St. Anatolius of Constantinople

Anatolius was an Alexandrian, a deacon of that church who had served as its representative at Constantinople. He was raised to the see of the imperial city in 449, in the troubled aftermath of the Robber Council, in succession to Flavian, who had been beaten at that synod and died of his injuries.

Though he came to the throne under the shadow of Dioscorus, Anatolius soon showed himself Orthodox. He received the Tome of Leo and required its subscription of the clergy of the capital, and he worked with the new Emperor Marcian and the empress Pulcheria to summon a true council that would undo the violence of Ephesus.

At the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451 Anatolius sat among those who guided the sessions, and he set his hand to the Definition of the faith, the confession of one Christ in two natures. The council's celebrated twenty-eighth canon, which ordered the honour of his see, was framed in his time, though Leo of Rome would not consent to it.

He governed the church of Constantinople until his repose on the third of July, 458. The tradition of the Church ascribes to him a number of the hymns sung in the services, and counts him among the early hymnographers of the Byzantine rite.

The Church keeps his memory on the third of July, honouring him among the Fathers of Chalcedon as the shepherd of the imperial city who received the Tome and confirmed the faith of the council.