Biography
Callinicus I of Constantinople
About Callinicus I of Constantinople
Callinicus I became patriarch of Constantinople in 693, after serving as a priest at the church of the Mother of God in Blachernae. His tenure lasted until 705. The Orthodox Church in America remembers a confrontation with Emperor Justinian II, who wanted a church demolished and demanded the patriarch’s blessing. In this account, Callinicus answered that he knew prayers for building churches, not destroying them. The building was nevertheless pulled down.
His relations with imperial power also involved political choices. The New Catholic Encyclopedia records his support for the revolt that removed Justinian in 695 and his crowning of Leontius as emperor. When Justinian regained power in 705, Callinicus was blinded and exiled to Rome. The article considers security a likelier reason for that destination than religious intrigue. It does not supply a securely established origin for the patriarch.
The Bollandist editors examined his reputation as well as his sufferings. They acknowledged accounts of his involvement in the uprising while defending the evidence for his longstanding veneration. Their manuscripts did not agree on the day of commemoration: they recorded August 23, 24 and 29. The editors also treated the extraordinary details of his final imprisonment cautiously. A story that he survived forty days sealed inside a wall was absent from one manuscript. They wanted stronger early testimony for both that miracle and the reported apparition connected with his burial.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia likewise treats the account of being walled up alive as a probable exaggeration of imprisonment. The violence inflicted on Callinicus should therefore be distinguished from the more elaborate story of his final days. His suffering does not require every detail of that story to be presented as established history.
His commemoration on August 23 remains in the Orthodox Church in America’s calendar.
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