Nicholas I Mystikos or Mysticus (; 852 – 15 May 925) was the

Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople () is the List of ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople, archbishop of Constantinople and (first among equals) among the heads of the several autocephalous churches that comprise the Eastern Orthodox ...

from 1 March 901 to 1 February 907 and from 15 May 912 to his death on 15 May 925. His feast day in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

16 May Events Pre-1600 * 946 – Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan. * 1204 – Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire. *13 ...

.
Ὁ Ἅγιος Νικόλαος ὁ Α' ὁ Μυστικὸς, Πατριάρχης Κωνσταντινουπόλεως
', 16 Μαΐου, ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ. Nicholas was born in the Italian Peninsula and had become a friend of the Patriarch

Photius I Photius I of Constantinople (, ''Phōtios''; 815 – 6 February 893), also spelled ''Photius''Fr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., and Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Mate ...

. He fell into disfavor after Photius I's dismissal in 886 and retired to a monastery. Emperor

Leo VI the Wise Leo VI, also known as Leo the Wise (; 19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was Byzantine Emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (although his parentage is unclear), he was very well read, leading to his epithet. During ...

retrieved him from the monastery and made him '' mystikos'', a dignity designating either the imperial secretary or a judicial official. On 1 March 901, Nicholas was appointed patriarch. However, he fell out with Leo VI over the latter's fourth marriage to his mistress

Zoe Karbonopsina Zoe Karbonopsina, also Karvounopsina or Carbonopsina, (), was an empress and regent of the Byzantine Empire. She was the fourth spouse of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise and the mother of Constantine VII, serving as his regent from 913 u ...

. Although he reluctantly baptised the fruit of this relationship, the future Emperor

Constantine VII Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Byzantine emperor of the Macedonian dynasty, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, an ...

, Nicholas I forbade the emperor from entering the church and may have become involved in the revolt of Andronikos Doukas. He was deposed as patriarch on 1 February 907 and replaced by Euthymius. Exiled to his own monastery, Nicholas I regarded his deposition as unjustified and involved

Pope Sergius III Pope Sergius III ( − 14 April 911) was the bishop of Rome and nominal ruler of the Papal States from 29 January 904 to his death. He was pope during a period of violence and disorder in central Italy, when warring aristocratic factions soug ...

in the dispute. About the time of the accession of Leo VI's brother

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

to the throne on 11 May 912, Nicholas I was restored to the patriarchate. A protracted struggle with the supporters of Euthymius I followed, which did not end until the new Emperor

Romanos I Lekapenos Romanos I Lakapenos or Lekapenos (; 870 – 15 June 948), Latinisation of names, Latinized as Romanus I Lacapenus or Romanus I Lecapenus, was Byzantine emperor from 920 until his deposition in 944, serving as regent for and senior co-ruler of ...

promulgated the ''Tomos of Union'' in 920. In the meantime, Alexander had died in 913 after provoking a war with Bulgaria, and the underage Constantine VII succeeded to the throne. Nicholas Mystikos became the leading member of the seven-man regency for the young emperor, and as such had to face the advance of

Simeon I of Bulgaria Simeon I the Great (; ; ) ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927,Lalkov, ''Rulers of Bulgaria'', pp. 23–25. during the First Bulgarian Empire. Simeon's successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

. Nicholas I negotiated a peaceful settlement, crowned Simeon emperor of the Bulgarians in a makeshift ceremony outside Constantinople, and arranged for the marriage of Simeon's daughter to Constantine VII. This unpopular concession undermined his position, and by March 914, with the support of the ''

magistros The (Latin; ; ) was one of the most senior administrative officials in the Later Roman Empire and the early centuries of the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantium, the office was eventually transformed into a senior honorary rank, simply called ''magist ...

John Eladas John Eladas (; died 914) was a senior member of the Byzantine court and regent in the early 10th century. Life He is first mentioned during the reign of Leo VI the Wise (), when he held the title of ''patrikios'' and was tasked with collecting mo ...

, Zoe Karbonopsina overthrew Nicholas I and replaced him as foremost regent. She revoked the agreement with Simeon I, prompting the renewal of hostilities with

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. With her main supporter

Leo Phokas the Elder Leo Phokas (, ) was an early 10th-century Byzantine general of the noble Phokas clan. As Domestic of the Schools, the Byzantine army's commander-in-chief, he led a large-scale campaign against the Bulgarians in 917, but was heavily defeated at the ...

crushingly defeated by the Bulgarians at the battle of Achelous in 917, Zoe started to lose ground. Embarrassed by further failures, she and her supporters were supplanted in 919 by the admiral Romanos Lekapenos, who married his daughter

Helena Lekapene Helena Lekapene () (c. 910 – 19 September 961) was the empress consort of Constantine VII, known to have acted as his political adviser and '' de facto'' co-regent. She was a daughter of Romanos I LekapenosAnne Commire, Deborah Klezmer (1994). ' ...

to Constantine VII and finally advanced to the imperial throne in 920. The Patriarch Nicholas I came to be one of the strongest supporters of the new emperor and took the brunt of renewed negotiations with the Bulgarians until his death in 925. In addition to his numerous letters to various notables and foreign rulers (including Simeon I of Bulgaria), Nicholas Mystikos wrote a homily on the sack of Thessalonica by the

Arabs Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...

in 904. He was a critical thinker who went as far as to question the authority of

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

quotations and the notion that the emperor's command was unwritten law.

Notes and references

Bibliography

* Nicholas I, Patriarch of Constantinople, ''Letters'', Greek Text and English Tr. by

Romilly Jenkins Romilly James Heald Jenkins (1907 – 30 September 1969) was a British scholar in Byzantine and Modern Greek studies. He occupied the prestigious seat of Koraes Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature at King's C ...

and L. G. Westerink (Washington, D.C., 1973). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholas 01 of Constantinople, Mystikos 852 births 925 deaths 10th-century patriarchs of Constantinople Byzantine regents 10th-century Christian theologians Byzantine saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church Byzantine theologians 10th-century Byzantine writers Byzantine diplomats