SAINT NICEPHORUS

March 13

From the Prologue

Nicephorus governed the Holy Church wisely and zealously as one of the greatest Arch-pastors of Constantinople. When Leo the Armenian rose up against icons, Nicephorus alone defied the emperor. He first counseled the emperor and then later unmasked him. That is why the depraved emperor banished him to the island of Prokenesis. On this island there was a monastery which Nicephorous had built in honor of Saint Theodore. This confessor of the Orthodox Faith remained in this monastery for thirteen years and afterwards presented himself to the Lord in the year 827 A.D. Since all the iconoclastic emperors had perished, and Michael, with his mother Theodora, sat on the Imperial Throne, Patriarch Methodius then was restored to the Patriarchal Throne. The relics of St. Nicephorous were translated from Prokenesis to Constantinople in 846 A.D. and were reposed, first in the Church of the Divine Wisdom of God [St. Sophia], from which he was banished during his life, and later reposed in the Church of the Twelve Apostles. The principal feast of this great hierarch is commemorated on June 2 and again on March 13 when the discovery and translation of his incorruptible relics is commemorated. On March 13, St. Nicephorous was banished from Constantinople and then, again, on March 13, nineteen years later, his relics were returned to the Capitol.