may still have been forming, or what regret for the awful harm he had done, he may, perhaps, now in his loneliness have felt, of all this we know nothing. The gorgeous life of the great city went on, feasting and solemn synods, then silent murders and torture in the vaults of the palaces, and, far away, the old Patriarch waited, hoped, perhaps repented, till he died (February 6, 891).[1]
And then, after his death, gradually his people and his Church remembered what he had done for them. Rightly, all "Orthodox" Christians look upon Photius as the great champion of their cause. He delivered them from the tyranny of Rome, and because of that they have forgiven everything else. They have forgotten all his intrigues, his dishonesty, his miserable subservience to the secular power, the hopeless injustice of his cause. All the modern Greek or Russian knows of this long story is that Ignatius, a holy old man, resigned the patriarchate because of his great age, and was succeeded by St. Photius, greatest, wisest, best of Œcumenical Patriarchs, who valiantly withstood the tyranny of the Pope of Old Rome, and "broke the pride of the West." He appears always as a saint. In exile he is the most patient and heroic of confessors, on the patriarchal throne he is the grandest and justest of bishops; he is the most learned and orthodox of theologians, and always, whether prosperous or persecuted, the hero of their independence of Rome. They keep his feast on February 6th, and their hymns overflow with praise of him. He is "the far-shining radiant star of the Church," the "most inspired guide of the Orthodox," "thrice blessed speaker for God," "Wise and divine glory of the hierarchy," he who "broke the horns of Roman pride."[2]
The Catholic remembers this extraordinary man with very mixed feelings. Had he not given his name to the most disastrous schism in Church History, he would perhaps have been the last of the Greek Fathers. One cannot refuse to recognize his astounding learning. He was really a genius. There is no shadow of suspicion over his private life: he bore his troubles
