Eikon

Epiphanius of Constantinople

Our Father among the Saints Epiphanius, Archbishop of Constantinople New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch

Patriarch · Bishop · d. 5 June 535, at Constantinople

Commemorated 25 August — Commemorated with the patriarchs of Constantinople John the Cappadocian and Menas

Epiphanius governed the Church of Constantinople for fifteen years and three months, from 25 February 520 to 5 June 535 — the long, quiet patriarchate in which the reunion with Rome that his predecessor had signed was made to hold. He had been the overseer of the catechumens in the capital, and had gone in 519 on the mission into Macedonia and Illyricum to collect the subscriptions of the provincial bishops to the papal formula, so that he came to the throne knowing the settlement from the inside. As patriarch he ratified the peace in a synod, confirmed Chalcedon, corresponded with Pope Hormisdas in four surviving letters, sent gifts of gold and silver plate to the Roman church, and urged leniency toward bishops returning from schism and firmness only toward the obstinate. He received Pope John I at Constantinople in 525 and gave him the first place at the Liturgy. He died in peace in 535, and is commemorated on August 25.

Overseer of the catechumens

Nothing is recorded of Epiphanius's birth or family. He appears first in the sources of the reunion of 519 as a presbyter of the Great Church charged with the catechumens — the instruction and examination of those preparing for baptism, a substantial office in a city where the catechumenate was still a working institution. He was one of the churchmen employed in the delicate business of getting the Libellus Hormisdae subscribed outside the capital, and travelled into Macedonia and Illyricum to gather in the documents; the eastern provinces had received the settlement far less willingly than Constantinople, and it was in the Illyrican and Syrian sees that the resistance lay.

Patriarch, 520–535

When John the Cappadocian died on 19 February 520, Epiphanius was elected within a week and enthroned on 25 February. His whole patriarchate falls in the reign of Justin I and the first eight years of Justinian, and its business was consolidation.

He notified his election to Pope Hormisdas and set out his creed; he ratified in synod at Constantinople the terms of peace agreed between John and Hormisdas; he confirmed the decrees of Chalcedon; and he undertook the removal from the diptychs of the names the pope had required. Four of his letters to Rome survive in the Collectio Avellana, and they show a bishop pressing Rome, gently but persistently, toward moderation: he asked that bishops returning from the schism be received without humiliation, reserving severity for those who would not return at all. It is a policy the papal chancery found too lenient, and it is the chief thing for which he is remembered. With his letters he sent the Roman church a gold chalice set with precious stones, a gold paten, a silver chalice and two silken veils.

Under Justin he supported the imperial legislation restricting the last pagan cults and confirming the Chalcedonian faith as the law of the empire.

Pope John I at Constantinople, 525

In 525 the Ostrogothic king Theoderic sent Pope John I to Constantinople as an envoy — the first pope ever to visit the city — to obtain concessions for the Arians of the East. Epiphanius received him with every honour and invited him to celebrate the Liturgy in the Great Church. The pope, the Latin sources say, would not do so until the first place was conceded to him, and he then celebrated in Latin, on Easter Day, with the emperor present. The episode is the earliest recorded question of precedence between the two sees enacted in person, and it was resolved in Rome's favour by the patriarch's own courtesy. The pope returned to Ravenna to imprisonment and death.

Repose

Epiphanius died in peace on 5 June 535, having held the throne fifteen years and three months. He was succeeded by Anthimus, whose translation from Trebizond and refusal of Chalcedon brought on the crisis of 536, the deposition, and the elevation of Menas — so that Epiphanius's death is the hinge between the peaceful and the turbulent halves of the sixth-century patriarchate.

Feast and commemoration

Epiphanius is commemorated on August 25 (church date; New Calendar civil August 25, Old Calendar civil September 7), together with John the Cappadocian and Menas, the patriarchs who preceded and followed him. The principal commemorations of the day are the return of the relics of Bartholomew and the repose of Titus, and the patriarchs are carried in the synaxarion notice without proper hymnography. The commemoration is kept in the Russian and American calendars by name; the Greek books group the three.

Hymns

Apolytikion — Tone 4

A rule of faith and an image of meekness, a teacher of abstinence, hath the truth of things shown thee to be unto thy flock; therefore hast thou gained by humility the things on high, and by poverty the things that are rich. O Father and Hierarch Epiphanius, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Iconography

Epiphanius of Constantinople has no transmitted type of his own. Where he is painted, it is in the hierarch register of a sanctuary among the concelebrating bishops, in the phelonion or white polystaurion with the omophorion, holding the Gospel and blessing, and distinguished only by the inscription Ὁ ἍΓΙΟΣ ἘΠΙΦΆΝΙΟΣ. That inscription is not sufficient to identify him, because the same words label the very numerous images of Epiphanius of Cyprus, whose type — an old man with a long white beard, holding the Gospel, sometimes with a model of his basilica at Constantia — is one of the well-established hierarch types of Byzantine painting. No image can safely be assigned to the patriarch of Constantinople unless the inscription names his see, and none such was located; none was stored for this entry.

Disputed questions

  • Not Epiphanius of Cyprus. He is often confused with the far more famous Epiphanius of Salamis (May 12), the heresiologist and bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, who died in 403 — a century and a quarter earlier and in another country. The two are constantly conflated in indexes and in image captions.

  • Why August 25? He died on 5 June, and the commemoration is on 25 August. The likeliest explanation is attraction: Menas died on 25 August, and the two predecessors nearest him on the throne were gathered to his day, making a small synaxis of the patriarchs of the reunion. No source states the reason.

  • The scale of the record. Almost everything known of him is administrative, drawn from his correspondence with Rome; the Byzantine synaxarion gives him a line. The Life above is therefore short by necessity and not by neglect.

Sources

  1. Collectio Avellana — the four letters of Epiphanius to Pope Hormisdas (notification of his election, his profession of faith, the ratification in synod, the condemnation of the proscribed names), his plea for leniency toward returning bishops, and the inventory of the plate and veils he sent to Rome.
  2. Liber Pontificalis and the Latin record of the embassy of Pope John I to Constantinople in 525 — the reception by Epiphanius and the concession of the first place at the Liturgy.
  3. The record of the mission into Macedonia and Illyricum of 519 to collect subscriptions to the Libellus Hormisdae, in which Epiphanius took part before his elevation.
  4. Orthodox Church in America, Lives of the Saints, August 25 (consulted live) — the patriarchate of 520 to 535 and the peaceful death in 535.
  5. Greek Menaion, August 25 (glt.goarch.org, consulted live) — the day's heading, the propers of Bartholomew and Titus, and the absence of any proper office for the patriarchs.
  6. Cross-references within this corpus: John the Cappadocian and Menas of Constantinople, commemorated with him; Epiphanius of Cyprus (May 12), with whom he is not to be confused.