Saint Methodios I of Constantinople

Methodius I of Constantinople or Methodios I (Greek: Μεθόδιος Α΄; 788/800 – 14 June 847) was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 11 March 843 to 14 June 847. He was born in Syracuse and died in Constantinople. His feast day is celebrated on June 14 in both the East and the West. Born to wealthy parents, Methodius was sent as a young man to Constantinople to continue his education and hopefully attain an appointment at court. But instead, he entered a monastery in Bithynia, eventually becoming abbot. Under Emperor Leo V the Armenian (813–820) the Iconoclast persecution broke out for the second time. In 815 Methodius went to Rome, perhaps as an envoy of the deposed Patriarch Nicephorus I of Constantinople. Upon his return in 821 he was arrested and exiled as an iconodule by the Iconoclast regime of Emperor Michael II. In 828 Michael II, not long before his death, mitigated the persecution and proclaimed a general amnesty. Methodius returned to Constantinople. Michael II was succeeded by his son, Theophilos, who followed his father's policies. Methodius was again arrested and imprisoned. He escaped and was hidden by friends. Seeing that Methodius was not to be overcome by punishment, the emperor tried to convince him by argument. The result of their discussion was that Methodius to some extent persuaded the emperor. At any rate towards the end of the reign, the persecution was mitigated. Theophilos died in 842. Soon after the death of the emperor, in 843, the influential minister Theoktistos convinced the Empress Mother Theodora, as regent for her two-year-old son Michael III, to permit the restoration of icons. He then deposed the iconoclast Patriarch John VII of Constantinople and secured the appointment of Methodius as his successor, bringing about the end of the iconoclast controversy.