Our Father Among the Saints Anatolius, Archbishop of Constantinople.
Saint Anatolius was a priest from Alexandria, who had been ordained deacon and perhaps also priest by Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria. In 449, at the Robber Council of Ephesus, Saint Cyril’s infamous successor, the violent Dioscorus, unlawfully deposed Flavian, the Patriarch of Constantinople and opponent of the Monophysite Eutyches; Flavian, from the beatings which he received, died soon after. Dioscorus, thinking that the priest Anatolius would support him, consecrated him Patriarch of Constantinople in Saint Flavian’s stead. After he had been consecrated by Dioscorus – who at that time had not yet been deposed – Anatolius united with the Orthodox; before the Council of Chalcedon in 451, he held a council of the Bishops in Constantinople, at which the Orthodox “Tome” of Pope Leo (see Feb. 18), which Dioscorus had not allowed to be read at the Robber Council, was read and approved; and at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, he condemned Nestorius, Eutyches, and, for his unlawful actions, Dioscorus.
It was during Saint Anatolius’s tenure as Patriarch that Saint Daniel the Stylite first came to Anaplus and began his struggles in the oratory of the Archangel Michael. Some simple priests who lived nearby were stirred with envy and went to Patriarch Anatolius and told them that a man speaking a foreign language they could not understand was drawing people to himself, but that he was a heretic. The saintly Patriarch answered, “If you do not understand his language, how do you know that he is a heretic? Leave him alone, for if he has been sent by God he will be established; but, if it is otherwise, he will go away of his own accord before you chase him out. Do not bring a scandal upon us and yourselves.” Three Byzantine Saints, page 16.
Saint Anatolius reposed in the year 458.
The above account, except for the penultimate paragraph, is taken from the Great Horologion,
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