Gregory VI of Constantinople
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
Church	Church of Constantinople
Diocese	Constantinople
See	Ecumenical Patriarchate
Installed	27 September 1835 10 February 1867
Term ended	20 February 1840 10 June 1871
Predecessor	Constantius II of Constantinople Sophronius III of Constantinople
Successor	Anthimus IV of Constantinople Anthimus VI of Constantinople
Personal details
Born	Georgios Fourtouniadis (Γεώργιος Φουρτουνιάδης) 1 March 1798 Fanaraki (Rumelifeneri)
Died	8 June 1881 (1881-06-09) (aged 83) Arnavutköy, Ottoman Empire
Buried	Holy Church of Asomati
Denomination	Eastern Orthodox Church
Parents	Angelos and Soultana Fourtouniadis

Gregory VI of Constantinople (Greek: Γρηγόριος), baptismal nameGeorgios Fourtouniadis (Greek: Γεώργιος Φουρτουνιάδης; 1 March 1798 – 8 June 1881) wasEcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in the periods 1835–1840 and 1867–1871.

He was born on 1 March 1798 in the village Fanaraki (now known asRumelifeneri) on theBosphorus. In 1815 he was ordaineddeacon of the Metropolis ofDurusu (Derkos/Δέρκος), adopting the name Gregory VI. On 24 September 1824 he was designated great archdeacon of theEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople byChrysanthus of Constantinople. In 1825 he was ordained greatprotosyncellus, and on 21 October that year, he was made metropolitan bishop ofPelagonia (modern-dayBitola). In August 1833, he was elected metropolitan bishop ofSerres. After much discussion and recriminations and with the support of representatives of the guilds (esnaf)^[1] he was elected Ecumenical Patriarch on 27 September 1835.

In the opinion of a contemporary, the historian Manouil Gedeon, the new patriarch was characterized by a deep "zeal for the Church and austerity in his customs - but also by an unforgivable inflexibility in his own ideas" ("Τον Γρηγόριον ΣΤ' εχαρακτήριζε ζήλος υπέρ της Εκκλησίας, αυστηρότης εν τοις ηθεσιν, άλλ' ασύγγνωστος εμμονή εις πάσαν αυτόυ ιδέαν").^[2] Gregory VI published canonical provisions concerning marriages (matchmaking, dowry), the education of monks and dogmatic differences with theCatholic Church and the Protestants, he forbid burial inside churches and he condemned the translation of the Bible in a simpler form of theGreek language. On 19 December 1839 he published a Patriarchal and Synodic newsletter («Περί της νεωστί αναφανείσης αντιχρίστου διδαλίας του Θεοσεβισμού») againstTheophilos Kairis and his teaching.

The increasing appearance of Protestant tracts and missionaries in the eastern Mediterranean following the end of theNapoleonic Wars was particularly distressing to Patriarch Gregory VI. The vigour of Gregory VI's efforts to insulate his flock, not only in the Ottoman Empire but also in theKingdom of Greece and theUnited States of the Ionian Islands, from heterodox religious influences incurred the displeasure of all governments in the region during the late 1830s. In 1839, these tensions came to a head when the patriarch issued an encyclical condemning various uncanonical changes to family law promulgated by the British colonial authorities on the Ionian Islands. The British ambassador,John Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Ponsonby, bluntly demanded the removal of Gregory VI and threatened to leave Constantinople over the matter. Under duress, the Ottoman foreign ministerMustafa Reşid Pasha agreed to Ponsonby's demand. The minister insisted, however, on delaying the dismissal until the Ottoman government could first legitimise its action by carrying out a formal judicial inquiry into Gregory VI's alleged misbehaviour.^[3]

Gregory VI was finally deposed by SultanAbdülmecid I on 20 February 1840 and retired to his house inArnavutköy. He was reelected 27 years later, after the resignation ofSophronius III of Constantinople, on 10 February 1867, and resigned on 10 June 1871. He died on 8 June 1881. He was buried in the forecourt of the Holy Church of Asomati inArnavutköy and in 1906 his bones were recovered.

• Οικουμενικό Πατριαρχείο.
• Augustinos, Gerasimos;The Greeks of Asia Minor - Confession, Community, and Ethnicity in the Nineteenth Century, Kent, OH and London,Kent State University, 1992, pp. 117–119.
• Fairey, Jack;The Great Powers and Orthodox Christendom - The Crisis over the Eastern Church in the Era of the Crimean War, London,Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, especially Chapters 2 and 7.
• Μαμώνη, Κυριακή. "Αγώνες του Οικουμενικού Πατριαρχείου κατά των Μισσιοναρίων" [Struggles of the Ecumenical Patriarchate against the Missionaries],Μνημοσύνη 8, 1980–1981, pp. 179–212.
• Χαμχούγιας, Χρήστος,Ο Οικουμενικός Πατριάρχης Κωνσταντινουπόλεως Γρηγόριος ΣΤ' ο Φουρτουνιάδης εν μέσω εθνικών και εθνοφυλετικών ανταγωνισμών, διδακτορική διατριβή, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης (ΑΠΘ), Θεολογική Σχολή, Τμήμα Ποιμαντικής και Κοινωνικής Θεολογίας, 2006.

• 1881 deaths
• 1798 births
• 19th-century ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople

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