TARASIUS was born about the middle of the eighth century. His parents
were both of patrician families. His father, George, was a judge in
great esteem for his well-known justice, and his mother, Eucratia, no
less celebrated for her piety. She brought him up in the practice of the
most eminent virtues. Above all things, she recommended to him to keep
no company but that of the most virtuous. The young man, by his talents
and virtue, gained the esteem of all, and was raised to the greatest
honors of the empire, being made consul, and afterwards first secretary
of state to the emperor Constantine and the empress Irene, his mother.
In the midst of the court, and in its highest honors, surrounded by all
that could flatter pride, or gratify sensuality, he led a life like that
of a religious man.
Leo, the Isaurian, his son Constantine Copronymus, and his grandson Leo,
surnamed Chazarus, three successive emperors, had established, with all
their power, the heresy of the Iconoclasts, or image-breakers, in the
{464} East. The empress Irene, wife to the last, was always privately a
Catholic, though an artful, ambitious woman. Her husband dying miserably
in 780, after a five years' reign, and having left his son Constantine,
but ten years old, under her guardianship, she so managed the nobility
in her favor as to get the regency and whole government of the state
into her hands, and put a stop to the persecution of the Catholics.
Paul, patriarch of Constantinople, the third of that name, had been
raised to that dignity by the late emperor. Though, contrary to the
dictates of his own conscience, he had conformed in some respects to the
then reigning heresy, he had however several good qualities; and was not
only singularly beloved by the people for his charity to the poor, but
highly esteemed by the empress and the whole court for his great
prudence. Finding himself indisposed, and being touched with remorse for
his condescension to the Iconoclasts in the former reign, without
communicating his design to any one, he quitted the patriarchal see, and
put on a religious habit in the monastery of Florus, in Constantinople.
The empress was no sooner informed of it, but taking with her the young
emperor, went to the monastery to dissuade a person so useful to her
from persisting in such a resolution, but all in vain, for the patriarch
assured them with tears, and bitter lamentations, that, in order to
repair the scandal he had given, he had taken an unalterable resolution
to end his days in that monastery; so desired them to provide the church
of Constantinople with a worthy pastor in his room. Being asked whom he
thought equal to the charge, he immediately named Tarasius, and dying
soon after this declaration, Tarasius was accordingly chosen patriarch
by the unanimous consent of the court, clergy, and people. Tarasius
finding it in vain to oppose his election, declared, however, that he
thought he could not in conscience accept of the government of a see
which had been cut off from the Catholic communion, but upon condition
that a general council should be called to compose the disputes which
divided the church at that time, in relation to holy images. This being
agreed to, he was solemnly declared patriarch, and consecrated soon
after, on Christmas-day. He was no sooner installed, but he sent his
synodal letters to pope Adrian, to whom the empress also wrote in her
own and her son's name on the subject of a general council; begging that
he would either come in person, or at least send some venerable and
learned men as his legates to Constantinople. Tarasius wrote likewise a
letter to the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, wherein
he desires them to send their respective legates to the intended
council. His letter to the pope was to the same effect. The pope sent
his legates, as desired, and wrote by them to the emperor, the empress,
and the patriarch; applauded their zeal, showing at large the impiety of
the Iconoclast heresy, insisting that the false council of the
Iconoclasts, held under Copronymus for the establishment of Iconoclasm,
should be first condemned in presence of his legates, and conjuring them
before God to re-establish holy images at Constantinople, and in all
Greece, on the footing they were before. He recommends to the emperor
and empress his two legates to the council, who were Peter, archpriest
of the Roman church, and Peter, priest and abbot of St. Sabas, in Rome.
The eastern patriarchs being under the Saracen yoke, could not come for
fear of giving offence to their jealous masters, who prohibited, under
the strictest penalties, all commerce with the empire. However, with
much difficulty and through many dangers, they sent their deputies.
The legates of the pope and the oriental patriarchs being arrived, as
also the bishops under their jurisdiction, the council was opened on the
1st of August, in the church of the apostles at Constantinople, in 786.
But the assembly being disturbed by the violences of the Iconoclasts,
and desired {465} by the empress to break up and withdraw for the
present, the council met again the year following in the church of St.
