Paul I of Constantinople

Paul I of Constantinople, also venerated as Saint Paul the Confessor, was a fourth-century bishop of the imperial capital whose career was bound up with the Arian controversy. Ancient ecclesiastical tradition describes him as a native of Thessalonica who served as a priest of Constantinople and as secretary to Bishop Alexander. When Alexander died in 337, not long after the death of Emperor Constantine, the Nicene party in the city elected Paul to the see. A rival faction, aligned with the Eusebian or Arian-leaning court party, supported Macedonius. The disputed election made Paul’s tenure dependent on the shifting balance of imperial power among the sons of Constantine, and the bishopric of Constantinople itself was still consolidating its rank among the great churches of the empire.

Constantius II, who controlled the East and favored the opponents of Nicaea, refused to recognize Paul. A synod deposed him and translated Eusebius of Nicomedia to Constantinople. After Eusebius died in 341, the orthodox population again brought Paul back, and serious unrest followed in the capital. Paul was expelled once more and Macedonius was installed. Paul then sought redress in the West. Together with other deposed Nicene bishops, including Athanasius of Alexandria, he was received by Pope Julius I of Rome, who after a Roman synod treated their depositions as invalid. The Council of Sardica, held in the early 340s, likewise upheld Paul. Western pressure from Emperor Constans eventually compelled Constantius to allow Paul’s return, and he resumed the see for a further period in the later 340s.

The murder of Constans in 350 left Constantius free to act against the Nicene bishops of the East. Paul was arrested and banished to Cucusus in the Armenian highlands. Church historians of the fifth century, including Socrates Scholasticus and Sozomen, together with the tradition reflected in Athanasius, report that he was strangled there by Arian clergy. He came to be honored as a confessor and martyr for the Nicene faith. The usual date given for his death is 350. His name stands in the episcopal lists of Constantinople as Paul I. Little is recorded of his personal life, writings, or family; his historical importance lies in his repeated defense of Nicene orthodoxy at Constantinople amid exile, riot, and imperial intervention.

After the Nicene settlement under Theodosius I, Paul’s reputation was restored in the capital. In 381 the emperor had his relics brought from Cucusus to Constantinople, where they were placed in the church of Saint Anastasia and later in a church dedicated to Paul himself. The Eastern Orthodox Church keeps his feast on 6 November; the Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 7 June. He is counted among the early bishops of the see that later became the Ecumenical Patriarchate, though in his own lifetime that later title was not yet in use.