Saint Nicephorus the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople

Life

A nobleman of Constantinople. His father Theodore was a high official at the imperial court, wealthy and pious. Nicephorus served for several years at the court in the same capacity as his father. But seeing all the vanity of the world, he withdrew from the shores of the Bosporus and there built a monastery. The monastery quickly filled with monks, and he governed the monastery while not wishing himself to receive the monastic tonsure, on the grounds that he was unworthy, although in everything he served as a model for all. Before that he had participated in the Seventh Ecumenical Council as a layman, at the will of the emperor and the patriarch, and he benefited the Council greatly by his excellent knowledge of Holy Scripture. When Patriarch Tarasius died, Nicephorus was elected patriarch against his will. Immediately after his election he received the monastic rank and all the other ranks in order, and in the year 806 he was enthroned in Hagia Sophia as patriarch. This was in the time of Emperor Nicephorus, who soon afterward went to war against the Bulgarians and perished. His son Stauracius reigned only two months and then died. After this the good Emperor Michael, called Rangabe, came to the throne, but he reigned only two years before Leo the Armenian overthrew and banished him. When this Leo became emperor, the patriarch sent him a book on the Orthodox Confession of Faith to sign (according to the custom of all Byzantine emperors, which was considered an oath that he would uphold and defend the true faith). The emperor did not sign but postponed it until after his coronation. And when the patriarch crowned him, he refused to sign the book and soon declared himself an iconoclast heretic. The patriarch tried to counsel him and return him to the true faith, but in vain. The emperor forcibly banished Nicephorus into exile on the island of Proconnesus, where in poverty and deprivation of every kind he spent thirteen years and then departed to eternity in the year 827. As patriarch he had governed the Church of Christ for nine years.

From the Hymn of Praise

Great was Nicephorus, great among the saints,Great was Nicephorus, like a giant among men.But the emperor was too small, though bearing the name of a lion,In stubbornness and malice was all his glory.