There is evidence showing that the veneration of Patriarch Photios I the Great of Constantinople as a saint has origins going back to the 10th century, as we see also in his veneration in the West until the 12th century.
His official canonization as a saint, however, was accomplished by the Patriarchate of Constantinople under Patriarch Anthimos VI in 1848, in the context of acute opposition to the proselytism of Catholics and other Western confessions in the territory under Ottoman rule. Because Patriarch Anthimos VI had issued anti-Russian statements during the Crimean War and later proclaimed the Bulgarian Schism in 1872, the canonization was not accepted in the calendar of the Russian Church. On the 1000th anniversary of the death of Saint Photios, on February 6, 1891, an official celebration took place at the Theological School of Halki; the Russians were not invited.
There were three different views of Patriarch Photios among the Russians at the time: Slavists, who valued Patriarch Photios for his role in the Christian education of the Slavs; Graecophiles, who demanded that the name of Patriarch Photios be included in the Russian calendars; Anti-"Eastern Papists", who recognized the historical and theological merits of Patriarch Photios, but firmly stood on the non-recognition of his canonization because Constantinople instituted it.
His official canonization as a saint, however, was accomplished by the Patriarchate of Constantinople under Patriarch Anthimos VI in 1848, in the context of acute opposition to the proselytism of Catholics and other Western confessions in the territory under Ottoman rule. Because Patriarch Anthimos VI had issued anti-Russian statements during the Crimean War and later proclaimed the Bulgarian Schism in 1872, the canonization was not accepted in the calendar of the Russian Church. On the 1000th anniversary of the death of Saint Photios, on February 6, 1891, an official celebration took place at the Theological School of Halki; the Russians were not invited.
There were three different views of Patriarch Photios among the Russians at the time: Slavists, who valued Patriarch Photios for his role in the Christian education of the Slavs; Graecophiles, who demanded that the name of Patriarch Photios be included in the Russian calendars; Anti-"Eastern Papists", who recognized the historical and theological merits of Patriarch Photios, but firmly stood on the non-recognition of his canonization because Constantinople instituted it.
