St. Ignatius of Constantinople

Ignatius was born into the Byzantine imperial family with the name Nicetas. After his father, Michael Rangabe, lost the throne, the family entered religious life. The young Nicetas received the name Ignatius and lived through the insecurity that followed a change of emperor. He later became an abbot and established several monastic communities.

Called to the patriarchate of Constantinople, he came into conflict with the powerful court official Bardas. Butler connects the quarrel with Ignatius’s refusal to admit Bardas to Communion while a grave public scandal remained unresolved. Ignatius also resisted the use of religious profession as a means of forcing members of the imperial family out of public life. He was removed from his see and exiled, while Photius was placed in the patriarchal office.

The dispute drew in the Roman see and successive councils. After another change of imperial rule, Ignatius was restored to Constantinople in 867. Butler’s long account follows his recovery of the patriarchate and the council held there in 869, then returns to his pastoral work and death in the later ninth century. His entry belongs to a difficult chapter of Church history, in which the duties of a bishop were repeatedly entangled with dynastic power.