Sophronius II of Constantinople

Sophronius II of Constantinople (; died 19 October 1780) served as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople during the period 1775–1780 and, as Sophronius V (Σοφρώνιος Ε΄), Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1771–1774.

Before his elevation to the patriarchates of Jerusalem and Constantinople, he was a major Arabic-speaking Orthodox intellectual and churchman in the circle of Patriarch Sylvester of Antioch.

He was born in Aleppo, Syria. He served as metropolitan bishop of Ptolemais (of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem) and in 1771 he was elected Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem as Sophronius V. In 1774, he was elected Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as Sophronius II. During his reign, a Synod in Constantinople condemned the Kollyvades.

He was an educated and ascetic Patriarch and was especially preoccupied with education and the economics of the Patriarchates he ministered. He died on 19 October 1780 and was buried in the yard of the Church of the Asomatoi (Pammegiston Taxiarchon) in Arnavutköy.

Early life and education According to manuscript evidence discussed by Habib Ibrahim, Sophronios signed himself Sophronios ibn ʿĪsa al-Kilzī, indicating that he was from Kilis, near the Syrian border, and that his father’s name was ʿĪsa.

Bishop of Acre Sophronios later became bishop of Acre, probably in the early 1740s.

He died on 19 October 1780 while patriarch of Constantinople.

Works Sophronios was one of the most important Arabic Orthodox translators and polemicists of the 18th century. Ibrahim summarizes both his original works and his translations.

Among his original works are:

Kitāb midrār sayl al-maṭar fī ṭafī nār al-maṭhar

Jawāb Ṣufrūniyūs muṭrān ʿAkkā ilā ahl Ḥayfā al-munshaqqīn

Aqwāl muṣarraḥa jalīya wāḍiḥa fī ri’āsat al-bābā

Sharḥ mukhtaṣar fī irshād wa-dalālat al-qāri’ fī annahu kayfa yaqra’ kutub al-ābā’ al-qiddīsīn

Fī anna kathīrīn min al-bābāwāt akhṭa’ū fī al-īmān al-urthūḏuksī

a diatribe against a patriarch associated with Dayr al-Mukhalliṣ

Maqāla wajīza fī bāb al-sabʿat asrār

His translations include:

a letter by Meletius of Heraclea

a text on the sayings of the Pharisees against Jesus

Nektarios of Jerusalem’s anti-papal work, translated in 1739 under the Arabic title Kitāb jalā’ al-abṣār min ghishā’ al-akdār

an anti-purgatory treatise

an abridged catechism

Eustratios Argentis’s work against the use of azymes

Athanasios of Alexandria’s In Historiam Melchisedec

Some of these translations were later printed under the patronage of Sylvester in Iaşi and Bucharest, including Nektarios’s work in 1746.

Significance Modern scholarship has emphasized that Sophronios should not be viewed only through his later patriarchates. Before becoming patriarch, he was already an important figure in the Arab Orthodox intellectual revival linked to Sylvester of Antioch, active in translation, manuscript culture, liturgical correction, and anti-Catholic controversy.

His career also illustrates the mobility of 18th-century Orthodox churchmen across Kilis, Antioch, Jerusalem, the Romanian Principalities, Acre, Aleppo, and Constantinople.

Sophronios of Kilis / Sophronius II of Constantinople has been researched by the TYPARABIC project team (AdG 2019 – Horizon 2020 – Contract no. 883219).

Notes and references