Saint Anatolius of Constantinople
Dr Augustin Sokolovski
On July 16 according to the Julian calendar, the Church celebrates the memory of Saint Anatolius of Constantinople (†458). This commemoration follows immediately after the memory of another great patriarch of the ancient Church — Saint Juvenal of Jerusalem (c. 380–458), whose feast is celebrated the day before. At the same time, this day marks the beginning of the second half of summer. Such a sequence is not accidental. It allows us to perceive the logic of the Church’s gratitude toward those great individuals through whom the Lord has guided His Church, while at the same time, through the connection with the rhythm of time, making it easier to perceive and remember the dates of the saints’ commemorations.
Saint Anatolius is one of those rare saints about whose personal biography almost nothing is known. We do not know the details of his inner life, his spiritual path, or his personal experiences. Only the main circumstances of his ecclesiastical service have been preserved. It turns out that his personal holiness was, as it were, hidden beneath the veil of the work he carried out for the Church. And this is a special feature of his memory: the person almost disappears behind that which was entrusted to him by God.
In order to understand the significance of Anatolius, it is important to turn to the circumstances of his time. He was an Alexandrian. In those centuries Alexandria was not simply a large city, but one of the main spiritual and theological centers of the Christian world. Here Holy Scripture was interpreted, theological concepts were formed, and great ecclesiastical teachings were born. But, as often happens with great centers of thought, it was also here that errors arose which the Church later had to overcome.
Anatolius was a disciple, and perhaps even a relative, of Saint Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444), one of the greatest Fathers of the Church. It was Cyril who ordained him a deacon and sent him as his representative to Constantinople. Thus, a man from the ancient apostolic city found himself at the very center of the ecclesiastical and imperial life of the Roman Empire.
But it was precisely here that he had to pass through a grave trial. After Cyril’s death, his successor Dioscorus of Alexandria (c. 390–454) supported the archimandrite Eutyches, who was spreading a false teaching concerning Christ.
In 449, a council was held in Ephesus which later became known as the Robber Council. Its decisions were rejected by the Church. Orthodox bishops were subjected to persecution, and Saint Flavian of Constantinople soon died as a result of the violence he had endured.
After this, Anatolius was appointed to the See of Constantinople. The calculation of Dioscorus and his supporters was clear. They hoped that an Alexandrian, connected to them by origin, discipleship, and gratitude, would become their man in the capital of the Empire.
But the opposite happened.
It was precisely here that the main spiritual achievement of Anatolius was revealed. He was able to overcome the temptation of kinship, gratitude, and human closeness. He said “no” to those who had once elevated him, for the sake of truth. Sometimes this simple word becomes the most difficult spiritual act.
In 451, at the Fourth Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon, the Orthodox teaching concerning Christ was affirmed: His two natures — divine and human — exist in Him “without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation.”
This formula became not merely a theological definition. In essence, it became one of the greatest affirmations of Christianity concerning humanity itself. Human nature in Christ was recognized as genuine, capable of communion with God, and therefore possessing eternal dignity and an infinite possibility of perfection.
But Chalcedon changed not only theology. It also changed the structure of the Church. It was precisely then that Constantinople received the status of one of the great patriarchates and the first place among the Eastern sees. The system of the five patriarchates — the Pentarchy — emerged.
And here history once again proved to be complex. If, in relation to Christology, the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon were truly beneficial for the entire Church, then, in relation to ecclesiastical organization, they created a new system of relations which, throughout the centuries, became a source of many disputes.
Thanks to Anatolius, the Church of Constantinople preserved its unity with the universal Orthodox Church. Together with Saints Leo of Rome (c. 390–461), Juvenal of Jerusalem (c. 380–458), and Proterius of Alexandria (†457), he entered the number of those great figures through whom the Church preserved fidelity to the Chalcedonian confession.
Leo was a great theologian whose formulations largely became the foundation of the Council’s decisions. Proterius, appointed to the See of Alexandria in place of the deposed Dioscorus, was killed by opponents of Chalcedon and became one of the first martyrs of this division. Juvenal of Jerusalem, through his steadfastness, preserved the Church of Palestine in unity with Orthodoxy.
Anatolius, however, remained in the memory of the Church as a man who overcame his own origins. For a person of the East, where family bonds and gratitude possess particular strength, this was especially difficult. Yet precisely the ability to place truth above all that is human became his ladder to holiness.
In 457, Anatolius crowned the emperor Leo I (457–474). Shortly before this, the venerable Daniel the Stylite (409–493) healed him from a serious illness. In the liturgical books, hymns written by Anatolius have been preserved. Sometimes they are even signed not by his name, but by the word “Eastern” — according to the literal meaning of the name Anatolius.
On July 3, 458, Anatolius departed to the Lord. The disciples of the patriarch were convinced that he had been killed by the followers of Dioscorus of Alexandria. The supporters of Dioscorus, on the other hand, claimed that he had died beneath the ruins of an earthquake. Perhaps even this conflict surrounding his death became a kind of reflection of the tragedy of a divided Church.
But the essential thing remained unchanged. Saint Anatolius entered history not because of the fame of his personality, but because of his faithfulness at a decisive moment. His life shows that sometimes the greatest service of a person consists precisely in the ability to disappear before the face of truth. And then a person, almost hidden by history, becomes part of the eternal memory of the Church.