Житие во святых отца нашего Никифора Исповедника, патриарха Цареградского

The great champion of piety, Saint Nikephoros was born in Constantinople in 3575 from pious and God-fearing parents Theodore and Evdokia. His father was awarded the crown of confession, having suffered wounds and exile for the veneration of holy icons. During the reign of Copronymus 3576, he held the position of notary 3577 for secret royal affairs, and the evil king received a denunciation against him that he piously venerated holy icons, worshiped the image of the Savior, the Most Pure Mother of God and all the saints. The king immediately summoned Blessed Theodore to himself, interrogated him and, having become convinced of the justice of the denunciation, for a long time forced him to abandon icon veneration; When the servant of Christ did not obey the royal will, after severe beatings, he was exiled to imprisonment in the city of Moline, thrown here into a terrible prison, in which he suffered for his orthodoxy. After some time, he was again called to Constantinople and even more stubbornly forced to lean towards the heresy preached by the king; but he remained, like adamant 3578, firm in piety, agreeing to accept wounds and death rather than violate church laws and the tradition of the holy fathers. By order of the lawless king, he was again subjected to various cruel tortures, and again sent into exile; Having spent six years in Nicaea 3579 as a prisoner and sufferer, he departed to the Lord into the eternal freedom of a blessed life. His wife, honest Evdokia, was a participant in all the troubles and evils of her husband, followed him into exile, suffered in chains, not being separated from him either in body or spirit. After the death of her husband, she returned to Constantinople and spent her days pleasingly to God, as befits a Christian widow. During this time, her son Nikephoros, after studying science, received his father's position at the royal court. Then blessed Evdokia was honored to see her son, first in the angelic form, and then in the priestly rank; then, thanking God, she retired to a nunnery, took monastic vows, and after godly deeds, reposed in the Lord in venerable old age. Blessed Nikephoros, about whom our word is, was a holy branch from the holy root: raised from his mother’s breasts in piety, raised in good morals and instructed in a godly life, he spent the summers of his youth chastely, in great abstinence, and was filled with external and internal wisdom - worldly and spiritual: he studied to perfection not only the books of the Hellenic lovers of wisdom, but also the Divine Scriptures; an eloquent speaker, adorned with all sorts of virtues, distinguished by reason and good morals, he was loved and revered by everyone. Having matured, Nikephoros, during the reign of Leo, son of Copronimov 3580, was awarded the rank of royal adviser and observed orthodoxy among the evil believers, worshiping holy icons and others, leading to the same with God-wise admonitions. When, after the death of Leo, during the reign of his son Constantine and the latter’s mother Irina 3581, the Seventh Ecumenical Council was convened in Nicaea against the iconoclastic heresy 3582, then Blessed Nikephoros, while still a layman, provided significant assistance to the holy fathers who sat at the council, as a wise man and very knowledgeable in the Divine Scripture; as a man of outstanding nobility, he was entrusted with speaking at the council on behalf of the king. Thus, even before his episcopate, he showed himself to be a confessor and teacher of Orthodoxy, shaming heretics in resolving controversial issues, for which the holy fathers of the council pleased and blessed him. After that council, Nikifor remained for several years in the secular honorary rank of royal adviser. Then, convinced that work for the vain and rebellious world does not bring benefit to the soul - he saw that discord was beginning in the palace between his son and mother - Nicephorus, disdaining his vain glory, left his high rank, left the city and settled in one distant and silent place near the Thracian Bosphorus 3583, there he began to work in solitude for God alone, striving in prayer and fasting for his salvation. After some time, he built a church, gathered monks, forming a monastery; While not yet wearing the monastic rank, he was already working as a monk, testing himself to see whether he could endure the monastic feat, full of the sorrows of life. And he lived like this for many years until almost half of the reign of Nicephorus 3584. After the departure to the Lord of the Most Holy Patriarch of Constantinople Tarasius, blessed Nikephoros, a layman in appearance and a perfect monk in life, was elected to the patriarchate and at that time for the first time accepted the rank of monk, and then was first ordained a presbyter, and then, against his desire and according to the conviction of King Nikephoros, on