Sophia, at Nice. The two legates from the pope are named first in the
Acts, St. Tarasms next, and after him the legates of the Oriental
patriarchs, namely, John, priest and monk, for the patriarchs of Antioch
and Jerusalem; and Thomas, priest and monk, for the patriarch of
Alexandria. The council consisted of three hundred and fifty bishops,
besides many abbots and other holy priests and confessors,[1] who having
declared the sense of the present church, in relation to the matter in
debate, which was found to be the allowing to holy pictures and images a
relative honor, the council was closed with the usual acclamations and
prayers for the prosperity of the emperor and empress. After which,
synodal letters were sent to all the churches, and in particular to the
pope, who approved the council.
The good patriarch, pursuant to the decrees of the synod, restored holy
images throughout the extent of his jurisdiction. He also labored
zealously to abolish simony, and wrote a letter upon that subject to
pope Adrian, to which, by saying it was the glory of the Roman church to
preserve the purity of the priesthood, he intimated that that church was
free from this reproach. The life of this holy patriarch was a model of
perfection to his clergy and people. His table had nothing of the
superfluity, nor his palace any thing of the magnificence, of several of
his predecessors. He allowed himself very little time for sleep, being
always up the first and last in his family. Reading and prayer filled
all his leisure hours. It was his pleasure, in imitation of our blessed
Redeemer, to serve others instead of being served by them;{466} on which
account he would scarce permit his own servants to do any thing for him.
Loving humility in himself, he sought sweetly to induce all others to
the love of that virtue. He banished the use of gold and scarlet from
among the clergy, and labored to extirpate all the irregularities among
the people. His charity and love for the poor seemed to surpass his
other virtues. He often took the dishes of meat from his table to
distribute among them with his own hands: and he assigned them a large
fixed revenue. And that none might be overlooked, he visited all the
houses and hospitals in Constantinople. In Lent, especially, his bounty
to them was incredible. His discourses were powerful exhortations to the
universal mortification of the senses, and he was particularly severe
against all theatrical entertainments. Some time after, the emperor
became enamored of Theodota, a maid of honor to his wife, the empress
Mary, whom he had always hated; and forgetting what he owed to God, he
was resolved to divorce her in 795, after seven years' cohabitation. He
used all his efforts to gain the patriarch, and sent a principal officer
to him for that purpose, accusing his wife of a plot to poison him. St.
Tarasius answered the messenger, saying: "I know not how the emperor can
bear the infamy of so scandalous an action in the sight of the universe:
nor how he will be able to hinder or punish adulteries and debaucheries,
if he himself set such an example. Tell him that I will rather suffer
death and all manner of torments than consent to his design." The
emperor hoping to prevail with him by flattery, sent for him to the
palace, and said to him: "I can conceal nothing from you, whom I regard
as my father. No one can deny but I may divorce one who has attempted my
life. She deserves death or perpetual penance." He then produced a
vessel, as he pretended, full of the poison prepared for him. The
patriarch, with good reason, judging the whole to be only an artful
contrivance to impose upon him, answered: that he was too well convinced
that his passion for Theodota was at the bottom of all his complaints
against the empress. He added, that, though she were guilty of the crime
he laid to her charge, his second marriage during her life, with any
other, would still be contrary to the law of God, and that he would draw
upon himself the censures of the church by attempting it. The monk John,
who had been legate of the eastern patriarchs in the seventh council,
being present, spoke also very resolutely to the emperor on the subject,
so that the pretors and patricians threatened to stab him on the spot:
and the emperor, boiling with rage, drove them both from his presence.
