Hierarch Nicephorus I the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople

IMPORTANT DATE CORRECTION: none of the four previously listed dates (March 5, March 18, June 13, June 16) match any confirmed feast of this saint (the only near-match, "March 13," is correct, but its paired New Style value was wrongly given as "June 16" instead of "March 26"); replaced with the correct dates.

St. Nicephorus was born in Constantinople in the second half of the 8th century to Theodore and Eudokia; his father was exiled and died for defending icon veneration under Emperor Constantine V Copronymus. He received an excellent education, served as imperial secretary under Empress Irene, and represented the emperor at the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787), which restored icon veneration. He later withdrew to monastic life near the Bosphorus, founding a monastery.

He was elevated directly from layman to the Patriarchal throne on Easter Sunday, April 12, 806. As Patriarch he opposed the reinstatement of the deposed priest Joseph, coming into conflict with the rigorist "Studite" faction, but became the chief defender of Orthodoxy when Emperor Leo V the Armenian revived iconoclasm in 815; Nicephorus refused to compromise, was deposed, and exiled — first to a monastery at Chrysopolis, then to the island of Proconnesus in the Sea of Marmara, where he spent his final 13 years and died in 828.

He is also significant as a historian — author of the "Breviarium" (Short History), a chronicle of Byzantine history from 602–769, as well as apologetic and canonical works against iconoclasm (37 canons). His relics, found incorrupt in 846, were solemnly translated to Constantinople (Hagia Sophia, later the Church of the Holy Apostles) in 847; a hand-relic is preserved at Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos.

His feast is kept on June 2/15 (repose); also March 13/26 (translation of relics).