Eustratios or Eustratius ( 582–602) was a hagiographer, theologian and priest of

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia ( 'Holy Wisdom'; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque ( tr, Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The cathedral was originally built as a Greek Ortho ...

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

.Oliver Nicholson, "Eustratius", in Oliver Nicholson (ed.), ''

The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity The ''Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity'' (ODLA) is the first comprehensive, multi-disciplinary reference work covering culture, history, religion, and life in Late Antiquity. This was the period in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near Ea ...

'', Volume 1: A–I (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), p. 569. Eustratios was a native of Melitene. He was a pupil of Patriarch

Eutychius of Constantinople Eutychius (, ''Eutychios''; 512 – 5 April 582), considered a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions, was the patriarch of Constantinople from 552 to 565, and from 577 to 582. His feast is kept by the Orthodox Churc ...

(552–565, 577–582), whose biography he wrote. It is a basically factual account, although not lacking in rhetorical flourish. It is an important source for the

Second Council of Constantinople The Second Council of Constantinople is the fifth of the first seven ecumenical councils recognized by both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. It is also recognized by the Old Catholics and others. Protestant opinions and re ...

(553) and for Eutychius' exile in Amaseia (565–577). In 602, Eustratios finished a biography of the Persian Christian saint Golinduch. He devotes special attention to the role of Bishop

Domitian of Melitene Domitian ( la, Domitianus, gr, Δομιτιανός; c. 550 – 602) was the nephew of the Roman emperor Maurice and the archbishop of Melitene in Roman Armenia from around 580 until his death. He was renowned as a diplomat and is regarded as a ...

in the diplomacy between the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and the

Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

. Domitian was one of his chief informants on the life of Golinduch.Matthew Dal Santo, ''Debating the Saints' Cults in the Age of Gregory the Great'' (Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 31–34. Eustratios also wrote a tract against belief in soul sleep entitled ''A Refutation of Those Who Say That the Souls of the Dead Are Not Active and Receive No Benefit from the Prayers and Sacrifices Made for Them to God''. A Latin translation of this work ''De statu animarum post mortem'' was reprinted in 1841. It was written between 582 and 602, possibly in or about 593–594, when there arose in Constantinople a controversy over some miracles attributed to Euphemia. He responds to arguments that the dead are "incapable of activity" (''anenergetoi'' and ''apraktoi''), by countering that the dead are even more active in death.

Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...

's ''Dialogues'', composed around the same time, deal with similar themes as Eustratios' ''Refutation''. Matthew Dal Santo hypothesises that the two men may have known each other in Constantinople. Other Byzantine writers opposing

Christian mortalism Christian mortalism is the Christian belief that the human soul is not naturally immortal and may include the belief that the soul is “sleeping” after death until the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment, a time known as the int ...

were John the Deacon,

Niketas Stethatos Niketas Stethatos ( el, , la, Nicetas Pectoratus; c. 1005 – c. 1090) was a Byzantine mystic and theologian who is considered a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church. He was a follower of Symeon the New Theologian and wrote the most complete bio ...

Philip Monotropos Phillipos Monotropos or Philippus Solitarius ("Phillip the Recluse"; grc, Φίλιππος ο Μονότροπος; 1080) was a Byzantine monk and writer, notable for his authorship of the ''Dioptra'' ("The Mirror"), written towards the end of t ...

(''Dioptra'' pp. 210, 220), and

Michael Glykas Michael Glykas or Glycas ( gr, Μιχαὴλ Γλυκᾶς) was a 12th-century Byzantine historian, theologian, mathematician, astronomer and poet. He was probably from Corfu and lived in Constantinople. He was a critic of Manuel I Komnenos, and was ...

.Nicholas Constas "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream": The Middle State of Souls in Patristic and Byzantine Literature"
Dumbarton Oaks Papers 55: 92–124

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eustratios Of Constantinople 6th-century Byzantine people Byzantine theologians 6th-century Byzantine writers 6th-century Christian theologians 6th-century births 7th-century deaths