Hierarch
Hierarch Saint Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium
ок. 340 — ок. 394/403
Saint Amphilochius of Iconium — friend of Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian, opponent of the Pneumatomachian heresy, participant in the Second Ecumenical Council.
Saint Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, was born around 340 in Caesarea of Cappadocia into a pious family related to St. Gregory the Theologian. He received an excellent legal education and practiced law in Constantinople, but grew weary of worldly renown and withdrew to solitude.
Around 373, at the urging of St. Basil the Great, he was consecrated Bishop of Iconium, capital of Lycaonia, becoming metropolitan of the region. He zealously opposed Arianism and especially the Pneumatomachian heresy, which denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit — at his request St. Basil composed his treatise "On the Holy Spirit." He took part in the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (381), which affirmed the Spirit's divinity.
He authored epistles, festal homilies, and polemics against Arians and Apollinarians. He reposed in old age, sometime between 394 and 403/404. His feast is kept November 23/December 6.