St. Eutychius of Constantinople

Eutychius was born around the year 512 in a village of Phrygia and was given young to the monastic life. He came to Constantinople as the representative of the bishop of Amasea, and his learning and holiness so impressed the Emperor Justinian that, on the death of the patriarch Menas, he was chosen for the see of the imperial city in 552.

Within a year of his elevation the Fifth Ecumenical Council gathered at Constantinople, in 553, and Eutychius presided over its sessions. The council, with the Patriarch at its head, condemned the Three Chapters and confirmed the faith of Chalcedon, and its acts go out under his name as president.

In his later years the aged Justinian fell into the opinion that the body of the Lord was incorruptible even before the Resurrection, a teaching the Church judged to undo the truth of the Incarnation. Eutychius refused to consent to it, and for his resistance he was deposed and sent into exile, where he remained for twelve years.

When the throne passed to others, Eutychius was recalled and restored to his see in 577, and he governed the church of Constantinople for five years more. He reposed on the sixth of April, 582, having outlived the controversy that had cost him his throne.

The Church keeps his memory on the sixth of April, honouring the Patriarch who presided over the Fifth Ecumenical Council and bore exile rather than confess an error.