As soon as they were gone, he turned the empress Mary out of his palace,
and obliged her to put on a religious veil. Tarasius persisting in his
refusal to marry him to Theodota, the ceremony was performed by Joseph,
treasurer of the church of Constantinople. This scandalous example was
the occasion of several governors and other powerful men divorcing their
wives, or taking more than one at the same time, and gave great
encouragement to public lewdness. SS. Plato and Theodorus separated
themselves from the emperor's communion to show their abhorrence of his
crime. But Tarasius did not think it prudent to proceed to
excommunication, as he had threatened, apprehensive that the violence of
his temper, when further provoked, might carry him still greater
lengths, and prompt him to re-establish the heresy which he had taken
such effectual measures to suppress. Thus the patriarch, by his
moderation, prevented the ruin of religion, but drew upon himself the
emperor's resentment, who persecuted him many ways during the remainder
of his reign. Not content to set spies and guards over him under the
name of Syncelli, who watched all his actions, and suffered no one to
speak to him without their leave, he banished many of his domestics and
relations. This confinement gave the saint the more leisure for
contemplation, and he {467} never ceased in it to recommend his flock to
God. The ambitious Irene, finding that all her contrivances to render
her son odious to his subjects had proved ineffectual to her design,
which was to engross the whole power to herself, having gained over to
her party the principal officers of the court and army, she made him
prisoner, and caused his eyes to be plucked out; this was executed with
so much violence that the unhappy prince died of it in 797. After this
she reigned alone five years, during which she recalled all the
banished; but at length met with the deserved reward of her ambition and
cruelty from Nicephorus, a patrician, and the treasurer general; who, in
802, usurped the empire, and having deposed her, banished her into the
isle of Lesbos, where she soon after died with grief.
St. Tarasius, on the death of the late emperor, having interdicted and
deposed the treasurer Joseph, who had married and crowned Theodota, St.
Plato, and others, who had censured his lenity, became thoroughly
reconciled to him. The saint, under his successor Nicephorus, persevered
peaceably in his practices of penance, and in the functions of his
pastoral charge. In his last sickness he still continued to offer daily
the holy sacrifice as long as he was able to move. A little before his
death he fell into a kind of trance, as the author of his life, who was
an eye-witness, relates, wherein he was heard to dispute and argue with
a number of accusers, very busy in sifting his whole life, and objecting
all they could to it. He seemed in a great fright and agitation on this
account, and, defending himself, answered every thing laid to his
charge. This filled all present with fear, seeing the endeavors of the
enemy of man to find something to condemn even in the life of so holy
and so irreprehensible a bishop. But a great serenity succeeded, and the
holy man gave up his soul to God in peace, on the 25th of February, 806,
having sat twenty-one years and two months. God honored his memory with
miracles, some of which are related by the author of his life. His
festival began to be celebrated under his successor. The Latin and Greek
churches both honor his memory on this day. Fourteen years after his
decease, Leo, the Armenian, the Iconoclast emperor, dreamed a little
before his own death, that he saw St. Tarasius highly incensed against
him, and heard him command one Michael to stab him. Leo, judging this
Michael to be a monk in the saint's monastery, ordered him the next
morning to be sought for, and even tortured some of the religious to
oblige them to a discovery of the person: but it happened there was none
of that name among them; and Leo was killed six days after by Michael
Balbus.
* * * * *
The virtue of St. Tarasius was truly great, because constant and crowned
with perseverance, though exposed to continual dangers of illusion or
seduction, amidst the artifices of hypocrites and a wicked court. St.
Chrysostom observes,[2] that the path of virtue is narrow, and lies
between precipices, in which it is easier for the traveller to be seized
with giddiness even near the end of his course, and fall. Hence this
father most grievously laments the misfortune of king Ozias, who, after
long practising the most heroic virtues, fell, and perished through
pride; and he strenuously exhorts all who walk in the service of God,
constantly to live in fear, watchfulness, humility, and compunction. "A
soul," says he, "often wants not so much spurring in the beginning of
her conversion; her own fervor and cheerfulness make her run vigorously.
But this fervor, unless it be continually nourished, cools by degrees:
then the devil assails her with all his might. Pirates wait for and
principally attack ships when they are upon the return home laden with
{468} riches, rather than empty vessels going out of the port. Just so
the devil, when he sees a soul has gathered great spiritual riches, by
fasts, prayer, alms, chastity, and all other virtues, when he sees our
vessel fraught with rich commodities, then he falls upon her, and seeks
on all sides to break in. What exceedingly aggravates the evil, is the
extreme difficulty of ever rising again after such a fall. To err in the
beginning may be in part a want of experience; but to fall after a long
course is mere negligence, and can deserve no excuse or pardon."
