6th century
Saint Eutychius of Constantinople
Sixth-century patriarch of Constantinople.
Biography
Eutychius was born in 512 AD at Theium in Phrygia, the son of an officer under the general Belisarius. He became a monk at Amasea, where he later served as abbot, and in 552 was elected patriarch of Constantinople.
In 553 he presided over the Fifth Ecumenical Council, which condemned the so-called "Three Chapters". He later clashed with Emperor Justinian I, who had adopted the teaching of Aphthartodocetism — that Christ's body had been incorruptible from the outset — which Eutychius refused to accept.
Because of this refusal he was arrested and exiled in 565. He served as patriarch in two periods, from 552 to 565 and from 577 until his death in 582.