MELETIUS OF ANTIOCH (d. 381), Catholic bishop and saint, was born at Melitene in Lesser Armenia of wealthy and noble parents. He first appears (c. 357) as a supporter of Acacius, bishop of Caesarea, the leader of that party in the episcopate which supported the Homoean formula by which the emperor Constantius sought to effect a compromise between the Homoe usians and the Homousians. Meletius thus makes his debut as an ecclesiastic of the court party, and as such became bishop of Sebaste in succession to Eustathius, deposed as an Homousian heretic by the synod of Melitene. The appointment was resented by the Homoeusian clergy, and Meletius retired to Beroea. Ac cording to Socrates he attended the synod of Seleucia in the au tumn of 359, and then subscribed the Acacian formula. Early in 36o he became bishop of Antioch, in succession to Eudoxius, who had been raised to the see of Constantinople. Early in the fol lowing year he was in exile for uncertain reasons.
The successor of Meletius was Euzoeus, who had fallen with Arius under the ban of Athanasius. In Antioch itself Meletius continued to have adherents, who held separate services in the "Apostolic" church in the old town. The synod of Alexandria sent deputies to attempt an arrangement between the two anti-Arian churches; but before they arrived Paulinus had been consecrated bishop by Lucifer of Calaris, and when Meletius reached the city, he found himself one of three rival bishops. Twice, in 365 and
371 or 372, Meletius was exiled by decree of the Arian emperor Valens. Meletius had been more and more approximating to the views of the newer school of Nicene orthodoxy. Basil of Caesarea, throwing over the cause of Eustathius, championed that of Mele tius who, when after the death of Valens he returned in triumph to Antioch, was hailed as the leader of Eastern orthodoxy. As such he presided, in Oct. 379, over the synod of Antioch, in which the dogmatic agreement of East and West was established; he helped Gregory of Nazianzus to the see of Constantinople and consecrated him ; he presided over the second oecumenical council at Constantinople in 381. He died soon after the opening of the council. His body was carried to Antioch and buried with the honours of a saint.
Meletius was a holy man, whose ascetic life was all the more remarkable in view of his great private wealth. He was also a man of learning and culture, and widely esteemed for his honour able, kindly and straightforward character. He is venerated as a saint and confessor in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Eastern churches.
See the article G. F. Loofs in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopddie (ed. 1897, Leipzig), xii. 552, and authorities there cited.