4th century
Saint Metrophanes, Archbishop of Constantinople
Bishop of Byzantium in the early 4th century, honoured by tradition as the first hierarch of Constantinople.
Biography
Metrophanes is regarded by tradition as the first bishop of Byzantium in the early 4th century, the son of Dometius and nephew of the emperor Probus.
During his time important buildings of the city were founded, among them the first churches of Hagia Sophia and Hagia Irene. According to tradition, when the First Ecumenical Council met at Nicaea in 325, Metrophanes was by then elderly and ill, and sent as his representative the priest Alexander, whom he also named as his successor.
Metrophanes is honoured as the first in the line of bishops that would become the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.