Fotios A΄ o Megas

Photius I the Great, a leading intellectual figure of the mid-Byzantine period, was born in Constantinople around 820. A member of an aristocratic family, he received an excellent education and dedicated himself to the study of classical Greek and patristic literature. After the persecutions he suffered during the second period of iconoclasm and following its resolution in 843, he assumed political and educational positions. Amid the turbulent atmosphere that led to the resignation of Patriarch Ignatius, he was proposed for the patriarchal throne of Constantinople, where, despite his initial objections, he ascended in 858, rising from layman to the highest ecclesiastical office in just three days. The opposition from his adversaries, including Pope Nicholas, concerning the internal affairs of Constantinople and particularly the legitimacy of Photius's election, led to mutual excommunications between the two religious leaders, resulting in the schism between Constantinople and Rome in 867. Basil I the Macedonian (867) removed Photius, reinstating Ignatius as patriarch, but the reaction from nearly all the hierarchs prompted him to recall Photius from exile. After Ignatius's death in 877, the Great Council of Constantinople recognized Photius as the only legitimate patriarch, whose efforts to restore order in the Church and normalize relations with the pope were interrupted in 886 when Emperor Leo VI the Wise removed him from the patriarchal throne for the second time. Photius retired to the Monastery of the Armenians, where he continued his study and writing until his death in 893. Photius, whom the Eastern Church declared a saint, besides his religious and missionary work, authored numerous writings that demonstrate his vast knowledge, literary prowess, and love for ancient literature. He was primarily the soul of the great movement of the 9th century, which many describe as a Renaissance and a second Hellenism, thanks to which ancient Greek literature was spared from complete extinction.