Hergenrother photius biography

PHOTIUS (c. 820-891), patriarch of Constantinople (858-867 and 878-886). From his early years he displayed an extraordinary talent and appetite for knowledge, and as soon as he had completed his own education he began to teach with distinguished success grammar, rhetoric, divinity and philosophy.

The way to public life was probably opened for him by the marriage of his brother Sergius to the princess Irene, sister of Theodora, who, upon the death of her husband Theophilus in 842, had assumed the regency of the empire.

Hergenrother photius biography

Photius became captain of the guard and subsequently first imperial secretary. The dissensions between the patriarch Ignatius and Bardas, the uncle of the youthful Emperor Michael III., brought promotion to Photius. Ignatius was arrested and imprisoned (Nov.

858), and upon refusing to resign his office was illegally deposed, while Photius, although a layman, received all the necessary sacerdotal orders within six days, and was installed as