Saint Niphon, Patriarch of Constantinople

Life

A Greek by birth. In his youth he became a monk and practiced asceticism, first outside the Holy Mountain and then on the Holy Mountain, in various monasteries, remaining longest at Vatopedi and Dionysiou. He was beloved by all the Holy Mountain fathers both for his rare wisdom and for his extraordinary meekness. Against his own will he was made Bishop of Thessalonica. But after two years he went on business to Constantinople, and there he was elected to the vacant Patriarchal throne. Banished by the sultan to Adrianople, he lived there in exile. The Wallachian prince Radu obtained him from the sultan and installed him as Archbishop of Wallachia. Because of Radu's transgressions, Niphon left Wallachia and went to the Holy Mountain, to the monastery of Dionysiou, where he practiced asceticism until his ninetieth year, when he departed into the Kingdom of God in the year 1460. He composed the prayer of absolution that is read at the funeral service.