Venerable Gregory Decapolites

Gregory was born at Irenopolis in the Isaurian Decapolis (hence his name) to Christian parents, Sergius and Martha. He fled the plan to marry him, became a monk in a desert monastery and later lived in a cave. Iconoclast emperors were then attacking the veneration of icons, and he travelled widely: to Ephesus, Constantinople, Thessalonica, Corinth, Rome and back, sheltering where he could and refusing to be supported by others' work.

His Life tells of healings on his journeys, including that of a Saracen soldier whose raised arm was stuck in the air. He settled at the monastery of St Menas in Thessalonica, in great poverty. Later he went to Constantinople to speak against the Iconoclasts, and fell ill. He died there in a hospice on 20 November, probably in 842.