Sisinnius I

Saint Sisinnius I was archbishop of Constantinople from 426 until his death on 24 December 427, successor of Atticus and predecessor of Nestorius. Before his election he served as a priest in the suburb of Elaia, and people loved him for his piety and for his charity to the poor. The Church of Constantinople numbers him among the holy hierarchs, and his commemoration is on 11 October. The news of him is scanty and comes mostly from the church historian Socrates Scholasticus.

The priest of Elaia

About his family, year of birth, education and relatives the old sources say nothing. Before becoming bishop he served as a priest in Elaia, a suburb of Constantinople, situated, according to Socrates, opposite the city's harbour. The historian notes that there, by an old custom, the inhabitants of the capital gathered for the feast of the Ascension of the Lord. The French scholar Raymond Janin supposed that he might have served at the church of the Holy Apostles Archippus and Philemon, in Galata, but this is only a hypothesis. Sisinnius enjoyed the townspeople's affection because of his piety, gentleness and care for the poor, to whom, the sources say, he gave even more than his means allowed.

Election as archbishop

After the death of Archbishop Atticus, on 10 October 425, the see stayed empty for some months, because among the clergy of the capital a rivalry had arisen between two candidates: Philip of Side, a former deacon of John Chrysostom and author of a "Christian History", and the priest Proclus, who would later lead the Church of Constantinople. The faithful, however, pressed for the ordination of Sisinnius, and Socrates shows that the wide support of the laity decided the election. The vacancy was almost four and a half months, and Sisinnius was ordained on 28 February 426, in the time of the emperor Theodosius II. A Catholic encyclopedia gives 26 February, but 28 February is the date most widespread among historians and in the official list of the Church of Constantinople. For the ordination and enthronement the emperor gathered a synod, chaired by Patriarch Theodotus of Antioch.

Philip of Side did not accept the defeat. In his "Christian History" he sharply criticized Sisinnius, the bishops who ordained him and above all the laity who backed the election. Socrates, who tells of the dispute, did not want to repeat Philip's personal charges in detail, thinking them unfit, and Patriarch Photius, in his "Library", also speaks of Philip's bias against Sisinnius.

His time as archbishop

In his time the unrest of the followers of the exiled John Chrysostom had subsided. The city's deputy prefect, named Optatus, raised the matter again, however, and began an inquiry into who had set fire to the Senate house and the church of Hagia Sophia in those days. He suspected two clerics from John's circle, the priest Tigrius and the reader Eutropius, whom he imprisoned. Then Patriarch Sisinnius, as his life relates, saw in a dream a young man standing at the altar of the church of Saint Stephen and saying that he was sorry because, though he had gone around the whole city, he had found no good man except Eutropius. Sisinnius told the dream to a priest and sent him to find who Eutropius was. The priest found him in prison, but Eutropius died soon after.

At the synod of 426 the spread of Messalianism (also called Euchitism) was examined, a movement condemned as heretical by the councils of the time, which gave particular concern in the province of Pamphylia, in the south of Asia Minor. Sisinnius and Theodotus, together with those assembled, sent an epistle to the bishops of Pamphylia, Verinian (Berinian), Amphilochius and others. Patriarch Photius, in his "Library" (codex 52), preserved what is known of the letter: it demanded church penalties for clerics who, after the condemnation of Messalianism, continued to support it, and for those who defended them. The decisions of the Constantinopolitan assembly had lasting effect: at the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 the bishops Valerian and Amphilochius presented an earlier synodal act, drawn up in the time of Sisinnius, and the council approved and confirmed its provisions.

When the bishop of Cyzicus died, Sisinnius put Proclus, his former rival in the election, in his place. But before Proclus could set out for the city, the inhabitants chose another candidate themselves, an ascetic named Dalmatius. According to Socrates, this raised the question whether the ordination of the bishop of Cyzicus required the consent of the archbishop of Constantinople. The people of Cyzicus said it had been Atticus's personal privilege, not that of his successors. Proclus could not become bishop there, remained at Constantinople and became known for his sermons. According to a later historian, Sisinnius was not hostile to Proclus but had him preach in the churches of the capital. In his time also the building of the church of the martyrs Marcian and Martyrius was completed.

His character and repose

Socrates Scholasticus writes that he was famed for abstinence, uprightness of life and love of the poor, and by nature was approachable and simple, so he did not like lawsuits. For this reason restless men did not like him and held him to be an inactive man. He fell asleep on 24 December 427, after less than two years as archbishop. His successor was Nestorius. His commemoration is on 11 October.