Fifth Ecumenical Council), which convened in 553 after Menas's death and was presided over by his successor Eutychius.
His relations with Rome were not uniformly settled: tradition records that Pope Vigilius excommunicated Menas during the disputes of these years, followed by reconciliation.
The synaxarion relates a miracle from his patriarchate in which a Jewish child who had received Communion was cast into a fiery furnace by his angry father, yet was found unharmed after three days; the account adds that the child and his mother were thereby brought to faith.
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