Our Father Among the Saints Nicephoros the Confessor, Archbishop of Constantinople

Commemorated June 2

St Nicephoros was born in Constantinople about the year 758 AD, of pious parents; his father Theodore endured exile and tribulation for the holy icons during the reign of Constantine Copronymus (741-775 AD). Nicephoros served in the imperial palace as a secretary. Later, he took up the monastic life, and struggled in asceticism not far from the imperial city; he also founded monasteries on the eastern shore of the Bosphorus, among them one dedicated to the Great Martyr Theodore.

After the repose of the holy Patriarch Tarasius, he was ordained Patriarch, on April 12, 806 AD, and in this high office led the Orthodox resistance to the Iconoclasts' war on piety, which was stirred up by Leo the Armenian. Leo drove Nicephoros from his throne on March 13, 815 AD, because Nicephoros championed the veneration of the icons. He exiled him from one place to another, and lastly to the Monastery of St Theodore, which Nicephoros himself had founded. It was here that, after glorifying God for nine years as Patriarch, and then for thirteen years as an exile, tormented and afflicted, he gave up his blameless soul in 828 AD at about the age of 70.

Dismissal Hymn (Fourth Tone)

The truth of things has revealed you to your flock as a rule of faith, an icon of meekness, and a teacher of temperance; for this cause, you have achieved the heights by humility, riches by poverty. O Father and Hierarch Nicephoros, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Kontakion (Fourth Tone)
On this day You have appeared

Since you have received today the crown of victory from the Heavens at God's hand, save all of them that faithfully now honour you as a teacher and a faithful hierarch, O Father Nicephoros.