Theodotus I of Constantinople

"Theodotus I" and "Patriarch Theodotus I" redirect here. They could also refer to Theodotus of Antioch, patriarch of Antioch in 420–429.

Theodotus I of Constantinople
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
Consecration of Theodotus Melissenos as patriarch of Constantinople, miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes
Installed	1 April 815
Term ended	January 821
Predecessor	Nicephorus I of Constantinople
Successor	Antony I of Constantinople
Personal details
Born	Theodotus Melissenos c. 813 Nakoleia
Died	January 821
Parents	Michael Melissenos

Theodotus I of Constantinople ou Theodotos I Kassiteras, latinised as Theodotus I Cassiteras (Greek: Θεόδοτος Κασσιτερᾶς or Κασσιτηρᾶς; fl. 813 - died January 821) was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1 April 815 to January 821.[1]

Theodotus was born in Nakoleia,[1] as the son of the patrician Michael Melissenos by the sister of Eudokia, the last wife of Emperor Constantine V. Theodotus had become attached to the court bureaucracy and was a confidant of Emperor Michael I Rangabe.

By the time Michael I Rangabe was deposed by Leo V the Armenian in 813, Theodotus I was an elderly spatharokandidatos, whom the near-contemporary Scriptor Incertus describes as "meek" and "uneducated".[1] On 14 March 815, Leo V forced the resignation of Patriarch Nicephorus I of Constantinople, and appointed the pro-iconoclast Theodotus Melissenos in his place.[2] Later in 815, the new patriarch presided over a Church council in Constantinople, which overturned the Second Council of Nicaea and reinstated the ban on the veneration of icons, thus beginning the second period of Byzantine Iconoclasm.[1][3] Much of the Iconoclast effort in the council was driven by other clerics, including the later Patriarchs Antony I of Constantinople and John VII of Constantinople. In the aftermath of this synod Theodotus is representing as torturing by starvation at more than one iconodule abbot in an attempt to force them into agreement with his ecclesiastical policy.

He ceases to be mentioned in the sources after the murder of Leo V and accession of Michael II in December 820.[1]

Notes and references

1. ODB, "Theodotos I Kassiteras" (A.–M. Talbot), p. 2054.
2. Treadgold 1988, pp. 212–213.
3. Treadgold 1988, p. 213.

Sources

• Bury, John Bagnell (1912), A History of the Eastern Roman Empire from the Fall of Irene to the Accession of Basil I (802–867 AD), London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
• Treadgold, Warren (1988). The Byzantine Revival, 780–842. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-1462-4.

Titles of Chalcedonian Christianity
Preceded by Nicephorus I	Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople 815 – 821	Succeeded by Antony I

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Patriarchs of Constantinople (Turkish period, since 1923 AD)	Gregory VII Constantine VI Basil III Photius II Benjamin Maximus V Athenagoras Demetrius Bartholomew
^† in exile at Nicaea Christianity portal