the brightest day of Holy Easter he was enthroned episcopal. And he adorned the Holy Church with his teaching word and virtuous life, correcting the corrupt, establishing the right and driving away heretics like wolves from the verbal herd. In those years, there was a war between the Greeks and the Bulgarians, and Tsar Nicephorus, having gone to war, was killed. After him, his son Stavriky reigned, but not for long, only two months, then he died. After Stavrikiy, the pious husband Michael, nicknamed Rangav, who had previously held the rank of cyropalate 3585, took over the kingdom. Two years later he was expelled by Leo the Armenian 3586, who stole the scepter of the Greek kingdom. His Holiness Nicephorus sent to this predator, before his crowning, bishops with a confession of the Orthodox faith, asking the new king to sign with his own hand, according to the custom of previous pious kings, a promise to maintain unchanged the dogmas of the holy faith set out in that confession. The crafty and hypocritical king verbally showed himself to be zealous for piety and promised to sign the confession, but not before the wedding: “When,” he said, “the royal crown is placed on me, then I will sign.” And they believed this fox. Instead of confessing the pious faith, the flatterer signed the book secretly brought to him by the heretics, obeying more like predatory wolves than true shepherds. Then, with great pomp and royal glory, he entered the cathedral St. Sophia Church; when the usual rite of the royal wedding was performed, and the most holy patriarch laid a crown on a head unworthy of him, God revealed to the most holy patriarch what kind of king this king would be: for the laid royal crown in the hands of the patriarch turned into a crown of thorns and with its sharp points painfully pricked the hands of the bishop, who knew that this served as a sign of the impending persecution and torment from that king, about which with spiritual contrition and notified his clergy. The next day after the wedding, Saint Nicephorus again asked the king to fulfill his promise and sign a confession of orthodoxy, following the example of the previous faithful kings, but Leo had already embarked on the path of lies and, desecrating the royal purple, resolutely refused to fulfill the saint’s proposal. Some time passed, and the king began to clearly blaspheme the holy icons, arming himself not against the enemies who were attacking Greece from everywhere and devastating it, but against the icons of Christ, the Most Pure Mother of God and all the saints, and against those who worship them. Gathering to himself in Constantinople all the bishops and presbyters, who, according to the rules, were excommunicated from service at the Divine altar for various faults, he gave them places in the royal chambers, and, feeding them like fattened animals, he gained through this the favor of those whose name is the womb 3587; the tsar often talked with them, learning from the iconoclastic heresy, and advised on how to restore the blasphemous dogma against icons, rejected by the Seventh Ecumenical Council. In order to more easily persuade them to agree with himself, he promised them not only to return their previous titles, which they had been deprived of, but also to increase their honors. Proud of the king's mercy, they began to diligently help him, disturbing the faithful everywhere with persecution. In the name of the king, they collected countless books from all places and looked at them together; and if they found any heretical book written against icons, they accepted it willingly, as an honest Gospel, and kept it with them, and if they found a book written against the iconoclastic heresy, they immediately threw it into the fire like an abomination and burned it. Then the king ordered all the Greek bishops to gather in Constantinople for a council. The bishops each set off from their respective places and, having arrived in the city, appeared as usual to His Holiness Patriarch Nicephorus. The king gave orders to immediately capture such bishops and throw them into prison; Those of them who, under the fear of incurring his formidable wrath and persecution, were inclined to heretical agreement with him, he freed from bonds and prisons and awarded honors, and those who remained unshakably in the orthodoxy, he dishonestly oppressed with bonds, tormented with hunger and thirst. Very many, under the influence of fear, joined in agreement with the king, and the heretical host acquired considerable strength. The false teachers began boldly and unrestrainedly to spread their blasphemous teachings throughout all the churches, persuading the people not to venerate the holy icons, while they expelled the true teachers of Orthodoxy from the churches, caused them harm, and even tried to force the most holy patriarch, the God-voiced trumpet, into silence and to deny him entry into the cathedral church. The servant