Germanus

Germanus the name of three patriarchs of Constantinople.

I. The first was transferred from the see of Cyzicus to that of Constantinople in 715, and was a zealous defender of image-worship, for which he was degraded, in a council held at Constantinople in 730. He died in 740, and was anathematized by a council at Constantinople, fourteen years afterwards (754). A treatise of his, περί τῶν ἁγίων οίκουμενικῶν συνόδων, etc., may be found in H. Justel's Bibliotheca Canonica, and in Le Moyne, Varia Sacra: there also remain some letters and homilies of his (Bib. Max. Patr. 17, 20). His remains are all given in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, tom. 98. See also Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, ed. Harles, 11:155; Ceillier, Auteurs Sacres (Paris, 1862), 11:36 sq.

II. Germanus the younger, a monk of the Propontis, who became patriarch in 1222; but as Constantinople was then in the hands of the Latins, he resided at Nicaea, in Bithynia. He corresponded with pope Gregory IX, in hope of bringing about a union between the Eastern and Roman churches, but in vain. He was deposed in 1240, restored again to his see in 1254, and died in 1255. His Epistles and Homilies are given by Miane, Patrologia Graeca, tom. 140.

III. Germaus, bishop of Adrianople, became patriarch of Constantinople in 1267. He accepted the honor with great reluctance, and resigned it in a few months, to retire to a monastery. — Neander, Ch. Hist. 3:203; Fabricius, Bibl. Graeca, 7:10; 8:84; 11:162; Cave, Hist. Lit. 1:621; 2:289; Hoefer, Nouv. Biographie Generale, 20:238.