Neophytus was born in
Smyrna. He studied in the
Evangelical School of Smyrna, where he was classmates with
Nicodemus the Hagiorite and
Adamantios Korais. He was an especially educated man and was against the simplification of religious texts, as he thought that something like that would lead to their vulgarisation. He served as great
archdeacon of the Patriarchate and in May 1771 he was elected metropolitan bishop of
Maroneia. On 1 May 1789, he succeeded
Procopius of Constantinople on the Ecumenical throne, with some concerns about how canonical his election was. Even though his reign is considered worthy, he had to resign on 1 March 1794 and retired to
Heybeliada and later to
Rhodes,
Patmos and
Mount Athos. He was reelected Patriarch on 19 December 1798, but on 17 June 1801 he resigned again and was exiled to Mount Athos. During his reign, the philosophy teacher Christodoulos Pamplekis was excommunicated, while the
Great School of the Nation was reconstituted and many schools were founded. With a canonical arrangement, he condemned
pantheism, while a synodic decision condemned the book "Περί συνεχούς μεταλήψεως", written by the former
metropolitan bishop of Corinth,
Macarius of Corinth. He re-founded after 413 years the
Metropolis of Corfu and blessed, with the permission of the
Sublime Porte, the new
flag of the United States of the Ionian Islands in the
Church of St. George. During his lifetime, and after many discussions, the translation and publication the Canon of the
Eastern Orthodox Church in
Demotic Greek was finally approved. Consequently, Christopher's "Κανονικόν" and Nicodemus the Hagiorite's "Πηδάλιον" were published, the latter also publishing "Μέγα Ευχολόγιον" in Constantinople. With his permission,
John IV of Constantinople's Canon was also published by the Patriarchal Press. == Notes and references ==