When Gregory the Theologian had departed from Constantinople, the bishops who were assembled in the Council were uncertain whom they should ordain in his place. There were many candidates, and great rivalry; for the see of Constantinople was now a great see, and many wished it for themselves or for friends.

The Emperor Theodosius referred the matter to the bishops, requesting them to give him a list of names. They gave him such a list, of those they considered worthy. At the bottom of the list, almost as an afterthought, was the name of Nectarius, a senator of Constantinople, of Cilician origin, who had served as praetor of the city and was known for his upright conduct, though he was not yet baptized.

The Emperor went over the list with his own hand, and at the name of Nectarius he stopped, and asked the bishops whether they had considered him. They considered him further, and finding him acceptable, elected him to the throne. Nectarius received the news with surprise; but the bishops would not be put off.

He was catechised that day, baptized at the third hour, chrismated, ordained to the diaconate at the sixth hour, ordained to the presbyterate at the ninth hour, and consecrated to the throne of Constantinople at the eleventh, in a single day's services with the Emperor and the Council standing as witnesses. He presided over the rest of the Council, the bishops subscribed the Symbol of Faith and the seven canons under his presidency, and the Synodical Letter to the West the following year went out in his name.

Nectarius held the throne of Constantinople for sixteen years, from his consecration in 381 to his death on September 27, 397. He was a quiet and able pastor of a city that had been theologically tumultuous for sixty years. He kept St. Gregory the Theologian (in retirement at his country place in Cappadocia), St. Gregory of Nyssa, and the other Cappadocian elders as his theological counsellors and correspondents.

He gave the see the kind of stewardship that the city needed: not the work of a polemical theologian (he was not one) but the work of a senior administrator who knew the patience of canonical processes. He healed many of the long-standing personal feuds that the Arian decades had left in the Constantinopolitan clergy. He ordained the young John Chrysostom as deacon (under Meletius's recommendation, while Chrysostom was still at Antioch) and was the predecessor whose stewardship made Chrysostom's later succession to the throne possible.

He reposed quietly on September 27, 397. The Church kept his memory on October 11 (the date of his consecration). He is remembered as the man elected for the qualities of his Christian life before he was elected for the qualities of his episcopate, and as a witness to the older patristic principle that the throne does not make the man but finds him.

By taking the throne in baptismal innocence, you gave the Imperial City a quiet shepherd, O Father Nectarius. Through your patient stewardship the wounds of the Arian decades were healed, and the throne of Constantinople was prepared for the Golden-Mouth who would follow. Intercede now with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.