Flavian II of Antioch

Saint Flavian II, hierarch, was patriarch of Antioch from 498 until his deposition and banishment in 512, a defender, with some wavering, of the Council of Chalcedon. He died in exile at Petra, around 518. He is commemorated on 20 July, together with Elias, patriarch of Jerusalem, in the Orthodox Church, and on 4 July in the Roman Catholic Church.

Life

Flavian was a monk under the rule of Saint Basil at the monastery of Tilmognon and then an apocrisiarius. After the death of Patriarch Palladius, in 498, Emperor Anastasius I appointed him patriarch of Antioch, on the condition that he accept the Henotikon. Yet during his shepherding Flavian did not show opposition to Chalcedonian faith; according to the Greek source he was a fervent supporter of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, but wavered between its opponents and its defenders. Together with Elias I of Jerusalem he resisted attempts to abolish the Council of Chalcedon. Because of the conflict between Chalcedonians and non-⁠Chalcedonians in Antioch, he tried to please both, steering a middle course regarding the Chalcedonian decrees, but was forced by Anastasius to sign the Henotikon in 508 to 509. Philoxenus, bishop of Hierapolis, accused him of Nestorianism; according to the Russian source he was asked to anathematize Nestorius and his teaching, which he did, but he would not anathematize Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Theodoret of Cyrus, nor reject the decisions of Chalcedon.

Deposition

In 511 Philoxenus convinced the Miaphysites of the surrounding Syrian countryside to storm Antioch and force Flavian to condemn the Council of Chalcedon, but they met fierce Chalcedonians, who killed the attackers and threw their bodies into the river Orontes. The monks of his former monastery came to Antioch to defend him. These events led Anastasius to adopt a Miaphysite policy, and Flavian and Elias lost imperial support. A synod gathered at Sidon in 512 (the sources give the years 510, 511 and 512), with Philoxenus and eighty other non-⁠Chalcedonian bishops, with the support of Anastasius, to condemn Flavian and Elias. He was deposed and banished to Petra, where he died in 518. In his place came the Miaphysite Severus. His deposition and resentment against Anastasius led to Vitalian's revolt of 513. He was soon enrolled among the saints of the Eastern Church, and then, after some opposition, of the Western as well.