of God, Saint Nicephorus, hearing and seeing everything that was happening in the Church, constantly prayed to God with tears that He would preserve His Church immaculate and that He would keep His flock unharmed from heretics. Calling many faithful believers to him, he exhorted them, asked and instructed them: not to unite with heretics, to avoid leaven (Matthew 16:6; Luke 12:1-9). and their teachings are like the bite of a viper, not to be afraid of the fierce times and threats of a tormentor who kills the body and not the soul (Luke 12:4-10). “If,” he taught, “all the people follow the king into heresy, and only a few remain faithful to the right faith, then let those who remain not be embarrassed by their small numbers, for the Lord does not favor the multitude: He looks upon one who fears and trembles at His words more than upon the many who despise the fear of God, according to His word in the Gospel: “Fear not, little flock!” For it has been your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). Then His Holiness the Patriarch called to himself the most famous bishops: Emilian of Cyzicus, Euthymius of Sardis, Joseph of Thessalonites, Eudoxius of Ammore, Michael of Sinada, Theophylact of Nicomedia, Peter of Nicaea and many other holy fathers, among whom were Theodore the Studite 3588, Nikita, Abbot of Midice, and other faithful men. After a long conversation with them about the veneration of holy icons, conducted on the basis of Divine Scripture and the tradition of the holy fathers, he went in the evening to the cathedral church of St. Sophia and began all-night singing, praying to God to send peace to the Church and to deliver it from heresy. The king, having learned about this, was embarrassed and afraid that the patriarch would raise a rebellion against him among the people, who had gathered in large numbers in the church for all-night singing: he knew that the people loved the patriarch, and that everyone would willingly obey him even to the point of being ready to die for him. And at dawn the king sends to the church to the patriarch to say: - Why are you confusing the people and building feuds against the king, who desires general peace and unanimity? Why do you incite insane people to revolt, and want to fill the reigning city with the blood of internecine warfare? His Holiness the Patriarch answered the king’s messengers: “We don’t even think about anything like what you say; It never even crossed our minds what the king who sent you thinks about us. We have gathered in the house of God not for any advice hostile to the king, but to glorify God, to pray and supplicate, that God may be merciful and protect His Church, the king and all the people with peace, that he may abolish heretical vacillations, and establish everyone in a like-minded faith. - No, it’s not as you say: you say one thing with your lips, and think another in your heart, and you want to bring what you think into reality. And since you are clearly planning to rebel against the king, then you and your like-minded people, when the day comes, go to the royal chamber, and there answer the king himself to the question we have proposed, so that the king can learn more thoroughly about your intentions. So saying, the messengers left. All those who were in the church, seeing and hearing this, understood what would happen next - what persecution and evil the servant of God and the entire Church of Christ would have to endure, and they began to pray even more fervently, with many tears and sighs. At the end of the all-night vigil, His Holiness Nicephorus went out into the middle of the church and taught publicly: - O cathedral, gathered by the Spirit of God! Who expected that the Holy Church would be subjected to such troubles as we now see!? Instead of joy, she experiences sadness and moves from silence to confusion. She who feeds the verbal flock in good pasture suffers theft from the corrupt, and the Mother, who exhorts all her children to be of the same mind, is torn to pieces! That Church, which Christ purchased with His honest blood, which He preserved pure from all vice (Eph. 5:27), protected with Apostles, prophets, martyrs and saints of all ranks and showed as a paradise decorated and fenced with walls, what troubles it now suffers from people who in appearance are similar to us, but in fact are far from us, have become our enemies and have reached such an extent in their malice, that, together with the image, they dishonor the one who is depicted on it, and together with the face of Christ written on the board, they reject Christ Himself: for both the honor and the dishonor done to the image refer to the one who is depicted on the icon. Now the enemies of truth are destroying the ancient church tradition about the veneration of holy icons and legitimizing a new one, the opposite of the old one, invented by heretics, and thereby confusing the souls of the faithful. Brothers and