Hierarch
Hierarch, Confessor Methodius I of Constantinople
ок. 788/800 — 847
Hierarch Methodius I of Constantinople — a confessor for icon veneration who became patriarch after the Triumph of Orthodoxy in 843 and established the annual celebration of that event.
IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the category has been corrected from "righteous" to "hierarch, confessor."
Hierarch Methodius was born around 788/800 in Syracuse, Sicily. He endured imprisonment for defending icon veneration under the iconoclast emperors Leo V, Michael II, and Theophilus, earning him the title "Confessor."
After Empress Theodora ended the second period of Iconoclasm, Methodius was made Patriarch of Constantinople on March 4, 843. Together with Theodora, he convened a local council that confirmed the decrees of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, restored icon veneration, and established the annual celebration of this event — the Triumph of Orthodoxy (on the first Sunday of Great Lent). He composed the rite ("Synodikon") for this feast, still used today.
He died on June 14, 847. His feast is kept on June 14/27.