Saint Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople

Germanus was the son of a leading patrician of Constantinople. According to his Life, after his father was put to death, the boy was castrated and given to the clergy, so that he could never claim his father's rank. He became bishop of Cyzicus and in 715 patriarch of Constantinople.

When Emperor Leo III began his campaign against the veneration of icons, Germanus refused to support it and wrote in their defence. In 730 he was forced from the patriarchal palace and spent his last years in retirement among monks, dying c. 740. His Life tells that at the baptism of Leo's son, the future Constantine V, he foretold that the child would bring great harm to the Church.