(), bishop of Smyrna, is renowned in
ecclesiastical history for his obstinate opposition to the famous patriarch Photius. He was
the son of the woman who was enveigled to entice Methodius, patriarch of Constantinople, but
he was not the son of Methodius. The patriarch Ignatius having been deposed by the emperor
Michael III., in 858, and Photius chosen in his stead, Metrophanes, who was then bishop of
Smyrna, recognised Photius, although he was a friend of Ignatius. But he soon altered his
opinion, declared publicly for the deposed patriarch, and so violently attacked Photius, that
he was deprived of his see and thrown into a prison. When Photius was deposed in his turn, and
Ignatius reestablished in the patriarchate by the emperor Basil I., Metrophanes recovered his
see of Smyrna, and, in the council held in Constantinople in 869, showed himself one of the
most zealous opponents of Photius. But in 879 Photius became once more patriarch on the death
of Ignatius, and now Metrophanes was again deposed. He nevertheless continued to speak and to
write against Photius, so that in 880 the patriarch and the emperor contrived his
excommunication. Metrophanes died in an obscure retirement, but the year of his death is not
known. He wrote besides other works :--1. Epistola ad Manuelem Patricium de
Rebus in Causa Photii ab anno 858 ad 870 gestis, one of the most valuable documents
bearing on the history of that turbulent patriarch. A Latin version by Melius, in Baronius,
Annal. ad ann. 870, Greek and Latin, in the 8th vol. of Labbe, Concilia, and in Acta Concilii CP. quarti, by M.
Raderus, Ingolstadt. 1604, 4to. 2. De Spirilu Sancto, of which a fragment is extant in a Vienna codex. 4. Expositio Fidei, in a Paris codex. 5. Liber Canonum
Triadicorum, in a Venetian codex, according to Leo Allatius. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xi. p. 700; Baronius, Annal. ad ann. 870,
&c.; Hankius, Script. Byzant. 17.1, &c., 18.66.)