Proclus of Constantinople

Proclus was born around the year 390. From youth he served as a reader in Constantinople, studying rhetoric and the classical authors under private tutors and drawing deeply on Sacred Scripture. He came under the influence of Alexandrian thinkers who had settled in the capital. Tradition long held that he was a friend and disciple of Saint John Chrysostom and was ordained by him; modern study shows that link was formed later. In fact he became the disciple and personal secretary of Archbishop Atticus of Constantinople (406–425). Impressed by the young man's gifts as writer, rhetorician, and orator, Atticus ordained him deacon and priest. Proclus quickly became indispensable in the archiepiscopal administration, serving as scribe and often as ghost-writer for his less eloquent bishop. Pastoral and diplomatic visits to the imperial residences forged lasting ties with the imperial family.

When Atticus died in 425, Proclus was a candidate to succeed him, yet the people preferred the elderly Sisinnius I for his charity and freedom from local factions. Proclus befriended the new archbishop, who in 426 consecrated him Bishop of Cyzicus. The citizens of Cyzicus refused to receive him and elected their own bishop, so Proclus remained in Constantinople as a titular bishop. Under Sisinnius he grew famous as a popular preacher, often compared with John Chrysostom. After Sisinnius died, fierce rivalry again broke out between Proclus and Philip of Side. Emperor Theodosius II intervened and installed the Antiochene orator Nestorius as archbishop (428–431).

In late 428 Nestorius began to attack the traditional title Theotokos for the Virgin Mary. When a monastic deacon formally accused the archbishop of heresy, Proclus withdrew from communion with him. In 430, on a feast of the Theotokos, Nestorius invited Proclus to preach. From the pulpit Proclus delivered his celebrated panegyric on the Mother of God—a masterpiece of exegesis and rhetoric later called the most famous Marian sermon in history and inserted at the head of the Acts of the Council of Ephesus. The homily advanced the case against Nestorius and defended both the personal unity of Christ and the perpetual virginity of Mary. Though Proclus did not attend the Council of Ephesus that deposed Nestorius, Cyril of Alexandria wrote to acknowledge his contribution.

After the council, canon law forbade the transfer of a bishop from one see to another, so the quiet priest Maximianus was elected (431–434). When Maximianus died on Holy Thursday 434, the imperial government, now firmly anti-Nestorian, immediately enthroned Proclus with the permission of Theodosius II and the bishops present. His first care was the funeral of his predecessor. He then sent the customary synodical letters to Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch; both approved his appointment.

His archiepiscopacy was marked by the aftermath of Ephesus. In 436 the bishops of Armenia consulted him about doctrines attributed to Theodore of Mopsuestia. Proclus answered the next year with the celebrated Tome to the Armenians, urging condemnation of the erroneous extracts without naming any person who had died in communion with the Church. A rescript of Theodosius secured peace. In 438, continuing the conciliatory work of Atticus, Proclus transferred the relics of Saint John Chrysostom from Comana Pontica to Constantinople and interred them with great honor in the Church of the Holy Apostles, finally reconciling those who had separated after Chrysostom's unjust deposition. In 439, at the request of Caesarea in Cappadocia, he chose Thalassius as their bishop.

In Proclus's time the Trisagion came into liturgical use; tradition links its introduction to months of violent earthquakes that drove the people of Constantinople to camp in the fields. Proclus died on 24 July 446. Contemporaries remembered him as wise, moderate, and conciliatory—strictly orthodox yet eager to win others by persuasion rather than force. His homilies affirm the unconfused union of the two natures in the one Person of Christ and present Mary as Theotokos, New Eve, Ark, burning bush, and bridge between God and men. The Catholic Church keeps his memory on 24 October; the Eastern Churches on 20 November.

Imitate today his gentle firmness in defending the Mother of God and the true faith while seeking the peace of the Church.