Philotheus COCCINUS
2. COCCINUS, patriarch of CONSTANTINOPLE, a man of great and deserved renown. He was probably born in the beginning of the 14th century, and early took the monastic habit. After living for a considerable time as a monk in, and afterwards superior of, the convent of St. Laura on Mount Sinai, he was appointed archbishop of Heracleia (before 1354). In 1355 he was employed by the emperor John Cantacuzenus, in bringing about a reconciliation between Michael, the son, and John Palaeologus, the son-in-law of the emperor; and in the same year he was chosen patriarch of Constantinople, in the place of Callistus, who, however, recovered his see after John Palaeologus had taken possession of Constantinople. Callistus, however, died soon afterwards, and now Philotheus was once more placed on the patriarchal chair, which post he occupied with great dignity till 1371 according to Cave, or 1376 according to the Chronologia reformata of J. B. Riccioli quoted by Fabricius.
Works
Wharton in Cave and Fabricius give a catalogue of the numerous works of Philotheus.
We give below the titles of the most important of the numerous works of Philotheus, very few of which have been published.
1. Liturgia et Ordo instituendi Diaconum
Editions
printed in Latin in the 26th vol. of Bibl. Pat. Max.
2. Libri XV. Antirrhetici,
a defence of his friend the celebrated Palama, extant in different libraries.
3. Sermo Encomiasticus in tres Hierarchas, Basilium, Gregorium Theologum, et Joannem Chrysostomum,
Editions
Latin Editions
Latin, in the 26th vol. of Bibl. Pat. Max.
Greek Editions
Gr. and Lat., by Jac. Pontanus, together with Philippi Solitarii Dioptra, Ingolstadt, 1604, 8vo.; by Fronto Ducaeus, in the 2d vol. of Auctuar. Patr. Paris, 1624.
3. Oratio de Cruce,
Editions
Gr. and Lat. apud Gretser. De Cruce, Ingolstadt, 1616, fol., vol. ii. ]; there is another Oratio de Cruce, in the same volume, which is attributed by some to our Philotheus.
4. Oratio in tertiam Jejuniorum Dominicam,
Gr. and Lat. ibid.
5. Refutatio Anathematismorum ab Harmenopulo scriptorum,
Editions
Gr. and Lat. apud Leunclav. Jus. Gr. Rom. lib. iv.
6. Confutatio Capitum XIV. Acindymi et Barlaami,
extant in MS.
7. Homilia.
8. Compendium de Oeconomia Christi,
&c. &c.
Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xi. p. 513, &c.; Cave, Hist. Lit. ad an. 1362.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.