children! I pray you, let us not be fearful and cowardly, let their threats not terrify our hearts; Let's wait for God's help. Those who are hostile to us and seek to destroy the truth in the Church are like those swimming against the rapids of the river: they will ultimately find themselves in the depths from exhaustion, for the truth is invincible, and crowns those who worship it, defeating those who fight against it. He who holds on to it will defeat the enemy unarmed; whoever has lost it will be easily defeated, even if he were a warrior armed for battle. The witnesses of our words are those about whom we speak: they have no knowledge of the truth, even the youths who teach the primer laugh at them, for they contradict themselves in their vain wisdom, as if eating, like those who are possessed, their flesh. Do you understand what I say, brethren? Everyone present in the church exclaimed: “We know and are convinced, Most Holy Father, that our Orthodox faith is true, and for it we are all ready to die.” “It is fitting for us, brethren, to remain agreeable and unanimous in the confession of the Orthodox faith, so that our opponents cannot tear a single one away from us for their own wickedness: for by the grace of Christ we are greater than them.” People, calling out with a loud voice, again made a firm promise to stand for the Church even to death. After a long conversation with the people in the church, His Holiness the Patriarch, at the onset of day, placed the omophorion on his shoulders and, with the bishops, abbots and all the clergy who were with him, went to the royal chambers. A lot of people also followed them. When the patriarch and the Orthodox reached the palace gates, everyone was held back, only the high priest was allowed through. Usually, Greek kings accepted the blessing from the patriarch and mutually kissed their right hand as a sign of spiritual love. The evil Leo the Armenian did not show the usual respectful greeting to the entering patriarch, did not ask for his blessing, did not even invite him to sit down, but, looking at him menacingly, began to speak with anger: - What kind of schism has arisen among you, and about the royal honor and rebellion? Without our knowledge, are you convening councils, confusing the people and inciting them to unrest and rebellion? To convene councils without our permission and advice and spread among the people that we adhere to evil faith, and not to church teaching, is not this obvious enmity and the beginning of discord? If we wanted to eradicate the right, which you call ancient, statutes, then it would be timely to blaspheme, humiliate and accuse us of evil heresy; Now, when, out of love for orthodoxy, we want to destroy discord and disagreement and bring everyone to the unity of faith, why do you blaspheme us, quarrel with us and say that we are offending the Church, while we care about her peace and silence? Don’t you know that many people in confusion are torn away from the Church because icons are being painted and displayed; those who reject them bring books and show in them the words of Divine Scripture, with which it is forbidden to make icons and venerate them? And if there are no answers to the questions they raise, then what will prevent division in faith, which will never come to unity? Therefore, for the sake of those who are worried in mind and confused by bewilderment, it is appropriate for you to immediately have a debate with these people who are rejecting (from the Church) because of icons. Our power desires and commands that either you refute and bring them into your wisdom, or, defeated in the dispute, submit to them yourself; then we, having seen where the truth is, will join the better side and establish it with our royal power, so that in this way it can stand unshakably. His Holiness Nicephorus answered the king: - No, I pray Your Majesty, do not consider us guilty of schisms and rebellions. We did not even use prayer as a weapon against your royal power, for from Divine Scripture we learned to pray for the king, and not to wish him harm (1 Tim. 2:2). We also do not turn into heretical reasoning and destruction of sound words and teachings of the faith, for those who dare to do such things are commanded by the teacher of truth, Saint John the Theologian, not to be accepted into the house or welcomed (2 John 1:10). It is reliably known not only to us, but also to everyone who has the slightest sense, that peace and silence are a very good thing: and if anyone is guilty of violating the peace, everyone should rightly call him a villain. The good king is the one who knows how to turn wars into peace and rebellions into silence; You and your like-minded people decided to bring war to the Church, which is in the world, and, abandoning the holy laws by which the cross of Christ is glorified and piety illuminates the universe with light, proposed to introduce the darkened teaching of destructive