Acacius

(d. 489)

   Patriarch.

   Acacius was Patriarch of Constantinople from 471 to 489. During this period, a temporary schism arose between the Church of Rome and the Churches of the East. Sponsored by the Eastern Emperor zeno, Acacius and Peter Mongos, the Patriarch of Alexandria, devised the Henoticon formula. Orthodoxy continued to be defined by the decisions of Nicaea and Chalcedon and nestorius and eutyches continued to be condemned. At the same time, concessions were made to the moderate Monophysites. However, the formula was rejected both by the Pope and by the extreme Egyptian Monophysites. Acacius himself was condemned by Felix III. The ‘Acacian Schism’, as it was known, continued after Acacius’s death and the Churches were only reconciled in 518 when the names of Acacius and his five successors were removed from the Diptychs (the list of names for whom special prayers were said).

   W.H.C. Frend, The Rise of the Monophysite Movement (1972);

   J. Meyendorff, Imperial Unity and Christian Divisions (1989).