Mennas
Mennas a patriarch of the Eastern Church, flourished in the first half of the 6th century. He was for a time superintendent of the great hospital " Holy Samson," at Constantinople. In 536 he became patriarch of that city by the choice of the emperor Justinian and the clergy, to supersede the Monophysite Antimus I, who had left his episcopal seat at Trapezunt, and had usurped the patriarchal dignity. Mennas was the first among Oriental patriarchs who was consecrated as bishop by a Roman pope (March 13, 563) (see Labbe, Concil. col. 47 sq.; also Baronius, Annal. ad ann. 536, n. 27; Pagi, Critica, ad ann. 536, n. 6). Mennas attended quietly to his duties at the Church of Constantinople till the war of the "Three Chapters" broke out and involved him, SEE CHAPTERS, THREE, and finally brought about his deposition from Rome, because of his adhesion to the side of the emperor against the Roman pontiff. In this trying hour Mennas displayed a most amiable disposition, and acted the part-of a truly honorable man. He bowed submissively to the severe decision of the pope, and even used his influence to persuade the other bishops of the Eastern Church, who had suffered like him the displeasure of the papal vicegerent, to bear patiently with the holy father and to approve his decisions, and to revoke their previous approval of the imperial decrees (Hardouin, 3:10; Labbe, v. 338). Mennas soon after died, August, 552. He had presided over the Church of Constantinople for sixteen years and six months. He is commemorated in the Latin Martyrologium Aug. 25, and in the Greek Menologium Aug. 24. A pretty full account of the life of Mennas is furnished both in the Latin and Greek Martyrologies under the dates of commemoration. See also Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, 7:57.