Footnotes:
1. In the third session the letters of the patriarchs of Alexandria,
Antioch, and Jerusalem were read, all teaching the same doctrine of
paying a relative honor to sacred images, no less than the letters
of pope Adrian. Their deputies, John and Thomas, then added, that
the absence of those patriarchs should not affect the authority of
the council, because the tyranny under which they lived made their
presence impossible, and because they had sent their deputies and
professions of faith by letter: that none of the oriental patriarchs
had been at the sixth general Council, laboring then under the yoke
of the barbarians, yet it was not less an [oe]cumenical synod,
especially "as the apostolic Roman pope agreed to it, and presided
in it by his legates." This is a clear testimony of the eastern
churches in favor of the authority of the holy see in general
councils, and it cannot in the least be suspected of fluttery. In
the fourth session were read many passages of the fathers in favor
of the relative honor due to holy images. After which, all cried
out, they were sons of obedience, who placed their glory in
following the tradition of their holy mother the church; and they
pronounced many anathemas against all image-breakers, that is, those
who do not honor holy images, or those who call them Idols. In the
end they add a confession of filth, in which they declare, that they
honor the mother of God, who is above all the heavenly powers: then
the angels, apostles, prophets, martyrs, doctors, and all the
saints; as also their pictures: for though the angels are
incorporeal, they have appeared like men. This profession of faith
was subscribed by the pope's legates, St. Turasius, the legates of
the three other patriarchs, and three hundred and one bishops
present, besides a great many priests and deacons, deputies of
absent bishops, and by one hundred and thirty abbots. In the fifth
session were read many passages of fathers falsified and corrupted
by the Iconoclasts, as was clearly shown. The archpriest, the pope's
legate, demanded that an image should be then set up in the midst of
the assembly, and honored by all, which was done; and that the books
written against holy images night be condemned and burned, which the
council also ratified. In the sixth session the sham council of the
Iconoclasts under Copronymus was condemned and refuted as to every
article: as first, that it falsely styled itself a _general_
council; for it was not received but anathematized by the other
bishops of the church. Secondly, because the pope of Rome had no
ways concurred to it, neither by himself nor by his legates, nor by
a circular letter, according to the custom of councils: nor had the
western bishops assisted at it. Thirdly, there had not been obtained
any consent of the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem,
nor of the bishops of their respective districts. These are
conditions necessary to a general council, which were all wanting to
that sham synod. The council goes on refuting it, because it accused
the church of idolatry; which is giving the lie to Christ, whose
kingdom, according to scripture, is everlasting, and whose power
over hell can never be wrested from him. To accuse the whole church
is to do fill injury to Christ. They added, that the sham synod had
contradicted itself by admitting that the six general councils had
preserved the faith entire, and yet condemned the use of images,
which it must allow to be more ancient than the sixth council, and
which is of as great antiquity as the apostolic age. And that
whereas the same synod had advanced that the clergy having fallen
Into Idolatry, God had raised faithful emperors to destroy the
fortresses of the devil; the council of Nice vehemently condemns
this, because the bishops are the depositaries of tradition, and not
the emperors. It adds, that the Iconoclasts falsely called the
blessed Eucharist the only image, for it is not an image nor a
figure, but the true body and blood of Christ. In the seventh
session was read the definition of filth, declaring, that images
ought to be set up in churches as well as crosses, (which last the
Iconoclasts allowed of,) also to be figured on the sacred vessels
and ornaments, on the walls, ceilings, houses, &c. For the oftener
people behold holy images or pictures, the oftener are they excited
to the remembrance of what they represent: that these images are to
be honored, but not with the worship called Latria, which can only
be given to God: that they shall be honored with incense and
candles, as the cross, the gospels, and other holy things are, all
according to the pious customs of the ancients. For the honor paid
to images, passes to the archetypes, or things represented, and he
who reveres the image reveres the person it represents. This the
council declared to be the doctrine of the fathers, and tradition of
the Catholic church.
2. Chrysos. Hom. 3. de Ozia, t. 6, p. 14. ed Ben.