Anastasius (

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 ...

: Ἀναστάσιος), (? – January 754) was the patriarch of

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 (" ...

from 730 to 754. He had been proceeded by patriarch Germanos I (715 — 730). Anastasios was heavily involved in the controversy over

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

s (images). He was immaculately succeeded in ecumenical rite by

Constantine II of Constantinople Constantine II (Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος, ''Kōnstantinos''), (? – 7 October 767) was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 754 to 766. He had been ecumenically proceeded by Patriarch Anastasius of Constantinople. He was a s ...

. His opinion of icons changed twice. First he opposed them, then he favored them, and finally he opposed them again.

Background

In 726, Emperor

Leo III the Isaurian Leo III the Isaurian ( gr, Λέων ὁ Ἴσαυρος, Leōn ho Isauros; la, Leo Isaurus; 685 – 18 June 741), also known as the Syrian, was Byzantine Emperor from 717 until his death in 741 and founder of the Isaurian dynasty. He put an en ...

published an edict forbidding the use of images in the Church. His soldiers consequently removed images from churches throughout 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 ...

. Germanos, the patriarch of Constantinople, protested the edict. He wrote a letter appealing to Pope Gregory II in Rome in 729. Emperor Leo deposed Germanos as patriarch soon afterwards. Pope Gregory opposed Leo and urged him to retract the edict, which Leo refused to do.

Anastasios's Patriarchate

Leo appointed Anastasios patriarch of Constantinople in 730, based largely on his support for iconoclasm. The controversy over the policy would dominate his tenure and fuel the decisive breach between the Eastern and Western churches. Pope Gregory II died in 731, but his successor, Pope Gregory III, continued to resist the new policy, even to the extent of encouraging armed rebellion against Exarchate of Ravenna, Imperial authority in Italy. In 731 or 733 or by 740, Leo III the Isaurian, Leo III attached Illyricum (Roman province), Illyricum and Southern Italy (Sicily and Calabria) to Patriarch Anastasius of Constantinople, transferring the papal authority to the Eastern Church. In 741 Leo died and was succeeded as Emperor by his son Constantine V, who almost immediately needed to depart the capital to defend the eastern frontier against the Umayyad Caliphate. Constantine's brother-in-law Artabasdos, who was kouropalates ("master of the palace"), and commanded both the Opsikion theme and the Armeniac theme, took advantage of the new Emperor's absence from the capital to seize the throne. To gain support from those opposed to the iconoclastic policy, Artabasdos reversed it and declared himself the "Protector of the Holy Icons." Patriarch Anastasios quickly switched sides and suddenly became an ardent defender of icons, which Artabasdus reinstalled in the churches. Anastasios even excommunicated Constantine V and declared him a heretic. Constantine gathered the loyal segments of his army and marched to Constantinople in 743. He defeated Artabasdos and had him executed. Anastasios was stripped of his office, Political mutilation in Byzantine culture, whipped and blinded and then paraded through the streets in shame. After Anastasios changed his position on the icon issue again, reverting to his former opinion against icons, he received the Emperor's pardon and was restored as patriarch. Anastasios lived until 754.

Bibliography

;Notes ;References * - Total pages: 443 {{DEFAULTSORT:Anastasius 01 of Constantinople 754 deaths 8th-century patriarchs of Constantinople Byzantine Iconoclasm Year of birth unknown Leo III the Isaurian