Venerable Isaac the Founder of the Dalmatian Monastery at Constantinople

Isaac was a monk who left the desert of the East for Constantinople, where the Emperor Valens (364-378) supported the Arian teaching and closed churches of the Nicene faith. His Life tells that Isaac met Valens on his way to war with the Goths and told him to open the churches if he wanted to return in peace. The emperor had him thrown into a swamp, and then imprisoned.

Valens was killed at the battle of Adrianople in 378, as Isaac had warned. Under Theodosius the churches were returned. Two officials, Saturninus and Victor, built him a monastery, which came to be named after its second abbot Dalmatus. Isaac died there about 383 and is remembered as the founder of the Dalmatian monastery.