Память преподобного отца нашего Иоанна Психаита

Our holy father John, having loved Christ from a young age, became in character similar to the holy prophets Elijah and John. Leaving the world, he went to the Psychait Lavra 3460 and accepted monasticism there, after which he received from God the gift of casting out demons and healing diseases. He labored during the iconoclastic unrest, strengthening the Orthodox in the faith with his instructions. A denunciation was made against him to the emperor, a persecutor of icons, 3461, and the latter, calling him to himself, began to force him to abandon the worship of honest icons, join his heresy and sign the wicked scroll, but the monk did not agree to fulfill this and even denounced the emperor, calling him a heretic. For this he was exiled, where he suffered many disasters from the lawless and unjust iconoclasts and ended his life here. The Psychaite Lavra, according to the instructions of the Bollandists, was located in Constantinople. A particularly cruel persecutor of icons was the Greek emperor Constantine Copronymus (743–775), who intended to solemnly, in compliance with the law, destroy icon veneration as a heresy, for which purpose he convened a council in 754 and called it Ecumenical. Emperor Leo the Armenian (813–820) also cruelly persecuted icon veneration. He issued a decree by which he forbade monks to preach about icon veneration, and all monks had to sign this decree. Probably under the emperor, the persecutor of icons, here we mean the last emperor. You might be interested in: