Anatolius of Constantinople

Anatolius of Constantinople was a fifth-century bishop of Alexandrian origin who served as Patriarch of Constantinople from 449 until his death in 458. Born in Alexandria in Egypt, he was ordained deacon by Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria and took part in the First Council of Ephesus in 431, which condemned Nestorius. He later resided in the imperial capital as apocrisiarius, the standing representative of Patriarch Dioscorus of Alexandria at the court of Theodosius II. In that capacity he was closely identified with the Alexandrian see during the intense Christological conflicts of the 440s.

After the Second Council of Ephesus in 449 deposed Flavian of Constantinople, Anatolius was chosen as Flavian's successor, an appointment advanced by Dioscorus and accepted by the emperor. The circumstances of his elevation, coming immediately after a council later repudiated as illegitimate, made him suspect to supporters of Flavian and of Pope Leo I. The death of Theodosius II in 450 and the accession of Marcian and Pulcheria reversed imperial religious policy. Anatolius then accepted the Tome of Leo and cooperated with the new regime. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451 he was among the principal Eastern hierarchs. The council deposed Dioscorus, defined Christ as consubstantial with the Father in divinity and with us in humanity, one person in two natures, and adopted disciplinary canons. Anatolius subscribed to the Chalcedonian definition. Canon 28 of the council, which assigned to the see of Constantinople equal privileges with Old Rome and second rank in the episcopal order, was a particular concern of the Constantinopolitan church. Pope Leo refused to ratify that canon, and a lengthy correspondence followed in which Anatolius sought to preserve communion with Rome while defending the council's action on behalf of his see.

In the years after Chalcedon, Anatolius labored to have the council received in the East. Resistance was especially strong in Egypt, where the deposition of Dioscorus was widely rejected, and in parts of Syria and Palestine. He took part in the settlement of the Antiochene succession, in which Maximus was recognized as patriarch in place of the deposed Domnus. In 457, after the death of Marcian, Anatolius crowned the new emperor, Leo I, an act often noted as an early instance of patriarchal coronation of a Roman emperor in the East. During the opening of Leo's reign, anti-Chalcedonian violence in Alexandria culminated in the murder of the Chalcedonian patriarch Proterius and the installation of Timothy Aelurus. Anatolius remained a supporter of the Chalcedonian settlement until his death.

Anatolius died in Constantinople in 458, on 3 July according to the liturgical tradition. Later hagiographical accounts assert that he was slain by heretical opponents, but contemporary ecclesiastical historians do not record a violent death, and the claim remains unverified. He was succeeded by Gennadius I. Both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church honor him as a saint; his feast is kept on 3 July. His patriarchate stands at the center of the transition from the era of Ephesus and the so-called Robber Council to the Chalcedonian order that thereafter defined imperial orthodoxy in the Eastern Roman Empire, even as large portions of the Christian East refused that order.