Biography
Faustus of Constantinople
About Faustus of Constantinople
Faustus of Constantinople is remembered as a monk and later abbot of the Dalmatian Monastery. Church tradition connects him with Isaac, the community’s founder, and Dalmatus, its later superior. The Orthodox Church in America’s brief account says that Faustus entered monastic life with Dalmatus and eventually succeeded him as abbot. It also acknowledges that details of Faustus’s ascetic life are unknown.
He is traditionally described as Dalmatus’s son. That relationship is part of the received story, but the Catholic Church in Norway notes that it may be a later element of the tradition.
The Orthodox Encyclopedia identifies Faustus with an abbot attested at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.
The editors of the Acta Sanctorum were frank about the limits of his biography. They knew no separate sequence of events beyond his entry into monastic life with Dalmatus and his religious dedication. They included him because several church calendars preserved his commemoration. Their discussion explicitly leaves the day and year of his death unknown.
That record of remembrance includes the tenth-century Menologion of Basil, which commemorates Faustus together with Dalmatus and Isaac on August 3. The shared feast preserves a connection among successive members of the same community, even where an individual’s life is poorly documented.
The Orthodox Church in America continues to commemorate Faustus on August 3. Its account remembers his fasting and monastic dedication, without supplying a detailed personal history.
Wondering how to weigh the stories and sources? Learn how to read a saint biography.