Anastasius St, Patriarch of Antioch

Anastasius St., patriarch of Antioch, was raised to that throne in 559. The Emperor Justinian, who favored the errors of the Aphthartodocetce (who held that our Lord before his resurrection was, as to his flesh, incorruptible and incapable of suffering), did all in his power to induce Anastasius to support them also, but he persisted in opposing them. Justin II banished him from Antioch, which he did not revisit until 593, after twenty-three years of exile. He died in 598 or 599, amid the heaviest afflictions. Gregory the Great wrote often to him to console him, and to congratulate him on his return. In the second council of Nicaea, a letter of Anastasius was read, in which he drew the distinction between the worship due to God, and that which we render to men and angels, viz., that we serve God alone. His remains may be found in Bib.

Max. Patr. tom. 9, and in Combefis, Nov. Auct. tom. 1. He is often confounded with Anastasius Sinaita (q.v.). — Landon, Eccl. Dict. 1, 336.