Nectarius of Constantinople

Nectarius of Constantinople was a native of Tarsus in Cilicia and belonged to a family of senatorial rank in the eastern Roman Empire. Before his elevation to the episcopate he followed a secular career and held the office of praetor. The fifth-century church historians Socrates Scholasticus and Sozomen present him as a man of distinguished birth and of a mild, conciliatory temperament rather than as a monk or a trained theologian. In 381 he was in Constantinople as a lay magistrate and was still a catechumen, not yet baptized, when the First Council of Constantinople met under the emperor Theodosius I.

The see of Constantinople had fallen vacant after Gregory of Nazianzus resigned amid disputes over his election and over the standing of the capital’s church. Diodorus of Tarsus is reported to have recommended Nectarius to the emperor, who chose him despite his unbaptized status. Nectarius was then baptized, rapidly advanced through the clerical orders, and consecrated bishop of Constantinople during the council of 381. He presided over the later sessions after Gregory’s withdrawal. That assembly reaffirmed the Nicene faith, addressed Macedonian and Apollinarian teaching, and in its third canon assigned the bishop of Constantinople honorary rank after Rome, on the ground that the city was New Rome.

Nectarius occupied the see from 381 until 397. His patriarchate coincided with Theodosius I’s legislation in favor of Nicene orthodoxy and against Arian and other non-Nicene groups, including the transfer of the churches of Constantinople to the Nicene party. He took part in further gatherings, among them the conference of 383 at which the emperor heard representatives of various Christian parties. He left no substantial body of theological writing, and later observers sometimes contrasted his worldly background with the ascetic reputation of his successor. His brother Arsacius later held the same see after the exile of John Chrysostom.

Around 391 Nectarius abolished the office of the presbyter-penitentiary in Constantinople. Socrates and Sozomen relate that a scandal involving a noblewoman who had made confession and was then assaulted by a deacon led the patriarch, on the advice of the presbyter Eudaemon, to suppress that public penitential office. Thereafter each Christian was left to approach communion according to conscience. The episode is an important witness to the history of penance in the late fourth-century church, though historians continue to debate how far the change extended.

Nectarius died in Constantinople in 397 and was succeeded by John Chrysostom, whose election was arranged under the emperor Arcadius. He is commemorated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with his feast on 11 October. No contemporary source preserves a verified year of birth, the name of a spouse, or evidence of children. His historical importance rests on his being the first long-serving Nicene bishop of the imperial capital after the Arian controversies of the fourth century and on his occupancy of the see during the council that fixed Constantinople’s rank among the principal churches.