people, which none of the Churches accepts: for neither Jerusalem, nor Rome, nor Alexandria, nor Antioch rejects the icons of Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos, and the Apostles and other saints of God, but, on the contrary, they are piously revered according to the tradition of the holy fathers. Which of the Ecumenical Councils, which approved the dogmas of the Orthodox faith by the Holy Spirit, approved and accepted iconoclastic wisdom? And you, Tsar, therefore, do not restore the rejected heresy and do not introduce into the Holy Church already condemned wisdom. We will not have a debate with heretics, for what is the need to argue about something that has already been collectively refuted, rejected and anathematized by the holy fathers? The Tsar objected to this to His Holiness the Patriarch: “Didn’t God say to Moses: “You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth; do not worship them or serve them” (Ex. 20:4–5). On what reasonable basis do you paint icons, and do you give the honor that is due to God Himself to the images and icons you have created? What the idolaters did in the old days, you are doing now, neglecting the commandment of God given to Moses, and through him to all people, not only to the ancients of the Old Testament, but also to us new-than-graceful, faithful Christians. His Holiness Nicephorus answered: – Don’t you know why the Israelites, upon their exodus from Egypt, were given the commandment by God not to create idols or any likeness? Because life in Egypt accustomed the Israelites to the wickedness and idolatrous polytheism of the Egyptians, who idolized either certain people who had long since died, or birds of the air, beasts of the earth, reptiles, fish and various monsters, made their likeness and worshiped them as the true God. In order to eradicate idolatry among the Israelites, which they learned in Egypt, God gave them the commandment not to create idols or any likeness, but did not forbid them to create honest images and icons that serve not to humiliate, but to increase God’s worship. For was it not by the command of the same God that Moses created the tabernacle and forged the Ark of the Covenant on all sides with gold, in which the tablets, Aaron’s rod and manna were kept? (1 Kings 7 et seq.) Didn’t God command to make golden Cherubim and place them over the ark in the tabernacle, and weren’t the likenesses of the Cherubim’s faces woven along the curtains of the tabernacle? And wasn’t all this revered by the Israelis as honest and Divine, and before all this, didn’t the Israelis worship God and make sacrifices? When they bowed down and made sacrifices before the tabernacle, the ark, and the Cherubim, they did not worship the tabernacle, nor the ark, nor the Cherubim, but they worshiped and made sacrifices, but to God himself, who lives in heaven; the tabernacle and the ark with what was in it, and the likeness of the Cherubim, were revered honestly, as Divine objects, and not deified, as we do now, worshiping holy icons, lighting candles in front of them and arranging lamps. We bow not to the board and not to the paints, but to the very face of Christ the incarnate God, depicted on the icon, and we do not write the Divinity of Christ on the icon - for It, as invisible and incomprehensible, cannot be depicted - but we outline the humanity of Christ, once seen with human eyes and touched by hands, and we do not call the icon of Christ God, but an image of the face of Christ, God. We bow to Christ God before His holy icon as God, and we honor the icon of Christ as a Divine object, but we do not adore it. The same should be said about the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, and about other saints in whom God Himself, wondrous in His saints, is revered. But having begun about the Old Testament, we have not finished yet. Didn't God command Moses to lift up a copper serpent in the desert so that people who had been bitten by snakes would come and look at it? And wasn’t that copper serpent a miraculous image that miraculously healed those who were bitten by living snakes? For that serpent had healing power not in itself, but from Him Whom it represented. He prefigured Christ our Savior, who was to ascend onto the tree of the cross, according to the word later spoken by Christ Himself in the Gospel: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14) And is it surprising that even now holy icons are miraculous, if even in the Old Testament miracles were performed from the copper serpent? But just as this serpent worked miracles not on its own, but by the power of Him Whom it represented: so holy icons are miraculous by the power of the face depicted on them. Let us also remember the temple of Solomon: did God count it as a sin to Solomon that in the created church he created large golden Cherubim other than those made by Moses, and depicted their likeness on the walls, pillars