IGNATIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: Patriarch of Constantinople 846-857, and 867-878 (or 877); b. about 799; d. at Constantinople Oct. 23, 878 (or 877). He was a son of Emperor Michael I., and his real name was Niketas. On being shut up in a monastery by Leo V. he called himself Ignatius. He wag early chosen abbot and consecrated priest, and in 846, at the instigation of Theodora, the widow of Emperor Theophilus, he was elected patriarch. He found a vehement opponent in Gregory Asbesta, archbishop of Syracuse, who from the beginning disputed the legitimacy of the election of Ignatius. The matter was .-brought before Pope Leo IV., who was on the side of Igna. tius, but Leo died before he was able to give a documentary decision; and on Nov. 23, 857, Ignatius was deposed. The occasion for this act was given by the attitude of Ignatius toward Bardas, the brother of Theodora, who lived in incestuous relation with the widow of his son. In 857, at the Feast of Epiphany, Ignatius prohibited him from -participating in the Lord's Supper and refused to offer him assistance in the removal of his mother, whom he disliked. Bardas avenged himself by deposing the patriarch. Photius (q.v.) became his successor, and from this time dates the controversy which ended in the separation of the Churches of the Orient and Occident. Despite the support of Pope Nicholas I., Ignatius was degraded at a synod held in Constantinople in 861, was cruelly treated, and forced to retire to the monastery on

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the island of Terebinthos. In Sept., 867, Basil became emperor after the assassination of Bardas and Michael. One of his first acts was to recall Ignatius, in order to obtain the favor of the people, who still honored Ignatius. At the eighth ecumenical council (Oct. 5, 869-Feb. 28, 870) the reputation of Ignatius was rehabilitated, and his election was confirmed by the Pope Adrian II. But Ignatius did not succeed in pacifying the opposition, and his death gave Photius his longed-for opportunity to regain his former position. Ignatius is esteemed as a saint in the Greek and Roman Churches, in the Roman Church evidently because he was looked upon as an important adherent and even martyr of the papal primacy; in the Greek Church on account of his personal piety and because in reality he did not acknowledge the absolute supremacy of Rome.

(F. Kattenbusch.)

Bibliography: Early sources including a life and an encomium by contemporaries, are collected in Mansi, Concilia, xvi. 209-301; and letters to him from Nicholas I. and Hadrian lI. are in the same, xv. 159 sqq., 819 sqq. Consult: J. Hergenröther, Photius, vols. i.-ii., 3 vols. Regensburg, 1867-69; R. Baxman, Die Politik der Päpste, i. 356-357, ii. 5 sqq., 29 sqq., Elberfeld 1868-69; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, iv. 384 sqq., et passim; KL, vi. 590 sqq.; Krumbacher, Geschichte, passim.