Isidore II Xanthopoulos ( el, ), (? – 31 March 1462) was
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
The ecumenical patriarch ( el, Οἰκουμενικός Πατριάρχης, translit=Oikoumenikós Patriárchēs) is the archbishop of Constantinople (Istanbul), New Rome and '' primus inter pares'' (first among equals) among the heads of th ...
from 1456 to 1462.
Life
Little is known about the life and the patriarchate of Isidore except that he was an ethnic
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 ...
and member of Greek community in Istanbul. His surname derives from the Xanthopoulon
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
in
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
which he entered, becoming a
hieromonk
A hieromonk ( el, Ἱερομόναχος, Ieromonachos; ka, მღვდელმონაზონი, tr; Slavonic: ''Ieromonakh'', ro, Ieromonah), also called a priestmonk, is a monk who is also a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church and E ...
and later rising to be its
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
. Isidore worked alongside
Gennadius Scholarius during the
Council of Florence
The Council of Florence is the seventeenth ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church, held between 1431 and 1449. It was convoked as the Council of Basel by Pope Martin V shortly before his death in February 1431 and took place in ...
and was one of the signatories of a 1445 document against the East-West Union of Churches. In this period Isidore was deemed the
spiritual father
Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways.
Confessor of the Faith
Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution of Christians, persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death. of the Greek community in Istanbul. Immediately prior to his election, he was serving as the
Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis.
Originally, the term referred to the b ...
of
Heraclea.
["Patriarcham factum renuntiavit Heracleensis praesul" - '']Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae
The ''Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae'' (CSHB; en, Corpus of Byzantine history writers, italic=yes), also referred to as the Bonn Corpus, is a monumental fifty-volume series of primary sources for the study of Byzantine history (–1453) ...
: Historia Politica et Patriarchica Constantinopoleos'', Ed. Niebuhr, B. G. (1849), pg. 95
After the resignation of Gennadius Scholarius as Patriarch in mid-January 1456, Isidore was elected to succeed him. He obtained the confirmation from
Sultan Mehmed II
Mehmed II ( ota, محمد ثانى, translit=Meḥmed-i s̱ānī; tr, II. Mehmed, ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror ( ota, ابو الفتح, Ebū'l-fetḥ, lit=the Father of Conquest, links=no; tr, Fâtih Su ...
and he was consecrated bishop in the
Pammakaristos Church
The Pammakaristos Church, also known as the Church of Theotokos Pammakaristos ( el, , "All-Blessed Mother of God"), is one of the most famous Byzantine churches in Istanbul, Turkey, and was the last pre- Ottoman building to house the Ecumenical ...
.
His reign lasted up to his death on 31 March 1462, and he was succeeded by
Joasaph I.
Notes
Sources
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1462 deaths
15th-century patriarchs of Constantinople
Year of birth unknown
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