Atticus

Atticus ST., patriarch of Constantinople in 406, during the life of the rightful patriarch, Chrysostom; he succeeded Arsacius, who was intruded into the throne when Chrysostom was driven away. He was born at Sebaste, in Armenia, and led an ascetic life under Eustathius, the bishop of that see. He was a man of ability. Palladius accuses him of being the author of the conspiracy against Chrysostom; and the share he took in the persecution of that saint, and his refusal after his death to replace his name on the diptychs, caused the Western bishops and the people of Constantinople to refuse him their communion until the name of St. Chrysostom was restored. Socrates, who was no great admirer of Chrysostom, gives a more favorable account of Atticus (lib. 6, cap. 20; 7, cap. 2). He died Oct. 10, 426, having filled the see twenty years. Socrates has preserved a letter of this patriarch to Calliopius, bishop of Nicaea, in which he informs him that he has sent him three hundred golden crowns for the poor of that city. He directs him to administer to the wants of those poor persons who were ashamed to come forward for relief, and on no account to give anything to those who made a business of begging. He also recommends that the distribution should be made without any distinction as to religious grounds (Hist. Eccles. 7, 25). Sozomen (Hist. Eccles. 8, 27) says of him that "he possessed more natural gifts than literary attainments, while he evinced aptitude for the management of affairs, and was as skillful in carrying on intrigues as in evading the machinations of others. His sermons did not rise above mediocrity, and were not accounted by his auditors of sufficient value to be preserved in writing," and asserts that "as Atticus was distinguished alike for learning, piety, and discretion, the churches under his episcopate attained a very flourishing condition." He also wrote to Eupsychius concerning the incarnation (Theodoret), and to St. Cyril of Alexandria concerning the restitution of the name of St. Chrysostom in the diptychs, and another to Peter and AEdesius, deacons of the church of Alexandria, concerning the restoration of peace in that church. A fragment of a homily on the Nativity will be found in Labbe, 3, 116. — Cave, Hist. Lit. 1, 384; Landon, Eccles. Dict. 1, 610.