Athanasius II (died 29 May 1453) is reckoned as the last
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
The ecumenical patriarch ( el, Οἰκουμενικός Πατριάρχης, translit=Oikoumenikós Patriárchēs) is the archbishop of Constantinople ( Istanbul), New Rome and '' primus inter pares'' (first among equals) among the heads of ...
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
Hagia Sophia ( 'Holy Wisdom'; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque ( tr, Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The cathedral was originally built as a Greek Ortho ...
"—widely considered a forgery due to the presence of anachronisms in the text. Contemporary scholars dispute his existence, then, suggesting that the unionist patriarch
Gregory III of Constantinople
Patriarch Gregory III, surnamed Mammis or Μammas (before ca. 1420 – 1459) was Ecumenical Patriarch within the Eastern Orthodox Church during the period 1443–1450. He was prominent in unsuccessful initiatives toward reunification with the Cat ...
, residing in Rome from 1451 on, remained the city's nominal patriarch through the Ottoman capture of the city.
[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.]
References
1453 deaths
15th-century patriarchs of Constantinople
People whose existence is disputed
Year of birth unknown
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