and doors, and created a copper sea on twelve sculptured oxen? Not only did God not count this as a sin to Solomon, but he even showed that this deed was pleasing to Him when He Himself visited that church and everything in it, for it is written: “A cloud filled the house of the Lord; and the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the church” (1 Kings 8:11). So, the commandment of the law of God that you mentioned earlier, O king, about the non-creation of all likenesses, given to Moses, destroys only pagan idolatry, and not our Christian piety - the veneration of holy icons. If God, with this initial commandment of His, also completely forbade all scripture and the likeness of honest persons, as He forbade images of the wicked, then He would contradict Himself, then commanding Moses, as was said, to create a tabernacle and its accessories, and even to lift up a serpent bound from copper. But it is not appropriate to say this: God does not contradict Himself, and just as He is faithful in all His words, so is holy in all His deeds. He commanded in his word not to create pagan idols; to depict holy icons for church decoration and the glory of God - he taught this by deed. He himself instructed Moses to do this, commanding him to depict the likeness of Cherubic faces. So and much more the tsar and the patriarch said about the holy icons, first in private, then the bishops and clergy standing behind the doors were allowed inside. Many senators also entered; The king also summoned armed warriors with drawn swords there to intimidate those who did not want to agree with him. What happened there, what reasoning, and what greatness of soul and courage the fearless hearts revealed, is written about in the life of St. Theodore the Studite, November 11, and in the life of St. Nikita the Confessor, on the 3rd day of April. It all ended with the anger and rage of the king and the expulsion with dishonor from the royal chamber of the patriarch and his entire squad. The bishops who were under His Holiness Nicephorus were immediately sent to be imprisoned in various places, but the patriarch was left in his place for the time being, partly because they did not dare to do him complete harm, partly out of fear that the people would rise up in rebellion and rebellion because of him. The clergy and many of the monastic order were tortured in prisons and prisons with wounds and starved and thirsty, forcing them to heresy. His Holiness the Patriarch, seeing that the king had completely fallen away from orthodoxy, and the Church was very confused, and the spiritual order was being persecuted and suffering, wrote to the queen, exhorting her to give the king the necessary advice to stop such persecution, and also wrote to the mayor Eutychian, who was of the same mind with the king and his first adviser. Moved by apostolic zeal and prophetic spirit, he added the following stern word to his exhortations: – If you do not stop turning away from the straight paths of the Lord, the punishing hand of the Lord will soon be on you. However, the holy patriarch not only could not convince the stubborn, but even incited them to greater rage. The tsar sent one patrician Thomas to take away from the patriarch the management of the cathedral church of St. Sophia and not allow the patriarch to serve in it and speak a lesson to the people, so that the patriarch in his house was as if in captivity, not leaving anywhere. From sadness and from many exploits, he became physically exhausted, fell into illness and lay on his sick bed, awaiting his death; The heretical gathering did not cease to worry and wanted to debate with him. The queen's brother, named Theophanes, with the rank of Spafari 3589, was sent from the king and from like-minded people to the most holy patriarch to bring him for a debate with them. The saint answered the messenger: – A shepherd deprived of sheep does not go out into battle against wolves, and one who seeks health does not fight with animals. Why do you, having taken away from me the sheep entrusted to me by Christ, call me to a debate so that I alone fight the heretics as with wolves? If you wish this, then return my sheep to me, release the priests and clergy from their bonds and prisons, and let everyone take his place, may the bishops be returned from exile and may they take their thrones again, and may the heretical false bishops who are now in their places, incorrectly installed, be deposed, and may all the faithful, persecuted and suffering, receive rest (from persecution) and my original freedom: then, if God wills and if I recover, we will be ready to collectively denounce the accepted disastrous malice of the heretics. The council and conversation about faith should take place in the great conciliar Church, where Christ God Himself is present in the most pure Mysteries, and not in the royal chambers, for church matters should be discussed in the Church, and