Athanasius II of Constantinople explained

Church:	Church of Constantinople
Archbishop Of:	Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
Term:	1451–1453
Predecessor:	Gregory III of Constantinople
Successor:	Gennadius Scholarius
Birth Date:	?
Death Date:	29 May 1453

Athanasius II (Greek: Ἀθανάσιος; died 29 May 1453) is reckoned as the last Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople before the Fall of Constantinople. Athanasius purportedly served as patriarch from 1450 to 1453, but the only document indicating his existence is "Acts of the council in Hagia Sophia"—widely considered a forgery due to the presence of anachronisms in the text.^{[1] [2]}

Modern-day scholars dispute his existence, then, suggesting that the unionist patriarch Gregory III of Constantinople, residing in Rome from 1451 on, remained the city's nominal patriarch through the Ottoman capture of the city.^{[3] [4]}

Notes and References

1. http://www.vremennik.biz/opus/BB/II2/53664 Review on the authenticity of the acts (in Russian)
2. Dalleggio. Eugenio. Laurent. Vitalien. 1949. Les études byzantines en Grèce (1940-1948). Revue des études byzantines. 7. 1. 91–128. 10.3406/rebyz.1949.1005.
3. Harris, Jonathan. “The Patriarch of Constantinople and the Last Days of Byzantium.” The Patriarchate of Constantinople in Context and Comparison, ed. Christian Gastgeber, Ekaterini Mitsiou, Johannes Preiser-Kapeller and Vratislav Zervan (2017): 10.
4. W. K. Hanak – M. Philippiedes, The Siege and Fall of Constantinople in 1453: Historiography, Topography and Military Studies. Farnham and Burlington VT 2011, 50, 130.