Germanus I of Constantinople

Germanus I, or Germanos, of Constantinople was a Byzantine churchman, theologian, and patriarch whose life is dated somewhat differently by modern reference works. The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology places his birth around 655 and his death before 754. He came from a patrician family; after his father's execution he was made a eunuch and entered the clergy of Hagia Sophia. He later became bishop of Cyzicus and served as Patriarch of Constantinople from 715 until 730.

Germanus is especially remembered for resisting Emperor Leo III's iconoclastic policy. Under imperial pressure he resigned the patriarchate in 730 and retired from public office. He was later honored as a saint and confessor in Eastern Christianity, and writings associated with him contributed to Byzantine theological reflection on worship and sacred images.

The Greek Christmas sticheron beginning “Mega kai paradoxon thauma,” the source of “A Great and Mighty Wonder,” is attributed to Germanus in editions of the Menaea. John Mason Neale's 1862 English translation mistakenly assigned it to Anatolius because of its position among adjacent material. Modern hymnological scholarship therefore treats Germanus as the probable ancient author while acknowledging the history of misattribution.