St. Nicephorus the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople

Nicephorus was born in Constantinople; his father Theodore, an imperial secretary, was beaten and exiled by the Iconoclast emperor Constantine V for keeping icons. He himself served at court and as a layman spoke for the emperor at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. He then founded a monastery on the Bosporus. In 806, after the death of Patriarch Tarasius, he was chosen patriarch: he became a monk, was ordained and enthroned at Easter.

When Leo V the Armenian revived Iconoclasm, Nicephorus refused to yield and in 815 was taken from the city by night. His Life says he first prayed in Hagia Sophia and blessed the faithful there. He spent thirteen years in exile on the island of Proconnesus, writing against Iconoclasm, and died in 828. In 846 his relics were brought back to Hagia Sophia.