Feb. 25 – St. Tarasiy of Constantinople

Saint Tarasiy, Patriarch of Constantinople, came from a noble family. He was born and raised in Constantinople, where he received an excellent education. He quickly rose at the court of Emperor Constantine VI Porphyrogennetos (780–797) and his mother, the holy Empress Irene (797–802; commemorated August 7), attaining the rank of senator.

At that time, the Church was troubled by the iconoclastic disturbances. Saint Patriarch Pavel (780–784; commemorated August 30), who in his heart did not sympathize with iconoclasm but lacked strength of character to fight the heresy decisively, withdrew to a monastery and took the schema. When the holy Empress Irene came to him together with her son the emperor, Saint Pavel declared to them that the only worthy successor to him would be Saint Tarasiy (who was then a layman).

Tarasiy long refused, considering himself unworthy of so high an office, but eventually he submitted to the general desire, on the condition that an Ecumenical Council be convened to condemn the iconoclastic heresy. Passing through all the hierarchical degrees in a short time, Saint Tarasiy was elevated to the patriarchal throne in 784. In 787, under the presidency of Patriarch Tarasiy, the Seventh Ecumenical Council was held in the city of Nicaea, attended by 367 bishops. The Council affirmed the veneration of holy icons. Those bishops who repented of iconoclasm were received back into the Church.

Saint Tarasiy wisely governed the Church for 22 years. He led a strict ascetic life. He spent all his wealth on God-pleasing works, feeding and sheltering the elderly, the poor, orphans, and widows. On Holy Pascha he arranged a meal for them, at which he himself served. The holy Patriarch fearlessly rebuked Emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos when he slandered his wife, Empress Maria—the granddaughter of the righteous Philaret the Merciful (+792; commemorated December 1)—in order to confine Maria to a monastery and marry his own relative. Saint Tarasiy firmly refused to dissolve the emperor’s marriage, for which he fell into disgrace. Soon, however, Constantine was deposed by his mother, Empress Irene.

Saint Tarasiy reposed in 806. At the hour of his death, demons, recalling his life from youth, tried to attribute to the saint sins he had never committed. “I am innocent of what you say,” the saint answered. “You falsely slander me; you have no power over me.” Mourned by the Church, the saint was buried in the monastery he had founded on the Bosporus. Many miracles were worked at his tomb.