MELETIUS, SALNT, of Antioch, a famous Greek ecclesiastic; b. in the beginning of the 4th c. at Melitene in Armenia Minor. His first important appointment was to the bishopric of Sebaste the deposition of Eustathius in A.D. 357, but his position WaS made so unpleasant by the stubborn conduct of the people that he soon resigned, and retired to Benea or Aleppo in Syria. The Arian controversy was now engrossing the minds of the people, and extinguishing trne piety, but Meletius endeavored by his ministrations in the pulpit and his consistent private life to commend to his people the essential truths of the gospel. He thus won the respect of both factions, and in A.I). 360 was raised by universal consent to the see of Antioch. In his new and high posi tion he felt bound to take a decided course in the prevailing dispute, and in his inaugu ral discourse in 361 he expressed his sympathy with the orthodox party. This confes sion re-awakened the spirit of controversy in the church of Antioch. The Arians .charged him with Sabellianism and other crimes, and in a month he was banished b). command of the emperor Constantino to his native Xelitene. Euzoius was installed in his place. The orthodox party in the church of Antioch seceded from the communion of the Arians, and on the accession of the emperor Julian in 362 Meletius was recalled from exile. He now strove earnestly for two years to effect a union between
the Enstathians and the orthodox party that had separated from the Arians at the time ,of his banishment, but the Eustathians refused to recog,nize any bishop van) had been .consecrated by the Arians. .The council of Alexandria sent Lucifer of Cagliari to Anti och to settle the dispute, but he defeated the plan of reconciliation by ordaining Pau. limis bishop of the Eustathians. Soon after the accession of Valens in 364 Meletius was again banished. By an edict of Gratian in 378 lie was recalled, and reinstated in his bishopric. Ile again endeavored to effect a union with the Eustathians, but was unsuc cessful through the unrelenting prejudice of Paulinus. Meletius died at an advanced age, while in the council of Constantinople in 381. His body was taken to Antioch and buried with great honor beside the tomb of the martyr Babylas. His funeral ora tion was pronounced by Gregory of Nyssa. A part of the inaugural discourse of Mele tins at Antioch is printed in the fifth vol. of Galland's Bibliotheca Patrum.