Menas of Constantinople

Saint Menas was Patriarch of Constantinople from 536 to 552, in the time of Emperor Justinian the Great. He was born in Alexandria and served as presbyter and as the man in charge of the hospital of Saint Sampson the Hospitable in Constantinople before being raised to the patriarchal throne. The Church remembers him as shepherd of the capital in the years when Hagia Sophia was built and the great doctrinal disputes of the sixth century raged.

Presbyter in Constantinople

According to Greek and Russian sources, Menas came from Alexandria in Egypt, had a good education, and was a presbyter in Constantinople and director of the great hospital founded by Saint Sampson the Hospitable. Tradition links him closely with Sampson himself and gives him a part in the healing of Emperor Justinian from the plague in 542.

Patriarchate

In 536 Patriarch Anthimus, accused of monophysitism, was removed, and Emperor Justinian appointed Menas in his place. He was consecrated on 13 March 536 by Pope Agapetus I, then in Constantinople; it was the first time a pope consecrated a patriarch of the capital. Immediately after he took the throne a local synod was held, in May and June 536, which condemned Anthimus and his followers, and the emperor confirmed the decision by a law addressed to Menas. In 543 Justinian issued an edict against the teaching of Origen, and Menas presided over the synod that confirmed the condemnation.

It was also in his patriarchate that the church of Hagia Sophia was dedicated, in December 537, the largest building in the world at that time and the patriarchal cathedral; in 550 he dedicated the church of the Holy Apostles as well. It was the age of Justinian's great works, in which the capital was adorned with many churches.

The Three Chapters

Towards the end of his time the dispute of the Three Chapters flared up, concerning the person and writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Ibas of Edessa, whom the emperor wished to condemn in order to draw closer to those who had not accepted the Council of Chalcedon. Menas signed the imperial edict, with the reservation that his signature was valid if the pope agreed, and then asked other bishops to sign. Pope Vigilius, who arrived in Constantinople in 547, broke communion with him, and Menas removed the pope's name from the diptychs. The two were soon reconciled, but in 551 the conflict broke out again and was again overcome. The efforts of Justinian and Menas to restore unity bore no fruit, and the divisions in the East deepened.

Repose

Menas departed peacefully to the Lord in August 552. He was succeeded by Eutychius, under whom the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553 finally judged the question of the Three Chapters. The Orthodox Church honours him as a holy hierarch on 25 August, as does the Catholic Church.