Theodore I of Constantinople

Saint Theodore I was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople twice, from 677 to 679 and from 686 to 687, successor of Patriarch Constantine I. He fell asleep on 28 December 687. The Church remembers him on 27 December.

He was born in Constantinople and lived in the time of Emperor Constantine IV Pogonatus. He was noted for virtue and piety, was ordained priest of the church of Hagia Sophia, then syncellus and skeuophylax. In 677, after the death of Patriarch Constantine, he was chosen patriarch, with the will of the emperor and senate, at the time when the Byzantine army repelled the Arab siege of Constantinople. As patriarch he was a firm opponent of Rome, did not send the notice of his election for fear of a bad reception there, and sent only a letter urging reconciliation. With Macarius of Antioch he pressed the emperor to strike from the church diptychs all the successors of Pope Honorius I. The dispute concerned the recognition of one or two wills and operations in Christ, that is Monothelitism.

The emperor, once the fiercest phase of the struggle with the Arabs was over, wished to end the conflict with Rome. Theodore stood in the way of rapprochement, and the emperor removed him in 679 and set George I in his place. In George's time the Sixth Ecumenical Council took place, from 680 to 681, which confessed two natural wills and two natural operations in Christ. After George's repose, in early 686, Theodore returned to the throne and shepherded until his repose in December 687. He was succeeded by Paul III. For the first term historians give two years and three months, while for the second the sources differ between one year and ten months and three years.