Venerable Isaac the Confessor

Life

In the time of Emperor Valens there was a great persecution of Orthodoxy by the Arians, which the emperor himself supported. Hearing of this persecution, Isaac, a desert-dweller somewhere in the East, left his desert and came to Constantinople to encourage the Orthodox and to denounce the heretics. Just at that time Emperor Valens was setting out with an army to the north against the Goths, who from the Danube were descending toward Thrace. Isaac came before the emperor and said to him: "O Emperor, open the churches to the Orthodox, and God will bless thy path!" But the emperor paid no heed to the elder and continued on his way. The next day Isaac again ran out before the emperor and repeated his admonition, and the emperor nearly heeded the elder, had not one of his counselors, a follower of the Arian heresy, prevented it. On the third day Isaac ran out before the emperor, seized the emperor's horse by the bridle, and besought the emperor to give freedom to the Church of God, threatening him with the punishment of God if he resisted his plea. The enraged emperor ordered the elder cast into a pit of mud and thorns. But three angels appeared and pulled the elder out of the pit. On the fourth day Isaac came before the emperor and prophesied a terrible death for him if he did not give freedom to the Orthodox: "I say to thee, O Emperor, thou shalt lead thy army against the barbarians, but thou shalt not prevail against the barbarians; thou shalt flee before them, but thou shalt be caught and burned alive." And so it all came to pass. The barbarians cut down the Greek army like grass, and the emperor fled with that counselor of his, the Arian, and hid in a barn. The barbarians came to that place, and learning where the emperor was, surrounded the barn, set it on fire, and Emperor Valens was burned together with his counselor. Then Emperor Theodosius the Great came to the throne, who heard of Isaac and his fulfilled prophecy. The emperor summoned him and bowed before him. When peace was established in the Church and the Arians were driven out, Isaac wished to return to his desert, but was prevailed upon to remain in Constantinople. A certain nobleman, Saturninus, built him a dwelling where the elder practiced his asceticism until death, performing many miracles. The dwelling filled with monks and became a great monastery. Before his death Isaac appointed as abbot his disciple Dalmatus, after whom the monastery was later called the Dalmatian monastery. And the God-pleasing elder Isaac departed to eternity around the year 383, to delight in beholding the face of God.

From the Hymn of Praise

Isaac, like the Prophet Elijah,Shines in virtue like the sun,He implores the emperor, threatens the wicked tsar,Who defies the great God: