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Bishops of Byzantium - A Legendary Prelude?

In later Byzantine history the claim that the Patriarch of Constantinople was in lineal descent from Andrew, the first apostle, was promoted in contrast to the Roman claims of descent from Peter.

Demetrius Kymenas, deriving his comments from the Thriskeftiki kai Ethiki Encyclopaedia (Athens 1962-8) sums up the situation as follows:-

It is difficult to say where the legend stops and where reality beguns. However, the Apostle Andrew preached in the general area and according to the tradition he ordained the first bishop of Byzantium (Stachys), the first  bishop of Nicaea (Drakonteios), the first bishop of Chalkedon (Tychikos), the first bishop of Sinope (Philologos), the first bishop of Thracian Herakliea (Apellis), etc. (He ordained many of the Seventy Apostles as bishops in cities of Asia Minor, Thrace and Greece). Because the lord of the small cityof Byzantium, Xeuxikus, was brutal and a fanatic pagan who used to tie and throw in the sea any Christian who visited his city,  Andrew resided in nearby Argyroupolis (later a suburb of Constantinople), and there he stayed for two years during which time he managed to create a Christian community of 2000 people along with their church and episcopate. It is not clear if Stachys is the same person with the one the Apostle Peter calls "dear" in his letter to the Romans, but his memory is celebrated by the Orthodox church on October 31.

Here's the list, with some more comments taken mostly from Thriskeftiki kai Ethiki Encyclopaedia (Athens 1962-8)

Andrew the Apostle c.36-c.38, feast day November 30.
Stachys  38-54, feast day October 31.
Onesimus 54-68 
Polykarpos I 71-89
Plutarch 89-105
Sedekion 105-114
Diogenes 114-129
Eleutherios 129-136
Felix 136-141
Polycarpos II 141-144
Athenodoros 144-148.
In order to avoid pagan raids, Athenodorus left Argyroupolis and built a second episcopal church at a location farther away from the sea, called Elaia. This church was later expanded by Constantine the Great, who wished to be buried there-but that didn't occured as it was decided not to bury emperors outside the city walls. (The church was dedicated to the  Seven Maccabean Children and their teacher Eleazarus.)
Euzoios 148-154
Lawrence 154-166 (Laurentios)
His episcopate lasted 11 years and 6 months.
Alypios 166-169
Pertinax 169-187
Olympianos 187-198
Mark I 198-211
Philadelphos 211-217
Kyriacos I 217-230
Kastinos 230-237, feast day January 25.
He transfered his see to Byzantium and became the first Bishop to reside in the city.
Eugenios I 237-242.
Kedrinos calls him "second bishop" (Synopsis Istorion A', p.551), probably meaning the second bishop to reside in Byzantium.
Titos 242-272
Dometios 272-284
brother of the Roman Emperor Probus 276-282. He is believed to have built the fourth episcopal church inside Byzantium, dedicated to Saint Euphemia.
Rouphinos 284-293
Probos 293-306, son of Dometius
Metrophanes I 306-314
possibly son of Probus.

Notes

The table presents the following information

Date1: date of election/appointment/installation

Date2: date of death/exile/deposition
Under "Date",

beg = beginning of
btw = between
dep = deposed
end = end of
exile = exiled
prob = probably

Name: Name of holder of position. Since many patriarchs held the title more than once, the (ºnumber) inside parentheses indicates which of various times this particular time is.

The rendition of of Greek names into English is always problematic. Three solutions are available. The first renders every Greek name in its Latinate or Anglicised form - thus a name such as MAKEDONIOS becomes MACEDONIUS; the second renders every Greek name in direct transliteration - thus IOANNIS for "John"; the third approach is ecletic - it renders names with common English equivalents as the English equivalent, but does not Latinize names with no common English form. This last approach is followed here. On some occasions this requires a judgement call. The following English equivalents are used:

Anthony for ANTONIOS
Basil for BASILIOS
Constantine for KONSTANTINOS
George for GEORGIOS
Gregory for GREGORIOS
John for IOANNIS
Joseph for
Michael for MICHAELOS?
Nicholas for NICOLAUS
Paul for PAULOS
Peter for PETROS
Stephen for STEPHANOS
Theodore for THEODOROS
Timothy for TIMOTHEOS

In some cases the Greek form has been retained either dues to convention, or becuase the English equivalent is rare.

Akakios = Acacius
Eudokios = Eudocius
Eugenios = Eugene
Isidoros = Isidore
Kallinkos = Callincus
Kosmos for Cosmas
Kyriakos = Cyriacus
Kyros = Cyrus
Lukas = Luke
Niketas = Nicetas
Ruphinos = Rufinus

In names which are simialr in Greke and English, but where the usual Latinate ending is "ius" the Greeek "ios" has been maintained (e.g. Athanasios/Athanasius, Maximos/Maximus) .

Monk: if the holder was a monk before election. If a monk after deposition or resignation, this is idicated by "after". "Layman" indicates lay status at appointment. "Ath supp" indicates that the patriarch was known as an Athonite supporter.

Saint: if the holder was later celebrated in calendars.

Feast Day(s): Date on which celebration was/is held.

Sources:

Venance Grumel, La Chronologie, Vol. 1 of Traité d'etudes byzantines, ed. Paul Lemerle, (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1958), 434-441.

Grumel builds on the list given by S. Vailhé in Dictionnaire de theologie catholique, s.v "Constantinople (Église de)", but makes adjustments based on subsequent studies of shorter periods. The DTC article, which claims to be the first complete list, provides the dates from 1842 to 1901.

The 20th century dates were provided by [who?] following a request I made on the Byzans-l listserv maillist [byzans-l@lists.missouri.edu]and updated following a lengthy email from Demetrios Kymenas from Greece, who also provided the traditional dates for the earlier bishops of Byzantium.

CAVEATS

Since canonization was long a haphazard affair in the Orthodox Church, the statuses and feasts of patriarchs before 1081 are taken from the Synaxarium of Constantinople as edited by Hippolyte Delahaye. The saintliness of later patriarchs is not yet secure, based on a variety of pieces of information. Similarly the monastic status of various patriarchs is not definitive in this listing.

Some CommentsOn Monasticization of the Patriarchate

Aristeides Papadakis, The Christian East and the Rise of Papacy, (Crestwood NY: SVS Press, 1994), 306. after Athanasius II all patriarchs but two were monastics. The trend to monasticism became even more intense under Isidore 1347-50. He consecrated thirty two new bishops, for the most part members of the same monastic circle.

On the turnover under the Turkish Rule

Steven Runciman, The Great Church in Captivity, (Cambridge: University Press, 1968) 201-202.
From 1495-1595 - 19 reigns: 1595-to 1695 there were 61 changes of patriarch, but only 31 patriarchs; 1695-1795, 31 reigns, and 23 patriarchs.

B.J. Kidd, The Churches of Eastern Christendom, (London: 1927), 304.
"Out of 159 patriarchs who have held office between the fifteenth and twentieth century, the Turks have on 105 occasions driven Patriarchs from the throne; there have been 27 abdications, often involuntary; 6 Patriarchs have suffered violent deaths by hanging, poisoning, or drowning; and only 21 have died natural deaths while in office", cited in Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, (New York: Penguin, 1963), 99

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