02 — Apocrisiarius at Constantinople
Gregory’s years (c. 579–585/6) as apocrisiarius — the permanent papal envoy at the imperial court of Constantinople — are the bridge between the Roman monk and the Roman pope, and the foundation of his lifelong relationship with the Christian East. Sent by Pope Pelagius II to represent Rome at the centre of the empire, he lived in the capital with a community of his monks from St. Andrew’s, formed deep friendships among Eastern churchmen, and engaged the Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople in a public theological dispute over the nature of the resurrection body — a debate carried before the Emperor Tiberius II. These files treat the envoy’s mission and the dispute that shows his theological mettle.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (pre-Schism; Pope of Rome; Great Hierarch)
The papacy of these centuries kept a permanent representative at Constantinople, the apocrisiarius (Latin responsalis), to transact business with the emperor and patriarch; the office was a normal feature of the Byzantine Church and was held at various times by men who later became popes. Gregory’s tenure there was formative. It gave him a direct knowledge of the imperial court and of Eastern ecclesiastical politics that he would draw on for the rest of his life; it made him friends — above all the future patriarch Anastasius of Antioch and the deacon (and later patriarch) Cyriacus — and it placed him at the heart of the Greek-speaking Church whose theology and liturgy he respected even where he could not fully share its language. This section examines what the envoy did and learned, and the one theological controversy of his Constantinopolitan years that the sources preserve in detail.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Papal Envoy to the East | The office of apocrisiarius; Gregory’s mission for Pelagius II (c. 579–585/6); his monastic community in the capital; the famous question of his Greek; his Eastern friendships and the writing of the Moralia in Job at the urging of Leander of Seville, then also in the city. |
| The Dispute with Eutychius | Gregory’s public debate with Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople over whether the resurrection body will be “palpable” or impalpable; the appeal to the Emperor Tiberius II; the resolution and Gregory’s own account of it in the Moralia. |
See Also
- From Prefect to Monk — the monk called out of the cloister for this mission
- The Ecumenical Patriarch Dispute — his later, sharper dealings with Constantinople as pope
- The Pre-Schism Church — Rome and Constantinople as two sees of one Church
- St. Maximus the Confessor — the later Eastern theologian of the same Byzantine world
References
- Markus, R. A. Gregory the Great and His World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
- Moorhead, John. Gregory the Great. The Early Church Fathers. London: Routledge, 2005.
- Gregory the Great. Moralia in Job, dedicatory letter to Leander and 14.56.72–74 (the Eutychius dispute). Library of the Fathers translation, Oxford, 1844–1850.
- Gregory the Great. The Letters of Gregory the Great. Trans. John R. C. Martyn. 3 vols. Toronto: PIMS, 2004.