Patriarch John IV of Constantinople
Encyclopedia
John IV also known as John Nesteutes or John the Faster, was the 33rd bishop or Patriarch of Constantinople
Patriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....

 (April 11, 582 – 595). He was the first to assume the title Ecumenical Patriarch. He is regarded as a saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

 by the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

 which a feast on September 2
September 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Sep. 1 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - Sep. 3All fixed commemorations below celebrated on Sep. 15 by Old Calendarists-Saints:*Martyr Mamas of Caesarea in Cappadocia with his parents, martyrs Theodotus and Rufina...

.

Joannes (surnamed The Faster, Jejunator, sometimes also Cappadox) was born at Constantinople of artisan parents, and worked as a sculptor. In 587 or 588, he summoned the bishops of the East in the name of "the Ecumenical Patriarch" to decide the cause of Gregory
Gregory of Antioch
Gregory of Antioch was the Greek Patriarch of Antioch from 571 to 593.Gregory of Antioch began as a monk in the monastery of the Byzantines in Jerusalem, or so we learn from Evagrius Scholasticus. He was transferred by the emperor Justin II to Sinai. He was abbot there when the monastery was...

, Patriarch of Antioch
Patriarch of Antioch
Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the Bishop of Antioch. As the traditional "overseer" of the first gentile Christian community, the position has been of prime importance in the church from its earliest period...

, who was acquitted and returned to his episcopal see
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...

. Pope Pelagius II
Pope Pelagius II
Pope Pelagius II was Pope from 579 to 590.He was a native of Rome, but probably of Ostrogothic descent, as his father's name was Winigild.Pelagius appealed for help from Emperor Maurice against the Lombards, but the Byzantines were of little help, forcing Pelagius to "buy" a truce and turn to the...

 solemnly annulled the acts of this council. In 593, John was severely blamed by Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...

 for having allowed an Isauria
Isauria
Isauria , in ancient geography, is a rugged isolated district in the interior of South Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surroundings in the Konya province of Turkey, or the core of the Taurus Mountains. In...

n presbyter
Presbyter
Presbyter in the New Testament refers to a leader in local Christian congregations, then a synonym of episkopos...

 named Anastasius, who had been accused of heresy, to be beaten with ropes in the church of Constantinople.

In 595, the controversy was again rife about the title of Ecumenical Patriarch. Gregory wrote to his legate Sabinianus forbidding him to communicate with John. In the case of a presbyter named Athanasius, accused of being to some extent a Manichean, and condemned as such, Gregory tried to show that the accuser was himself a Pelagian
Pelagianism
Pelagianism is a theological theory named after Pelagius , although he denied, at least at some point in his life, many of the doctrines associated with his name. It is the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without...

, and that by the carelessness, ignorance, or fault of John IV, the Nestorian council of Ephesus had actually been mistaken for the Orthodox Council of Ephesus.

Works

Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville
Saint Isidore of Seville served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien"...

 (de Script. Eccl. 26) attributes to him only a letter, not now extant, on baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

 addressed to St. Leander. John, he says, "propounds nothing of his own, but only repeats the opinions of the ancient Fathers on trine immersion."

There are, however, several works attributed to John IV still extant:
  • His Penitential, Libellus Poenitentialis, or, as it is described in Book III of the work of Leo Allatius
    Leo Allatius
    Leo Allatius was a Greek scholar, theologian and keeper of the Vatican library....

    , de Consensu Utriusque Ecclesiae (Rome, 1655, quarto), Praxis Graecis Praescripta in Confessione Peragenda.
  • Instructio, qua non modo confitens de confessione pie et integre edenda instituitur, sed etiam sacerdos, qua ratione confessiones excipiat, poenitentiam imponat et reconciliationem praestet informatur.
  • Homily on penitence, continence, and virginity. It is often printed among Chrysostom's homilies, but now agreed not to be Chrysostom's. Montfaucon
    Bernard de Montfaucon
    Bernard de Montfaucon was a French Benedictine monk, a scholar who founded a new discipline, palaeography; an editor of works of the Fathers of the Church; he is also regarded to be one of the founders of modern archaeology.-Early life:Montfaucon was born January 13, 1655 in the castle of...

    , Vossius, and Pearson held it to be by John the Faster; Morel and Savile printed it among Chrysostom's works.
  • Homily on False Prophets and False Doctrine. It is attributed occasionally to Chrysostom, by Peter Wastel to John of Jerusalem
    John of Jerusalem
    - Monarchs :* John of Brienne , King of Jerusalem * John II of Jerusalem , King of Cyprus and Jerusalem - Religious leaders :* Saint John the Baptist* Bishop John II of Jerusalem - Monarchs :* John of Brienne (c. 1170–1237), King of Jerusalem (John I)* John II of Jerusalem (1259 or ca 1267–1285),...

    , but by Vossius, Petavius, and Cave to John the Faster.
  • A set of Precepts to a Monk, in a manuscript at the Paris library.


The Orthodox in the Middle Ages always attributed the first two of these to the Patriarch.

External links

Orthodox icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...

 and synaxarion
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