Atticus

Atticus was a fifth-century archbishop of Constantinople, counted among the patriarchs of that see, and is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He was a native of Sebaste (Sebasteia) in Armenia. The year of his birth is not recorded in surviving sources. According to the church historian Socrates Scholasticus, who wrote within living memory of Atticus and generally portrays him favorably, he received his early religious formation among monks associated with the Macedonian (Pneumatomachian) party and later adhered to the Nicene faith. He subsequently settled in Constantinople, lived an ascetic life, and was ordained to the priesthood. Ancient writers describe him as learned and pastorally mild, though Greek was not his mother tongue.

In 406, after the brief episcopate of Arsacius of Tarsus, Atticus was consecrated archbishop of Constantinople. His elevation took place in the bitter aftermath of the deposition and exile of John Chrysostom. Atticus belonged at first to the party opposed to Chrysostom. Followers of the exiled bishop, known as Johannites, refused to recognize him, and he initially used imperial legislation against them. Chrysostom died in exile in 407. Communion with Rome remained broken for some years because Pope Innocent I insisted on the restoration of Chrysostom’s memory. Under that pressure, and amid a wider desire for peace in the Eastern churches, Atticus eventually restored John Chrysostom’s name to the diptychs of the church of Constantinople, an act generally placed in the later 410s. The restoration opened the way to reconciliation with Rome and with much of the East, including, in time, Alexandria.

As bishop, Atticus was remembered especially for charity and for a moderate, conciliatory style of government. Socrates records that he gave generously to the poor of the capital and sent money to needy Christians in other cities, including Nicaea. He worked to strengthen the dignity and influence of the see of Constantinople. He opposed the Messalian movement and took the orthodox side in the controversies of his day, including the Eastern reception of the condemnation of Pelagianism. In 421 he baptized the Athenian Athenais, who received the name Aelia Eudocia and became the wife of Emperor Theodosius II. He is also credited with a treatise on faith and virginity associated with the circle of the imperial princess Pulcheria. Surviving notices of his letters show him in correspondence with other leading bishops of the period.

Atticus died in Constantinople on 10 October 425, after an episcopate of some twenty years, and was succeeded by Sisinnius I. He was commemorated as a saint in the Byzantine liturgical tradition; his principal feast in the Eastern Orthodox calendar falls on 8 January. No contemporary source records a precise place of burial, and later Western-style processes of beatification or papal canonization do not apply to his cult, which arose by liturgical reception in the East. Historical knowledge of Atticus depends chiefly on fifth-century church historians, especially Socrates, together with conciliar and epistolary notices, rather than on a full ancient vita.