Iakobos 5 was bishop of Anchialos under the patriarchate of Tarasios 1 (784-806); he resigned his see to become a contemplative monk in Bithynia; he is first attested there in c. 826 and died under Theophilos 5, probably in the late 830s (see below). He instructed Antonios the Younger (Antonios 12) in the rules of the ascetic life: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 6. Antonios 12 placed himself under his guidance after building a cell near the monastery of the Eunuchs on Mt Olympus, probably c. 826: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 28-30. During the reign of Theophilos 5, Iakobos 5 was visited by Peter of Atroa (Petros 34) (πρός τινα μέγαν ἡσυχαστήν, Ἰάκωβον προσαγορευόμενον, ἐπίσκοπον Ἐγχελίου γεγονότα τῆς κατὰ Μακεδονίαν ἐν ἡμέραις τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις Ταρασίου καὶ ταύτην παραιτησάμενον διὰ τὸ εἰς ἄκρον αὐτὸν εἶναι φιλόθεον καὶ φιλήσυχον): Vita Petr. Atr. 65, p. 193. The visit is mentioned several times by Sabas 1 (author of the Life of Peter of Atroa): Vita Petr. Atr. 66, 67, 68. He lived close to a monastery of St Kirykos: Vita Petr. Atr. 67, p. 195. He returned with Petros 34 to the monastery of Hagios Porphyrios and they lived together in a cell close by; after a long period of asceticism there, they went to Kalon Oros in Lydia: Vita Petr. Atr. 69, 70, p. 199. Later they returned to Hagios Porphyrios; the date was 835 or 836 (the seventh year of Theophilos 5 and the sixty-third of Petros 34; see Laurent, La Vie merveilleuse, p. 206, n. 1): Vita Petr. Atr. 75, p. 207. He is regularly alluded to as τὸν μέγαν ἡσυχαστὴν or similar: pp. 193, 195, 197, 199, 207. After Iakobos 5 died, an attempt to carry away his corpse was made by the former empress Prokopia 1 but Antonios 12 resisted and ensured that his body remained interred in the monastery of the Eunuchs: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 34-39. The monastery of Hagios Porphyrios seems to have been identical with that of the Eunuchs.

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