THEODORUS, the father of our saint, was secretary to the emperor
Constantine Copronymus: but when that tyrant declared himself a
persecutor of the Catholic church, the faithful minister, remembering
that we are bound to obey God rather than man, maintained the honor due
to holy images with so much zeal, that he was stripped of his honors,
scourged, tortured, and banished. The young Nicephorus was from his
cradle animated to the practice of virtue by the domestic example of his
father: and in his education, as his desires of improvement were great,
and the instructions he had very good, the progress he made was as
considerable; till, by the maturity of his age, and of his study, he
made his appearance in the world. When Constantine and Irene were placed
on the imperial throne, and restored the Catholic faith, our saint was
quickly introduced to their notice, and by his merits attained a large
share in their favor. He was by them advanced to his father's {583}
dignity, and, by the lustre of his sanctity, was the ornament of the
court, and the support of the state. He distinguished himself by his
zeal against the Iconoclasts, and was secretary to the second council of
Nice. After the death of St. Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople, in
806, no one was found more worthy to succeed him than Nicephorus. To
give an authentic testimony of his faith, during the time of his
consecration he held in his hand a treatise which he had written in
defence of holy images, and after the ceremony laid it up behind the
altar, as a pledge that he would always maintain the tradition of the
church. As soon as he was seated in the patriarchal chair, he began to
consider how a total reformation of manners might be wrought, and his
precepts from the pulpit received a double force from the example he set
to others in an humble comportment, and steady uniform practice of
eminent piety.[1] He applied himself with unwearied diligence to all the
duties of the ministry; and, by his zealous labors and invincible
meekness and patience, kept virtue in countenance, and stemmed the tide
of iniquity. But these glorious successes rendered him not so
conspicuous as the constancy with which he despised the frowns of
tyrants, and suffered persecution for the sake of justice.
The government having changed hands, the patrician Leo the Armenian,
governor of Natolia, became emperor in 813, and being himself an
Iconoclast, endeavored both by artifices and open violence to establish
that heresy. He studied in the first place, by crafty suggestions, to
gain over the holy patriarch to favor his design. But St. Nicephorus
answered him: "We cannot change the ancient traditions: we respect holy
images as we do the cross and the book of the gospels." For it must be
observed that the ancient Iconoclasts venerated the book of the gospels,
and the figure of the cross, though by an inconsistency usual in error,
they condemned the like relative honor with regard to holy images. The
saint showed, that far from derogating from the supreme honor of God, we
honor him when for his sake we pay a subordinate respect to his angels,
saints, prophets, and ministers: also when we give a relative inferior
honor to inanimate things which belong to his service, as sacred
vessels, churches, and images. But the tyrant was fixed in his errors,
which he at first endeavored to propagate by stratagems. He therefore
privately encouraged soldiers to treat contemptuously an image of Christ
which was on a great cross at the brazen gate of the city; and thence
took occasion to order the image to be taken off the cross, pretending
he did it to prevent a second profanation. Saint Nicephorus saw the
storm gathering, and spent most of his time in prayer with several holy
bishops and abbots. Shortly after, the emperor, having assembled
together certain Iconoclast bishops in his palace, sent for the
patriarch and his fellow-bishops. They obeyed the summons, but entreated
his majesty to leave the government of the church to its pastors.
