Anastasius of Antioch
Our Father among the Saints Anastasius I the Sinaite, Patriarch of Antioch
Patriarch · Confessor · Bishop · d. 599
Commemorated 20 April — Repose of the Patriarch of Antioch, with St Gregory his successor
Anastasius I, called the Sinaite, was Patriarch of Antioch in the later sixth century — a theologian and defender of Orthodoxy who withstood the emperor Justinian's late heresy of aphthartodocetism, was for this deposed and exiled for some twenty-three years, and at last restored to his throne. Learned, ascetic and steadfast, the friend and correspondent of St Gregory the Great of Rome, he governed the great see of Antioch with distinction and reposed in peace in 599. The Church of Antioch keeps him with especial honour, together with St Gregory, his successor, on April 20.
Patriarch of Antioch
Anastasius was formed in the monastic life — his byname "the Sinaite" points to the monastery of Mount Sinai, or to a Sinaite training — and was noted for learning, eloquence and holiness of life before his elevation. About the year 559 he was chosen Patriarch of Antioch, one of the five great sees of Christendom and the mother-church of the Antiochian tradition. He proved a vigilant shepherd and a fine theologian, writing in defence of the Orthodox faith and in exposition of the doctrine of the Incarnation.
Confessor against Justinian
In his last years the aged emperor Justinian, who had done so much for Orthodoxy, fell into the error of the aphthartodocetae — who taught that the body of Christ was, even before the Resurrection, incorruptible and beyond suffering, so that His hunger, weariness and pain were only in appearance. Justinian sought to impose this teaching by edict. Anastasius resisted it firmly, teaching the true doctrine of Christ's real and passible flesh, and rallying the bishops of the East against the novelty; he prepared, it is said, to suffer deposition rather than subscribe. Justinian's death (565) delayed the blow, but his successor Justin II, on other pretexts, deposed Anastasius and drove him into exile about 570. For some twenty-three years he bore his banishment patiently, a confessor for the faith, while a successor held his see.
Restoration, friendship with Gregory the Great, and repose
In the reign of the emperor Maurice, and by the good offices of St Gregory the Great, Pope of Rome — who honoured Anastasius greatly and corresponded with him as a friend and fellow-defender of Orthodoxy — Anastasius was at last restored to Antioch about 593. He governed his church again for some six years in peace, and reposed in 599. He was succeeded by St Gregory of Antioch, with whom he is commemorated on this day. (He is to be distinguished from Anastasius II of Antioch, his later successor, slain in 609.)
Feast and commemoration
April 20 (church date; Old Calendar civil May 3). Anastasius the Sinaite, Patriarch of Antioch, is honoured — with St Gregory his successor — as a confessor and teacher of the Antiochian church; his service is that of the common of a holy hierarch.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an image of meekness and a teacher of temperance; therefore thou hast achieved the heights by humility, riches by poverty. O Father and hierarch Anastasius, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Anastasius is painted as a patriarch in the phelonion, omophorion and often the patriarchal mitre, blessing and holding the Gospel — an aged, grey-bearded hierarch. No pre-1900 icon of him alone has been identified for this collection.