Athanasius II of Constantinople

Athanasius II of Constantinople
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
ChurchChurch of Constantinople
In office1451–1453
PredecessorGregory III of Constantinople
SuccessorGennadius Scholarius

Athanasius II (Greek: Ἀθανάσιος) is reckoned as the last Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople before the Fall of Constantinople. Athanasius purportedly served as patriarch from 1450 to 1453, but the only document indicating his existence is "Acts of the council in Hagia Sophia"—widely considered a forgery due to the presence of anachronisms in the text.[1][2]

Modern-day scholars dispute his existence, then, suggesting that the unionist patriarch Gregory III of Constantinople, residing in Rome from 1451 on, remained the city's nominal patriarch through the Ottoman capture of the city.[3][4]

  1. ^ Review on the authenticity of the acts (in Russian)
  2. ^ Dalleggio, Eugenio; Laurent, Vitalien (1949). "Les études byzantines en Grèce (1940-1948)". Revue des études byzantines. 7 (1): 91–128. doi:10.3406/rebyz.1949.1005.
  3. ^ Harris, Jonathan. “The Patriarch of Constantinople and the Last Days of Byzantium.” The Patriarchate of Constantinople in Context and Comparison, ed. Christian Gastgeber, Ekaterini Mitsiou, Johannes Preiser-Kapeller and Vratislav Zervan (2017): 10.
  4. ^ W. K. Hanak – M. Philippiedes, The Siege and Fall of Constantinople in 1453: Historiography, Topography and Military Studies. Farnham and Burlington VT 2011, 50, 130.