Gregory VI (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Γρηγόριος ΣΤ΄), baptismal name Georgios Fourtouniadis (

: Γεώργιος Φουρτουνιάδης; 1 March 1798 – 8 June 1881) was Ecumenical Patriarch in the periods 1835–1840 and 1867–1871. He was born on 1 March 1798 in the village Fanaraki (now known as Rumelifeneri) on the Bosphorus. In 1815 he was ordained

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

of the Metropolis of Durusu (Derkos/Δέρκος), adopting the name Gregory. On 24 September 1824 he was designated great archdeacon of the

Patriarchate Patriarchate ( grc, πατριαρχεῖον, ''patriarcheîon'') is an ecclesiological term in Christianity, designating the office and jurisdiction of an ecclesiastical patriarch. According to Christian tradition three patriarchates were est ...

by Chrysanthos of Constantinople. In 1825 he was ordained great protosyncellus, and on 21 October that year he was made metropolitan bishop of Pelagonia (modern-day Bitola). In August 1833, he was elected metropolitan bishop of

Serres Sérres ( el, Σέρρες ) is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki. Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northe ...

. After much discussion and recriminations and with the support of representatives of the guilds (

esnaf Esnaf is a Turkish word which means “corporation”. During the Early Modern Period belonging to a guild gave people a voice and was an important part of one's identity. Handicraft producers were linked to one another by a range of social, pol ...

) he was elected Ecumenical Patriarch on 26 September 1835. In the opinion of a contemporary, the historian Manouil Gedeon Μανουήλ Γεδεών, the new patriarch was characterized by a deep "zeal for the Church and austerity in his customs - but also by an unforgivable inflexibility in his own ideas" ("Τον Γρηγόριον ΣΤ' εχαρακτήριζε ζήλος υπέρ της Εκκλησίας, αυστηρότης εν τοις ηθεσιν, άλλ' ασύγγνωστος εμμονή εις πάσαν αυτόυ ιδέαν"). Gregory published canonical provisions concerning marriages (matchmaking, dowry), the education of monks and dogmatic differences with the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and the Protestants, he forbid burial inside churches and he condemned the translation of the Bible in a simpler form of the

Greek language Greek ( el, label= Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy ( Calabria and Salento), southe ...

. On 19 December 1839 he published a Patriarchal and Synodic newsletter (''«Περί της νεωστί αναφανείσης αντιχρίστου διδαλίας του Θεοσεβισμού»'') against Theophilos Kairis and his teaching. The increasing appearance of Protestant tracts and missionaries in the eastern Mediterranean following the end of the Napoleonic Wars was particularly distressing to Patriarch Gregory VI. The vigour of Gregory's efforts to insulate his flock, not only in the Ottoman Empire but also in the

Kingdom of Greece The Kingdom of Greece ( grc, label= Greek, Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος ) was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, wh ...

and the

United States of the Ionian Islands The United States of the Ionian Islands ( el, Ἡνωμένον Κράτος τῶν Ἰονίων Νήσων, Inoménon-Krátos ton Ioníon Níson, United State of the Ionian Islands; it, Stati Uniti delle Isole Ionie) was a Greek state and a ...

, from heterodox religious influences incurred the displeasure of all governments in the region during the late 1830s. In 1839, these tensions came to a head when the patriarch issued an encyclical condemning various uncanonical changes to family law promulgated by the British colonial authorities on the Ionian Islands. The British ambassador,

John Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Ponsonby John Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Ponsonby, GCB (c. 1770 – 22 February 1855) was a longtime British diplomat and politician. He was considered an exceptionally handsome man – reportedly he was almost lynched as an aristocrat in a Paris street by ...

, bluntly demanded the removal of Gregory and threatened to leave Istanbul over the matter. Under duress, the Ottoman foreign minister

Mustafa Reşid Pasha Koca Mustafa Reşid Pasha (literally ''Mustafa Reşid Pasha the Great''; 13 March 1800 – 7 January 1858) was an Ottoman statesman and diplomat, known best as the chief architect behind the Ottoman government reforms known as Tanzimat. Born i ...

agreed to Ponsonby's demand. The minister insisted, however, on delaying the dismissal until the Ottoman government could first legitimize its action by carrying out a formal judicial inquiry into Gregory VI's alleged misbehaviour.Jack Fairey, " 'Discord and Confusion...under the Pretext of Religion': European Diplomacy and the Limits of Orthodox Ecclesiastical Authority in the Eastern Mediterranean", ''International History Review'' 34, no. 1 (2012): 19 - 44. Gregory VI was finally deposed by Sultan

Abdülmecid I Abdulmejid I ( ota, عبد المجيد اول, ʿAbdü'l-Mecîd-i evvel, tr, I. Abdülmecid; 25 April 182325 June 1861) was the 31st Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and succeeded his father Mahmud II on 2 July 1839. His reign was notable for the r ...

on 20 February 1840, and retired to his house in Arnavutköy. He was reelected 27 years later, after the resignation of

Sophronius III of Constantinople Sophronius III (1798 – 3 September 1899) served as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1863 to 1866. He was elected Greek Patriarch of Alexandria on 30 May 1870. He served there as Sophronius IV until his death on September 3, 1899. ...

, on 10 February 1867, and resigned on 10 June 1871. He died on 8 June 1881. He was buried in the forecourt of the Holy Church of Asomati in Arnavutköy and in 1906 his bones were recovered.

Sources

Οικουμενικό Πατριαρχείο
*Augustinos, Gerasimos. ''The Greeks of Asia Minor: Confession, Community, and Ethnicity in the Nineteenth Century.'' Kent, OH and London: Kent State University Press, 1992 (pp. 117–119). * Fairey, Jack. ''The Great Powers and Orthodox Christendom: The Crisis over the Eastern Church in the Era of the Crimean War.'' London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. (especially Chapters 2 & 7) *Μαμώνη, Κυριακή. "Αγώνες του Οικουμενικού Πατριαρχείου κατά των Μισσιοναρίων" truggles of the Ecumenical Patriarchate against the Missionaries ''Μνημοσύνη'' 8 (1980-1981), pp. 179–212. * Χαμχούγιας, Χρήστος
Ο Οικουμενικός Πατριάρχης Κωνσταντινουπόλεως Γρηγόριος ΣΤ' ο Φουρτουνιάδης εν μέσω εθνικών και εθνοφυλετικών ανταγωνισμών
διδακτορική διατριβή, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης (ΑΠΘ), Θεολογική Σχολή, Τμήμα Ποιμαντικής και Κοινωνικής Θεολογίας, 2006

References

{{Authority control 1881 deaths 1798 births 19th-century Ecumenical Patriarchs of Constantinople