John VII (Patriarch of Constantinople)

Biographical information about John is very contradictory. The Byzantine icon-worshiping tradition, in connection with its iconoclastic activity, varied its personality traits in various ways ^[1] . He is usually credited with Armenian origin, given the Armenian name of his brother - Arshavir ( Armenian Արշավիր , Greek Αρσαβηρ ). The latter was a Patrician and was married to Calomaria, sister of Empress Theodora . It is known about his father that his name was Pankratios Skiastes. Pankratios is the Hellenized form of the Armenian name Bagrat, and Skiastes is one of the nicknames of the ancient Greek god Apollo, meaning "prophet, forecaster." There is no more detailed evidence about John’s father, but historical sources mention a certain astronomer Pankratios, who predicted victory for the emperor Constantine against the Bulgars . In 792, Konstantin lost the battle against the Bulgarians, among the fallen were the pseudo-prophet Pankratios and Prince Ward, the strategist of the Armenian provinces of the empire and the father of the future emperor Leo the Armenian . Apparently it was this Pankratios who was the father of John the Grammar, given the nickname of the last "Skiastes." This fact of affairs also explains the friendly relations between Leo the Armenian and John, apparently the loss of their fathers in the same battle brought them closer ^[2] . At the same time, French researcher Paul Lemerl believes that there is no serious reason for asserting his origin from Armenia ^[1] . Most sources call him a native of Constantinople. Some historians believe that the iconoclastic activity of John is associated with his Armenian origin, indicating that many iconoclasts of the 9th century were Armenians ^{[3] [4]} .

According to some reports, in his youth he was engaged in icon painting as a craft, then he began to teach; in the 810s, he already had the fame of a very learned and respected man (three letters to him were saved by St. Theodore Studite ) and received the nickname "Grammar". John was elevated during the reign of the iconoclastic emperor Leo V Armenian ^[2] . In 814 he became his confidant, collecting materials for him from scripture and theological heritage in support of the iconoclastic teaching. After the spring of 815, Patriarch Nicephorus , who refused to reject the icons, was sent into exile, the emperor Leo wanted to make John the patriarch, but the synclitics opposed this, since John was still quite young and not very famous at court. Theodotus Melissin , formerly a prominent courtier, became the patriarch; John became abbot of the Constantinople court monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus ^[5] . Around 829-830, John became the patriarchal syncellus and was soon sent by the emperor Theophilus as an ambassador to Baghdad , to the Caliph Al-Mamun , where he struck everyone with his mind and prophetic gift. His seal of that time with the inscription: “ Lord, help Thy servant John the monk, Father Superior St. Sergius and Sinchell ” has been preserved . On January 21, 837, John entered the patriarchal throne.

According to rumors circulating about John, he was engaged in witchcraft and fortune-telling, but, apparently, these were inventions of icon worshipers hostile to him; in fact, apparently, John was interested in the sciences, including alchemy, and, possibly, conducted some kind of chemical experiments.

According to Patriarch John the Grammar, the young theologian Konstantin “The Philosopher” won, in a dispute against iconoclasm, but modern scholars also consider this episode to be fictitious.

In 843 , a year after the death of Emperor Theophilus , a lawsuit was launched against John, as a supporter of iconoclasm. Empress Theodora sent a vigla of Konstantin Armenianyan to John drungariya with a proposal to join icon worshipers or to leave the patriarchal throne. John refused and, as a result of clashes with soldiers who came with drungari, received wounds in his stomach; rumors spread right there that the patriarch had been killed at the command of the empress; Theodora sent her brother Patrician Ward to hush up the matter, and in the end the incident was interpreted to the public as if the patriarch had inflicted wounds on himself in order to cause a scandal - this was the reason for his deposition as an attempted suicide. ^{[6] The} Empress, however, did not allow him to be persecuted, and he ended his days in his own estate in the town of Psykh on the European shore of the Bosphorus (according to other sources, he was initially exiled to the Cladeion Monastery on the Bosphorus). According to the chronicle of George Amartol, John during his exile in the monastery scooped up his eyes on the icon, for which he “inflicted 200 wounds with belt whips," ^[7] however, modern scholars admit that this is an invention of icon worshipers hostile to John.

Due to the fact that John was essentially the "author" of the entire second iconoclasm and his main intellectual support, he aroused great hatred of icon worshipers who decorated his name with diverse, sometimes ridiculous legends; but even with such hostility in the chronicles, one can find clear traces of another tradition (of the same Successor Theophanes , for example), which is most briefly expressed in the later chronicle of Michael Glika, who called the last iconoclastic patriarch "the great John."

The year of John's death is unknown; presumably he died no later than 867, and remained with his iconoclastic beliefs.

His successor Methodius I severely condemned him for the iconoclasm in the canon of the Triumph of Orthodoxy , which he wrote in 843-844. ^[eight]

Only a few passages are preserved from the works of John in an anonymous unpublished refutation of the iconoclasts; excerpts published by J. Gouillard in 1966.

• Barsov N.I. , Boldakov I.M. John, Constantinople patriarchs // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Assumption F.I. Patriarch John Grammatik and Rus-Dromity at Simeon Magister // Journal of the Ministry of Education. - 1890, January. - S. 1–35 .
• Gouillard J. Fragments inédits d'un antirrhétique de Jean le Grammairien // Revue des études byzantines. - 1966 .-- T. 24 . - S. 171–181 .
• Gero S. John the Grammarian, the Last Iconoclastic Patriarsh of Constantinople. The Man and the Legend // Byzantina. - 1974-1975. - T. 3-4 . - S. 25–35 .
• Lilie R.-J., C. Ludwig, Th. Pratsch, I. Rochow. Prosopographie der Mittelbyzantinischen Zeit. Erste Abteilung (641–867). - Berlin, 1998. No. 3199.
• Lemerle P. Le Premier humanisme byzantin. Notes et remarques sur enseignement et culture à Byzance des origines au Xe siècle. - Paris, 1972 (Bibliothèque Byzantine: Études 6). - S. 135-147.
• R.-J. Lilie, Hrsg. Die Patriarchen der ikonoklastischen Zeit. Germanos I. - Methodios I. (715–847) . - Frankfurt am Main — Berlin — Bern — New York — Paris — Wien, 1999 (Berliner byzantinistische Studien 5). - S. 169-182.
• Baranov V. The Theology of Early Iconoclasm as found in St. John of Damascus' Apologies // Christian East. - 2002 .-- T. IV (X) . - S. 23–55 .
• Baranov V. Aristotle in the iconoclastic debate - on whose side? // Byzantium: society and the Church. - Armavir, 2005 .-- T. IV (X) . - S. 134-146 .
• Lurie V.M. , with the participation of Baranov V.A. History of Byzantine philosophy. Formative period . - SPb. : Axioma, 2006 .-- S. 407-486.
• Sénina TA (moniale Kassia). Notices sur l'atmosphère intellectuelle à l'époque du second iconoclasme (I. Le fondement théologique du dialogue des frères Graptoi et Jean le Grammairien dans la Vie de Michel le Syncelle; II. Jean le Grammairien et le monastère de Théotokos τῶν Ψιχ) / Scrinium. - 2008 .-- T. 4: Patrologia Pacifica. Selected papers presented to the Western Pacific Rim Patristics Society 3rd Annual Conference (Nagoya, Japan, September 29 - October 1, 2006) and other patristic studies . - S. 318-324 .