Emilian, bishop of Cyzicus, one of their body, said: "If this is an
ecclesiastical affair, let it be discussed in the church, according to
custom, not in the palace." Euthymius, bishop of Sardes said: "For these
eight hundred years past, since the coming of Christ, there have been
always pictures of him, and he has been honored in them. Who shall now
have the boldness to abolish so ancient a tradition?" St. Theodorus, the
Studite, spoke after the bishops, and said to the emperor: "My Lord, do
not disturb the order of the church. God hath placed in it apostles,
prophets, pastors, and teachers.[2] You he hath intrusted with the care
of the state; but leave the church to its pastors." The emperor, {584}
in a rage, drove them from his presence. Sometime after, the Iconoclast
bishops held a pretended council in the imperial palace, and cited the
patriarch to appear before them. To their summons he returned this
answer: "Who gave you this authority? was it the pope, or any of the
patriarchs? In my diocese you have no jurisdiction." He then read the
canon which declares those excommunicated who presume to exercise any
act of jurisdiction in the diocese of another bishop. They, however,
proceeded to pronounce against him a mock sentence of deposition; and
the holy pastor, after several attempts made secretly to take away his
life, was sent by the emperor into banishment. Michael the Stutterer,
who in 820 succeeded Leo in the imperial throne, was engaged in the same
heresy, and also a persecutor of our saint, who died in his exile, on
the 2d of June, in the monastery of St. Theodorus, which he had built in
the year 828, the fourteenth of his banishment, being about seventy
years old. By the order of the empress Theodora, his body was brought to
Constantinople with great pomp, in 848, on the 13th of March, on which
day he is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology.[3]
* * * * *
It is by a wonderful effect of his most gracious mercy and singular
love, that God is pleased to visit all his faithful servants with severe
trials, and to purify their virtue in the crucible, that by being
exercised it may be made heroic and perfect. By suffering with patience,
and in a Christian spirit, a soul makes higher and quicker advances in
pure love, than by any other means or by any other good works. Let no
one then repine, if by sickness, persecution, or disgraces, they are
hindered from doing the good actions which they desire, or rendered
incapable of discharging the duties of their station, or of laboring to
convert others. God always knows what is best for us and others: we may
safely commend to him his own cause, and all souls, which are dearer to
him than they can be to us. By this earnest prayer and perfect sacrifice
of ourselves to God, we shall more effectually draw upon ourselves the
divine mercy than by any endeavors of our own. Let us leave to God the
choice of his instruments and means in the salvation of others. As to
ourselves, it is our duty to give him what he requires of us: nor can we
glorify him by any sacrifice either greater or more honorable, and more
agreeable to him, than that of a heart under the heaviest pressure, ever
submissive to him, embracing with love and joy every order of his
wisdom, and placing its entire happiness and comfort in the
accomplishment of his adorable most holy will. The great care of a
Christian in this state, in order to sanctify his sufferings, must be to
be constantly {585} united to God, and to employ his affections in the
most fervent interior exercises of entire sacrifice and resignation, of
confidence, love, praise, adoration, penance, and compunction, which he
excites by suitable aspirations.
Footnotes:
1. The Confession of Faith which, upon his promotion, he sent to pope
Leo III., is published by Baronius ad an. 811 and in the seventh
tome of Labbe's councils, &c. In it the saint gives a clear
exposition of the principal mysteries of faith, of the invocation of
saints, and the veneration due to relics and holy images.
2. Eph. iv. 11.
3. St. Nicephorus has left us a chronicle from the beginning of the
world: of which the best editions are that of F. Goar, with the
chronicle of George Syncellus at Paris, in 1652, and that of Venice
among the Byzantine historians, in 1729. Also a short history from
the reign of Mauritius to that of Constantine and Irene, published
at Paris, in 1616, by F. Petau; and reprinted among the Byzantine
historians, at Paris, in 1649, and again at Venice, in 1729. The
style is justly commended by Photius. (col. 66.) The seventeen
canons of St. Nicephorus are extant in the collection of the
councils, t. 7, p. 1297, &c. In the second he declares it unlawful
to travel on Sundays without necessity. Cotelier has published four
others of this saint, with five of the foregoing, and his letter to
Hilarion and Eustrasius, containing learned resolutions of several
cases. (Monum. Graec. t. 3, p. 451.) St. Nicephorus wrote several
learned tracts against the Iconoclasts, as three Antirrhetics or
Confutations, &c. Some of these are printed in the Library of the
Fathers, and F. Combefis's Supplement or Auctuarium, t. 1, in
Canisius's Lectiones Antiquae, republished by Basnage, part 2, &c.
But a great number are only found in MSS. in the libraries of
England, Paris, and Rome. The saint often urges that the Iconoclasts
condemned themselves by allowing veneration to the cross, for the
image of Christ upon the cross is more than the bare cross. In the
second Antirrhetic he most evidently establishes the real presence
of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist; which passage is quoted by
Leo Allatius. (l. 3, de Consens. Ecclesiae Occident. et Orient. c.
15, p. 1223.) He does the same almost in the same words, l. de
Cherubinis a Moyse Factis, c. 7, apud Canis. t. 2, ed. Basm. part 2,
p. 19, & t. 9, Bibl. Patr. Three Antirrhetics are entitled, against
Mamonas (i. e. Constantine Copronytnus) and the Iconoclasts. A
fourth was written by him against Eusebius and Epiphanides to prove
that Eusebius of Caesarea was an obstinate Arian, and Epiphanides a
favorer of Manicheism, and a very different person from St.
Epiphanius of Salamine. F. Anselm Bauduri, a Benedictin monk of
Ragusa, undertook at Paris a complete edition of the works of St.
Nicephorus, in two volumes in folio: but his death prevented the
publication. His learned Prospectus, dated in the monastery of St.
Germain-des-Prez, in 1785, is inserted by Fabricius in Biblioth. Gr.
t. 6, p. 640, and in part by Oudin, de Scrip. t. 2, p. 13.