Monday, November 18, 2019

SAINT NICEPHORUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE

St. Nicephorus
Nicephorus of Constantinople
Feast day: March 13
feast day formerly June 2
Born in 758;
Died June 2, 828;
Patriarch of Constantinople and martyr.
. It's no wonder that Nicephorus was a staunch opponent of iconoclasm; his father, the emperor's secretary, had been tortured and exiled for refusing to accept Emperor Constantine Copronymus's decrees banning sacred images. Nicephorus became imperial commissioner known for his eloquence, scholarship, and statesmanship. He built a monastery near the Black Sea.

Although he was still a layman and did not desire any preference, he was named patriarch of Constantinople in 806 to succeed Saint Tarasius. Nicephorus incurred the enmity of Saint Theodore Studites for giving absolution to the priest who had illicitly married Emperor Constantine VI and Theodota while Constantine's wife Mary was still alive. The two were later reconciled.

Nicephorus devoted himself to reforming his see, restoring monastic discipline, and reinvigorating the faith of his flock. The patriarch also brought Saint Methodius of Constantinople, who later became patriarch, from his monastery on Chios. He resisted the efforts of Emperor Leo the Armenian to reimpose iconoclasm, but was deposed by a synod of iconoclastic bishops assembled by the emperor. Several attempts were made on the life of Nicephorus and he was exiled to the monastery he had built on the Black Sea, where he spent the last 15 years of his life.

Nicephorus wrote several treatises against iconoclasm and two historical works, Breviarum and Chronographia

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