Gabriel III of Constantinople

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His All-Holiness Gabriel III of Constantinople was the Patriarch of Constantinople from 1702 to 1707. His patriarchate was generally untroubled.

Life

Gabriel was born in the town of Smyrna (present day İzmir in western Turkey) to parents who had come from the island of Andros in the Greek Cyclades archipelago. Little else is known of his early life. As a young man he had entered the Holy Orders as his career. In 1688, he became Metropolitan of Chalcedon.

On August 29, 1702, he was elected Patriarch of Constantinople. During his patriarchate, Patr. Gabriel was confronted with issues relating to a newly published edition of the New Testament in modern Greek and relations with the heterodox. In 1704, he condemned the edition of the New Testament translated by Seraphim of Mytilene and edited in London in 1703 by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, an English missionary group of its time. On March 5, 1705, he issued a decree forbidding Greek students to study in London due to improper behaviors. In 1706, he issued a letter condemning the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.

He also intervened in the affairs of the autocephalous Church of Cyprus, deposing Abp. Germanos II of Cyprus after complaints from the local population. In 1705, Patr. Gabriel appointed Athanasius III Dabbas of Antioch, who was Archbishop of Aleppo at the time, as Archbishop of Cyprus, a position he kept until 1709. After Athanasius' departure from Cyprus, Gabriel censured as non-canonical the consecration of the new Archbishop Jacob II (Iacovos II), who nevertheless held his office until 1718.

In 1706, Patr. Gabriel established a school in town of his birth, Smyrna, where the scholar Adamantios Rysios taught.

Patr. Gabriel reposed in Constantinople on October 25, 1707 and was buried at the Monastery of Kamariotissa on the island of Halki.

Succession box:
Gabriel III of Constantinople
Preceded by:
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Metropolitan of Chalcedon
1688-1702
Succeeded by:
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Preceded by:
Callinicus II
Patriarch of Constantinople
1702-1707
Succeeded by:
Neophytus V
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