Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

Timeline

1. 381–451Constantinople · TurkeyThe First Council of Constantinople elevated the status of the bishop of Constantinople, and the Council of Chalcedon (451) formally confirmed its patriarchate as one of the five great patriarchates alongside Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.
2. 500–1054Hagia Sophia, Constantinople · TurkeyFrom the age of Justinian onward, the patriarchate convened numerous councils under imperial auspices and oversaw missionary work in Eastern Europe and the Slavic lands; patriarchs such as John Chrysostom and Photius were deeply influential theologians.
3. 1054Constantinople and Rome · TurkeyPatriarch Michael Cerularius and envoys of Pope Leo IX mutually excommunicated each other, marking the formal split between Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism; the patriarch of Constantinople became the chief representative of Orthodoxy.
4. 1453–1923Phanar district · TurkeyOttoman sultans recognized the patriarch as leader of the millet; the patriarchate continued its liturgy and affairs at the Church of St. George in the Phanar district. Nineteenth-century national independence movements narrowed its direct jurisdiction, but its senior status remained unchanged.