#st. methodius

Source of picture: https://blueberrypuffin.tumblr.com

Source of picture: https://fairandradiantmaiden.tumblr.com

St. Methodios I or Methodius I (788/800 – 14 June 847) was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 4 March 843 to 14 June 847.

St. Methodius worked for unity and reconciliation in the Eastern Church.

He served as the Patriarch of Constantinople for the last five years of his life.

Born in Syracuse, he first felt the call to enter religious life while in Constantinople, where he had gone to seek a position at court.

He left for the island of Chinos, where he built a monastery and started a monastic community.

However, his time at the monastery was short-lived since he was summoned by the Patriarch of Constantinople to help govern the diocese and create unity after a debate broke out on the use of icons in worship.

He opposed the government during the Iconoclast persecution and served as a liaison between the pope and the emperor of Constantinople.

While in Rome seeking the Pope’s help, he was exiled for seven years.

He returned as patriarch in 842 and continued to work for unity.

Source of picture: FrTodd Bragg on Pinterest

Quote of St. Cyril

St. Cyril, Monk on his deathbed to St. Methodius, Bishop:

“Behold, my brother, we have shared the same destiny, ploughing the same furrow; I now fall in the field at the end of my day. I know that you greatly love your Mountain [the monastery where St. Method would have liked to be a monk]; but do not for the sake of the Mountain give up your work of teaching.”

St. Methodius worked for unity and reconciliation in the Eastern Church and served as the Patriarch of Constantinople the last five years of his life.

Born in Syracuse, he first felt the call to enter religious life while in Constantinople, where he had gone to seek a position at court.

He left for the island of Chinos, where he built a monastery and started a monastic community.

However, his time at the monastery was short-lived since he was summoned by the Patriarch of Constantinople to help govern the diocese and create unity after a debate broke out on the use of icons in worship.

While in Rome seeking the Pope’s help, he was exiled for seven years.

Gospel MK 7:31-37

Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”