Patriarch
Little is known about the life of George before his election as patriarch and after the Sixth Ecumenical Council. He was a presbyter and skeuophylax of the Church of St. Sophia when he was elevated to the Constantinople see in November/December 679. This choice was made by the emperor to facilitate reconciliation with the Roman Church after the rupture of 672, associated with the heresy of Monothelitism.
Soon after his enthronement, Patriarch George, at the emperor's insistence, convened the Sixth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople (November 7, 680 – September 16, 681). He and Patriarch Macarius I of Antioch were called to justify the official Monothelite doctrine. Defending Monothelitism, George and Macarius referred to the teachings of the first five Ecumenical Councils and the authority of the Patriarchs of Constantinople. At the seventh session on February 13, 681, the legates demanded that they respond to the letters of Pope Agathon regarding the Monothelite dispute. On March 7, at the eighth session, Patriarch George declared his agreement with Pope Agathon.
At the sixteenth session, Patriarch George asked the legates not to insist on the anathema against the Constantinopolitan patriarchs who supported Monothelitism. The representatives of the pope, supported by the Council, refused to make such a concession, and George was forced to submit. On September 16, 681, the Council adopted the Orthodox confession of faith, affirming two wills and two energies in Christ. Patriarch George signed it after the Roman legates.
He passed away in February 686.