civil affairs should be arranged in the chambers. With this answer, Theophanes returned to those who had sent him. They became even more embittered against the saint, and again sent several of their congregation to him to summon him to trial. The Holy Patriarch objected to them: – Who is calling me to court? Any of the patriarchs - Roman, Alexandrian, Antioch or Jerusalem? If they are not in your cathedral, then to whom should I go? Or are you calling me, the patriarch? Will you, the lawless, judge me, the lawful shepherd? I will not go to my obvious enemies, who, like fierce beasts, are preparing to tear me to pieces without guilt on my part. And how can I go sick when I can’t even get up from my bed? Will you take me from the bed and carry me? And these messengers returned without success. Then the heretical gathering, filled with great malice, illegally defrocked the innocent, holy and godly man, Patriarch Nicephorus, and anathematized him, being himself eminently worthy of eruption and damnation; They anathematized not only Saint Nicephorus, but also his predecessors, the most holy patriarchs of the faithful and those who departed to the Lord after their blessed death, Tarasius and Germanus. This is how the evil heretical council ended. Late in the evening, the king sent soldiers to take Nikephoros from the patriarchal house and lead him to prison. Fierce warriors approached the house with weapons and drekolia; making noise and rebellion, slandering His Holiness Nicephorus and the former patriarchs Germanus and Tarasius. Hearing this, the patriarch shed tears and thanked God that he was worthy of such slander for Orthodoxy. The aforementioned patrician Thomas, to whom the king entrusted the cathedral church of St. Sophia, being at the same time the guardian of the patriarchal house, ordered the soldiers to stop the noise, firmly locked the entrance doors of the patriarchal house, went to the king and said to him: - Sovereign! There is no need for many soldiers, otherwise the people, hearing the noise, will gather and do some evil; They sent only two husbands and several servants with them to carry the patriarch out in their arms, for he was very sick and could not walk on his own. The king did so - he ordered the soldiers to move away from the patriarchal court, and an hour later he sent two men from his palace; and Saint Nicephorus was taken out, or rather taken out of his house. Wanting to pray in his great patronal church of St. Sophia, he entered it, supported by two men, ordered to light candles and burn incense, prostrated himself on the ground in a cross shape and prayed for a long time, sobbing and watering the ground with tears. Then he got up from the ground; Seeing some Orthodox Christians who also came to the church and weeping for the Patriarch, he blessed them and said goodbye to them for the last time with the words: “Children, I found you to be devout Christians and I leave you as devout Christians.” And he left the church. The soldiers put him on a chariot, and at midnight, when everyone was asleep, they took him to the seashore. Here they put him in a boat and transported him to Chrysopolis 3590, to a certain place called Volue 3591, where there was a monastery. Thus, the great saint of God, His Holiness Patriarch Nicephorus, was innocently expelled from his throne after nine years of ruling the Church of Christ. After a short time, he was sent further to the island of Prokonnis 3592, to the monastery of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore. When, heading to this island, they took him on a ship past the country where the Monk Theophan, the abbot of the great village, was located, both holy men saw with perspicacious eyes and greeted each other. The Monk Theophan, being in his cell, ordered his disciple to put burning coals into the censer, lit candles, laid incense on the coals and bowed to the ground, talking as if with a certain person walking past. The student asked him: - Father! What are you doing? Whom did you bow to and with whom are you talking? – His Holiness Patriarch Nicephorus, unjustly expelled for his orthodoxy, goes into captivity on a ship past this country; For this purpose, we lit candles and incense in order to give the patriarch due honor. At the same time, His Holiness Patriarch Nicephorus, being on the ship, suddenly knelt down, mutually bowed to the holy elder and, stretching out his hands in the air, gave a blessing. One of those who were with the saint on the ship asked him: “Whom do you bless, Holy Father, and before whom do you kneel?” “Theophan the Confessor, abbot of the great village, greeted us and honored us with lighted candles and incense, but I, for my part, bowed to him, for he too will suffer in a short time, like us. Which soon came true. Having reached the place of exile assigned to him, Saint Nikephoros of Christ spent thirteen years there in cramped conditions and frequent