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{{Short description|Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 784 to 806}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox saint
| honorific_prefix = [[Saint]]
| name = Tarasios of Constantinople
| titles = [[List of ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople|Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople]]
| image = Patriarch Tarasios.jpg
| imagesize = 220px
| caption = [[Icon]] of Saint Tarasios, Patriarch of Constantinople ([[Johann Conrad Dorner]], 1848–1852)
| birth_date = {{circa}} 730
| birth_place = [[Constantinople]]
| death_date = 25 February 806
| death_place = [[Constantinople]]
| canonized_date = [[Dicastery for the Causes of Saints|Pre-congregation]]
| canonized_place =
| canonized_by =
| attributes = [[Vested]] as a [[bishop]] with [[omophorion]] often holding a [[Gospel book]] with his right hand raised in [[blessing]]
| feast_day = 18 February ([[Catholic Church]]) ([[General Roman Calendar]])<ref>''Martyrologium Romanum'' ([[Vatican Publishing House|Libreria Editrice Vaticana]], 2001, {{ISBN|88-209-7210-7}}).</ref><br />25 February ([[Eastern Orthodox Churches]])
| venerated_in = [[Eastern Orthodox Church]],<br>[[Catholic Church]]
}}
{{Infobox patriarch
| honorific-prefix = [[Saint]]
| name = Tarasios of Constantinople
| patriarch_of = [[List of ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople|Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople]]
| image =
| caption =
| ordination =
| consecration =
| enthroned = 25 December 784
| ended = 25 February 806
| province =
| diocese =
| see =
| church =
| predecessor = [[Paul IV of Constantinople]]
| successor = [[Nicephorus I of Constantinople]]
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{circa}} 730
| birth_place = [[Constantinople]]
| death_date = 25 February 806
| death_place =
| buried =
| nationality =
| religion = [[Chalcedonian Christianity]]
}}

'''Tarasios of Constantinople''' (also ''Saint Tarasius'' and ''Saint Tarasios''; {{langx|el|Ταράσιος}}; {{circa}} 730 – 25 February 806) was the [[list of ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople|Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople]] from 25 December 784 until his death on 25 February 806.

== Background ==
Tarasios was born and raised in the city of [[Constantinople]]. A son of a high-ranking judge, Tarasios was related to important families, including that of the later Patriarch [[Photios I of Constantinople]]. He had an elder brother, Sisinnios, who was captured during the [[Byzantine expedition to Calabria (788/789)|invasion of Calabria]] in 788–789.<ref>Stephanos Efthymiadis (ed.), ''The Life of the Patriarch Tarasios by Ignatios Deacon - Introduction, Edition, Translation and Commentary'', [[Routledge]], 2016, [1998], p. 10.</ref>

Tarasios had embarked on a career in the secular administration and had attained the rank of [[Byzantine Senate|senator]], eventually becoming imperial secretary (''[[asekretis]]'') to the Emperor [[Constantine VI]] and his mother, the Empress [[Irene of Athens]].<ref name=Kirsch/> When Patriarch [[Paul IV of Constantinople]] retired to a monastery, he recommended the lay administrator Tarasios as his successor.<ref name=oca>[https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2017/02/25/100605-saint-tarasius-archbishop-of-constantinople "Saint Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople", OCA].</ref>

Since Tarasios exhibited both [[Iconodulism|Iconodule]] sympathies and the willingness to follow imperial commands when they were not contrary to the faith, he was selected as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople by Empress Irene in 784, even though he was a [[laity|layman]] at the time. Nevertheless, like all [[education|educated]] [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantines]], he was well versed in [[theology]], and the election of qualified laymen as bishops was not unheard of in the history of the Church.<ref name=Kirsch/>

He reluctantly accepted, on condition that church unity would be restored with [[Rome]] and the [[Oriental Orthodox Churches|Oriental Patriarchs]],<ref name=Kirsch>{{Cite web |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14451b.htm |title=St. Tarasius |work=[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]}}</ref> and a council be called to address the iconoclast controversy.<ref name=oca/> To make him eligible for the office of patriarch, Tarasios was duly [[ordination|ordained]] to the [[deaconate]] and then the [[priesthood]], prior to his [[consecration]] as [[bishop]].<ref>By canon law both of East and West, each of these orders must be conferred at intervals of days, during which one order is exercised before a higher one is received.</ref>

