John V of Constantinople

Saint John V was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 669 to 675. Before his election he had been a presbyter, skevophylax (keeper of the sacred vessels) of Saint Sophia and steward of the patriarchal administration; the Greek source adds the titles of protekdikos and chartophylax of the Great Church. He was elected on 25 November 669, after Thomas II, and died in August 675. Two sources give the end of his patriarchate as 674, others as 675.

He shepherded the Church in the reign of the emperor Constantine IV Pogonatus, with whom he was in agreement in faith, so that the Church passed through those years in a time of calm. During his patriarchate the first Arab siege of Constantinople (674 to 678), undertaken by the Umayyad caliphate, began. One source says that the Typos of 647/648 was then in force, which forbade debate about one or two wills and operations in Christ. After his election John sent a letter to Rome, but Pope Vitalian did not accept it. Few details of his government survive.

His confession of faith was recognised as Orthodox at the Sixth Ecumenical Council of 680 to 681, which he did not live to see, and his name was left in the diptychs, the Church's lists of commemoration. He was venerated as a saint in the Byzantine tradition and is commemorated on 18 August; a Ukrainian source notes that the match of this day with the date of his death remains uncertain. Our calendar data gives 30 August, but all the sources that name a day say 18 August. After him Constantine I took the throne.