Very little is known of Anatolius. Dr. Neale gives the date of his death as 458 A.D. In this he is mistaken, and would seem to be identifying him with a patriarch of that name who succeeded Flavius in 449. From the fact that a letter from him exists addressed to [168]Joseph of the Studium (eighth century), and also that he celebrates the martyrs who suffered in the sixth and seventh centuries, his date cannot be earlier than the beginning of the eighth century.

His hymns, which number about one hundred, are found in the Menaea and Octoechus. Several of them were rendered by Dr. Neale, and are included in [169]Hymns of the Eastern Church; and a few by Dr. Littledale can be seen in his Offices of the Holy Eastern Church. "[170]The day is past and over," and "[171]Fierce was the wild billow," are both, in the original, the work of Anatolius, and are well known in their attractive renderings by Dr. Neale.