== Second Council of Nicaea ==
[[Image:Seventh ecumenical council (Icon).jpg|thumb|[[Icon]] of the [[Second Council of Nicaea]] (17th century, [[Novodevichy Convent]], [[Moscow]])]]

Before accepting the dignity of [[Patriarch]], Tarasios had demanded and obtained the promise that the [[veneration]] of [[icons]] would be restored in the church. As a part of his policy of improving relations with Rome, he persuaded Empress Irene to write to [[Pope Adrian I]], inviting him to send [[papal legate|delegates]] to Constantinople for a new council, to repudiate [[heresy]]. The Pope agreed to send delegates, although he disapproved of the appointment of a layman to the patriarchate. The council convened in the [[Church of the Holy Apostles]] on 17 August 786. [[Mutiny|Mutinous]] troops burst into the church and dispersed the delegates. The shaken papal legates at once took ship for Rome. The mutinous troops were removed from the city, and the legates reassembled at [[Nicaea]] in September 787. The Patriarch served as acting chairman ([[Jesus|Christ]] was considered the true chairman). The council, known as the [[Second Council of Nicaea]], condemned [[Iconoclasm]] and formally approved the [[veneration]] of [[icons]]. The patriarch assumed a moderate policy towards former [[iconoclasm|Iconoclasts]], which incurred the opposition of [[Theodore the Studite]] and his partisans.<ref name=oca/>

== Divorce of Constantine VI ==
[[File:Tarasios Saint.jpg|thumb|160px|left|Depiction of Tarasios by an unknown fresco painter]]

About a decade later, Tarasios became involved in a new controversy. In January 795, Emperor [[Constantine VI]] divorced his wife, [[Maria of Amnia]], and Tarasios reluctantly condoned the divorce. The monks were scandalised by the patriarch's consent. The leaders of the protest, Abbot [[Plato of Sakkoudion]] and his nephew Theodore the Studite, were exiled, but the uproar continued. Much of the anger was directed at Tarasios for allowing the subsequent marriage of the emperor to [[Theodote (empress)|Theodote]] to take place, although he had refused to officiate. Under severe pressure from Theodore the Studite, Tarasios [[excommunicated]] the priest who had conducted Constantine's second marriage.

== End of Patriarchate ==
Tarasios continued to loyally serve the subsequent imperial regimes of Irene and [[Nikephoros I]]. The patriarch's reputation suffered from criticism of his alleged tolerance of [[simony]]. On the other hand, his pliability proved most welcome to three very different monarchs and accounts for Tarasios' continuation in office until his death. The later selections of the laymen [[Nikephoros I of Constantinople]] and [[Photios I of Constantinople]] as patriarchs may have been in part inspired by the example set by Tarasios.

== Sainthood ==
Though some later scholars have been critical of what they perceive as Tarasios' weakness before imperial power, he continues to be revered in the [[Eastern Orthodox Churches]] for his defence of the use of icons, and his struggle for the peace and unity of the Church. His [[feast day]] is celebrated on 25 February by the Eastern Orthodox and [[Byzantine Rite]] [[Eastern Catholic Churches]] (This date on the [[Julian Calendar]] at present corresponds to 10 March in common years and 9 March in leap years on the [[Gregorian Calendar]]) and on 18 February by [[Latin Church]] Catholics.

== Notes and references ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* ''The [[Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium]]'', [[Oxford University Press]], 1991.
* ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'', third edition.
* ''Byzantium - the Early Centuries'' by [[John Julius Norwich]], 1988.

== External links ==
* [http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?FSID=100605 St Tarasius the Archbishop of Constantinople] Orthodox [[icon]] and [[synaxarion]]

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|chal}}
{{succession box
| before = [[Paul IV of Constantinople|Paul IV]]
| title = [[List of ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople|Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople]]
| years = 784 – 806
| after = [[Nicephorus I of Constantinople|Nicephorus I]]
}}
{{s-end}}
{{Patriarchs of Constantinople}}

{{Portalbar|Saints}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tarasios Of Constantinople}}
[[Category:730 births]]
[[Category:806 deaths]]
[[Category:Saints from Constantinople]]
[[Category:8th-century patriarchs of Constantinople]]
[[Category:9th-century patriarchs of Constantinople]]
[[Category:9th-century Christian saints]]

Tarasios of Constantinople - Revision history

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