Saint Nicephorus

Saint Nicephorus , 758?-829?, patriarch of Constantinople (806-15), Byzantine historian and theologian. St. Nicephorus attended the Second Council of Nicaea as lay representative of the emperor. His appointment by Emperor Nicephorus I to the patriarchate while he was still a layman aroused the anger of the monastic party under St. Theodore of Studium, but the quarrel was quieted. St. Nicephorus opposed iconoclasm and secured a pledge of orthodoxy from Emperor Michael I . Michael's successor, Leo V , however, insisted that the patriarch modify his views, but Nicephorus refused and was deposed and exiled. In his exile he wrote a brief narrative of Byzantine history from 602 to 769 and several tracts against iconoclasm. Feast: Mar. 13.

Nicephorus, St (758–828), Patr. of Constantinople. He withdrew from court life and retired to a monastery, but was recalled to Constantinople and in 806 made Patriarch, though not yet in Holy Orders. In return, the Emp. Nicephorus demanded his reinstatement of a priest who had been deposed for blessing the adulterous marriage of the Emp. Constantine VI; after some hesitation the Patriarch gave way. When the Emp. Leo V (813–20) resumed an iconoclastic policy, Nicephorus resisted; he was exiled in 815 and retired to his former monastery. Besides writing in the image controversy, he compiled a Byzantine history from 602 to 770. Feast day in the E. Church, 2 June; in the W., 13 Mar.