illnesses, enduring scarcity of necessities, and passed on to eternal rest with the Lord. Resigned, with a joyful soul he uttered the words of David: “Blessed is the Lord, who did not give us as prey to their teeth! Our soul is delivered like a bird from the snare of those who catch it: the net is broken, and we are delivered” (Ps. 123:6-7). Having said this, he gave his soul into the hands of his Lord, and the faithful wept for him, and the heretics rejoiced. His honorable body was buried in the church of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore. Then, when the heresiarchs died, the iconoclastic torment ceased and silence and orthodoxy shone again, the honest relics of St. Nicephorus were transferred on March 13, 846 to Constantinople, during the reign of Michael, son of Theophilus, and his mother Theodora, and were honorably placed in the cathedral church of St. Sophia, to the glory of Christ our God, glorified by the Father and the Holy Spirit forever, amen. A crown of victory from heaven, O glorious Nikephoros, like a welcome from God, save by faith those who honor you, as the priest of Christ and teacher. Constantinople or Constantinople is the capital of the Byzantine, now Turkish, empire; founded by Emperor Constantine the Great in the 4th century. according to R.H. on the site of the former city of Byzantium. Constantine V Copronymus reigned from 741 to 775. Notary actually means a cursive writer. In the first centuries AD, this was the name given to the imperial secretaries who sealed the acts. Under Constantine the Great, a secret office of notaries was established, who kept minutes of the most important state meetings. The secretaries of the Patriarch of Constantinople were also called notaries. Adamant translated from Greek. language means diamond - a stone distinguished by its hardness. Nicaea at the time being described was a significant city in the Bithynia coastal region, now it is a poor village called Isnik. It is remarkable in the history of the Christian Church because the first Ecumenical Council was held here (in 325). Leo IV of the Khazar reigned from 776 to 780. During the early childhood of her son, Emperor Constantine (Porphyrogenitus), the kingdom was initially ruled by Irina. The Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787, which took place in Nicaea, condemned iconoclasm and restored icon veneration. The Bosphorus or the Strait of Constantinople, connecting the Black Sea with the Sea of ​​Marmara, is called the Thratian strait, in contrast to many straits that have also received the same name. Nikephoros reigned from 802 to 811. Michael 1 – from 811 to 813. Kiropalat – head of the palace guard. Leo the Armenian reigned from 813 to 820. “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in shame; they mind earthly things” (Phil. 3:19). Rev. Theodore the Studite, at a young age, embarked on the path of monastic life, initially asceticizing under the leadership of his uncle, the Venerable Plato (who was commemorated on April 5, the veneration of icons at the VII Ecumenical Council. Subsequently, the Venerable Theodore became the rector of the Studite Monastery in Constantinople; this monastery, under his leadership, reached unprecedented heights. The Venerable Theodore was twice expelled from Constantinople for denouncing Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who illegally divorced his wife Mary and increased the severity of his crime by illegally marrying Theodota. Upon his return to the Studian monastery from exile, when the persecution of holy icons broke out, St. Theodore, not paying attention to the threats of the iconoclasts, openly performed religious processions with the honest monks. The Armenian sent him to captivity, where he was kept in damp and stuffy dungeons, repeatedly subjected to severe beatings. Under Michael the Tongue-tied, St. Theodore was returned from captivity, but did not live long, exhausted by imprisonment. He died at the age of 67 in 826, on November 11, when his memory is celebrated. At the moment of the death of Saint Theodore, Rev. Hilarion of Dalmatia saw a host of Angels descending from heaven and heard a voice: “Behold, the soul of Theodore, abbot of Studium, the mountain rises in triumph and is met by heavenly powers.” St. Theodore left behind numerous works in the form of words, catechumens, letters, canons, stichera, epigrams and biographies. The most complete presentation of the works of Rev. Theodore in Russian was undertaken by the editors of the magazine “Christian Reading” as a supplement to this magazine for 1907 and 1908. Chrysopolis - in Bithynia near Byzantium, now Scutari. According to the Greek original, to the monastery of the Good, i.e. Christ, but the Latin copyist of the translation instead of Vop (Good) put - ox, hence it appeared in the Slavic translation - Voluya. Prokonnis is an island on the Sea of ​​Marmara; now Marmara. You might be interested in: