Sisinnius Chosen to Succeed Atticus

After the death of Atticus there was a hard contest over the choice of his successor, some proposing one man and some another. One party, they say, pressed for a presbyter named Philip; another wanted to promote Proclus, who was also a presbyter. But the general wish of the people was that the office of bishop should be given to Sisinnius. He too was a presbyter, but he held no church office within the city. He had been appointed to the sacred ministry in a church at Elaea, a village in the suburbs of Constantinople. This village lies across the harbor from the city, and by an ancient custom the whole population gathered there every year to celebrate our Savior’s ascension. All the lay people were warmly devoted to the man, because he was famous for his piety, and especially because he cared diligently for the poor, even “beyond his means.” So the earnestness of the laity won out, and Sisinnius was ordained on the twenty-eighth of February, in the following consulship, which was the twelfth of Theodosius and the second of Valentinian. The presbyter Philip was so vexed that another had been preferred to him that he even brought the matter into his Christian History. There he made some very harsh remarks about the man who was ordained and about those who had ordained him, and far harsher ones about the laity. But the things he said I cannot by any means bring myself to put in writing. And since I do not approve of his rashness in writing them down, I think it not out of place to say something here about him and his works. [a]