Macedonius II of Constantinople

Saint Macedonius II was patriarch of Constantinople from 496 to 511, a confessor of the faith of Chalcedon, removed from his see by the emperor Anastasius I and who died in exile around 517. The Orthodox Church remembers him on 25 April.

Before the patriarchate

He was the nephew of Patriarch Gennadius, by whom he was raised. He then served as priest and keeper of the treasures of the church of Saint Sophia (skeuophylax). He was elected in not wholly peaceful circumstances, because his predecessor, Euphemius, had in effect been removed by the emperor Anastasius. Euphemius asked Macedonius, who seemed to enjoy the emperor's favour, to seek guarantees for his life; Macedonius received them and met Euphemius before his departure into exile. It is said that at the meeting Macedonius took off his omophorion, as a sign of respect for the deposed man, and gave him money for his needs.

Against the emperor

The emperor Anastasius tried every means to oblige Macedonius to declare against the Council of Chalcedon, but flattery and threats alike were unavailing. An assassin named Eucolus was even hired to kill him; the patriarch escaped the blow and ordered a fixed amount of provisions to be given monthly to the criminal; in the Greek source the patriarch escaped the knife attack and behaved with magnanimity. Within a year or two, according to older sources, he assembled a council which confirmed in writing the acts of the Council of Chalcedon; according to modern research the report of such a separate council is unfounded, but his devotion to Chalcedon is attested in any case. In 507 Elias, patriarch of Jerusalem, who had been unwilling to sanction the deposition of Euphemius, united himself in communion with Macedonius. The people of Constantinople were equally zealous for the Council of Chalcedon, even to the point of sedition more than once. To prevent consequences, Anastasius ordered the prefect of the city to follow in the processions and attend the assemblies of the Church. Macedonius' Monophysite opponents stirred up incidents: they entered churches and disturbed the services and falsely accused him of a base crime.

In 510 Anastasius made a new effort. Macedonius would do nothing without an ecumenical council at which the bishop of Rome should preside. Anastasius, annoyed at this answer and angry because Macedonius would never release him from the promise made at his coronation to maintain the faith of the Church and the authority of the Council of Chalcedon, sought to drive him from his chair. He sent Eutychian monks and clergy, and sometimes the magistrates of the city, to load him with public outrage. This caused such a tumult among the citizens that the emperor was obliged to shut himself in his palace and prepare ships in case of flight. He then asked Macedonius to come and speak with him; the patriarch went and reproached him with the sufferings his persecution caused the Church. Anastasius nevertheless made a third attempt, through Philoxenus of Mabbug, a Eutychian bishop, who demanded of Macedonius a declaration of faith in writing. Macedonius addressed a memorandum to him, saying that he knew no other faith than that of the Fathers of Nicaea and Constantinople and that he anathematized Nestorius and Eutyches and those who admitted two Sons or two Christs or divided the two natures. Philoxenus found two persons who accused him of an abominable deed, then of Nestorianism and of falsifying a passage in an epistle of Paul. At last the emperor ordered him to send the authentic copy of the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, signed by the bishops; Macedonius refused and hid it under the altar of the great church.

Exile

Then Anastasius had him carried off by night and taken to Chalcedon, then to Euchaita in Pontus, the place of exile of his predecessor. According to the historians Dijkstra and Greatrex, his removal from the capital took place on the evening of 7 August 511, and Timothy I was put in his place. In 515 Pope Hormisdas worked for the restoration of Macedonius, considered unjustly deposed; it was a stipulation in the peace treaty between the rebel consul Vitalian, a relative of Macedonius, and Anastasius that the patriarch and all the deposed bishops be restored to their sees. But Anastasius never kept his promise, and Macedonius died in exile, about 517, at Gangra, where he had retired for fear of the Huns, who ravaged Cappadocia, Galatia and Pontus. According to some sources he died in 516. His body was buried at Constantinople, in the church of Saint Callinicus. He is venerated as a hierarch and confessor.