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Theophylact was from the East; his native city is unknown. In Constantinople
he became a close friend of Tarsius, who afterwards became Patriarch
of Constantinople (see Feb. 25).Theophylact was made Bishop of Nicomedia.
After the death of Saint Tarsius, his successor Nicephorus (see June
2) called together a number of Bishops to help him in fighting the
iconoclasm of Emperor Leo the Armenian, who reigned from 813-820. Among
them was Euthymius, Bishop of Sardis (celebrated Dec. 26), who had
attended the holy Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787 - he was exiled
three times for the sake of the holy icons, and for defying the Emperor
Theophilus' command to renounce the veneration of the icons, was scourged
from head to foot until his whole body was one great wound, from which
he died eight days later, about the year 830; Joseph of Thessalonica
(see July 14); Michael of Synnada (see May 23); Emilian, Bishop of
Cyzicus (see Aug. 8); and Saint Theophylact, who boldly rebuked Leo
to his face, telling him that because he despised the long-suffering of God, utter destruction was about to overtake
him, and there would be none to deliver him. For this, Theophylact
was exiled to the fortress of Strobilus in Karia of Asia Minor, where,
after 30 years of imprisonment and hardship, he gave up his holy soul
about the year 845. Leo the Armenian, according to the Saint's prophecy,
was slain in church on the eve of our Lord's Nativity, in 820.
Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Second Tone:
Thou didst live a life hidden in God, O all-famed Theophylact, but Christ revealed
thee unto all as a shining light set upon the spiritual lampstand, and He
placed in thy hands the tablets of the Spirit's doctrines; whereby do thou
enlighten us.
Source: http://www.goarch.org
Read lives of other Saints - https://www.truechristianity.info/en/saints_en.php
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