On March 10, the Church commemorates Saint Tarasios of Constantinople (730–806). The saint was the Ecumenical patriarch, and he came to his ministry from a secular position and against his own will. Like the ancient Fathers of the Church, Ambrose of Milan and Paulinus of Nola, he used to be a high-ranking official. While Ambrose and Paulinus were governors of provinces, Tarasios was the head of the imperial chancellery. All of them were called to high ecclesiastical service because the Church was in great need. Patriarch Tarasius presided over the Seventh Ecumenical Council in Nicaea (787), which Orthodoxy considers to be the last, and therefore understands itself to be the “Church of the Seven Councils.” Before the Revolution of 1917, the name “Tarasios” was popular in popular piety. Evidence of this is the surname “Tarasov,” which goes back to this saint.
Saint Tarasios of Constantinople
The era of Tarasios was an extremely difficult period for the Church. Emperor Leo III (717–741) made the prohibition of the icon veneration the official policy of the Empire. His successor, Constantine V (741–775), established iconoclasm as the doctrine of the Church of Constantinople at the “Ecumenical” Council of Hieria (754), which was later recognized as the Robber Council (Latin: Latrocinium). The Roman Church rejected the iconoclastic policy of Byzantium, and therefore, from the middle of the 8th century, communication between the two Churches was, as it seemed at the time, irreversibly interrupted. The Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem were located in the territory of the Baghdad Caliphate, which made them inaccessible to the iconoclastic policy of the Empire.
The Ecumenical Patriarch at that time, Paul IV (780–784), was an Orthodox Christian by conviction, but he was afraid to openly oppose the iconoclasts. Shortly before his death, he took monastic vows, which made it impossible for him to continue his episcopal ministry. According to the canons of the Ancient Church, monasticism and episcopate were incompatible, and therefore Paul suggested that Empress Irene, who ruled on behalf of her minor son, choose Tarasios as his successor. The latter did not want to accept this election, setting as a condition the future convening of an Ecumenical Council. The Imperial Court relented, and on December 25, 784, Tarasios was elevated to the patriarchal throne. At the same time, he sent letters to Rome and the Eastern Patriarchs with a confession of the Orthodox faith, a request for canonical communion, and an invitation to participate in the Council.
Pope Adrian I (772–795) was opposed to the election of laymen to the highest ecclesiastical offices, but yielded for the sake of the Church, based on the principle of so-called “economy,” or, in essence, expediency. Tarasios' request for communion and Adrian's agreement became one of the last examples in history when the Eastern and Western Churches were willing to renounce their mutual claims for the sake of restoring mutual communion. Tarasios held the Seventh Ecumenical Council in Nicaea (787). The council restored icon veneration, proclaiming the necessity of venerating icons not simply as a custom or a tribute to tradition, but as a church dogma. For this act alone, he is worthy of the eternal gratitude of the Church and would have been canonized.
Tarasius's patriarchate lasted 22 years, which was considered extremely long by the standards of the time. The patriarch restored to church communion those bishops who had once been ordained by iconoclasts or who had renounced the Orthodox faith because they had previously agreed with the false iconoclastic decrees. Tarasius' opponents did not want to understand this as an act of mercy and, accusing him of simony, claimed that the patriarch had decided to do this for money. The Empire, which had “humbled” itself on the issue of restoring icon veneration, once again showed its disregard for the opinion of the Church when Emperor Constantine VI Porphyrogenitus (780–797) tonsured his wife into monasticism and married another woman. Tarasios' attempts to impose ecclesiastical sanctions led to persecution of the monastics, as had already happened before with the iconoclasts. For the Patriarch, this was a real shock.
In his patriarchal ministry, Tarasios defended the ancient right of the Church to provide refuge. Once, when the chief of the court guard came under suspicion, the saint provided him with protection on behalf of the Church. “Sending him food from his own table, he gave him the opportunity to remain in the church sanctuary. He himself escorted him, hiding him under his cloak, and then carefully returned him to the church. He served this man for a long time, as if he were his slave, and did not disdain such humility..”
Sudden advancement in the church hierarchy is still practiced today. In a formal sense, this can also be explained by ancient examples. But to recreate the very essence of what was happening at that time, it is not enough to simply reproduce the past. Thus, even before his calling to church service, as an important official, Tarasios acquired a powerful skill of self-restraint. Over the years, asceticism became his predominant habit. “He spent whole nights in prayer and meditation on God, had no soft bed, and avoided changing his clothes often.” No one ever saw him being served. “He was always his own servant, setting an example for others.”
When Patriarch Tarasius died in Constantinople, after the funeral service, his body was transferred from the capital to the other side of the Bosphorus, to the monastery he himself had once founded, and laid to rest in the church dedicated to all the holy martyrs. The boats and ships that accompanied his relics were so numerous that it seemed as if a bridge had been built across. Following an ancient archaic tradition, the Church called the highest ecclesiastical hierarchs “pontiffs,” and this title was applied not only to the Roman popes. The etymology of this term goes back to the word “bridge builder.” The bridge of light that formed over the Bosphorus during Tarasios' funeral, like an icon, depicted the essence of the pontificate as a bridge of service to God and the people, across which the patriarch returned to the Father's House.