St Nikephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople was an outspoken defender of the Holy Icons and left behind three prominent works against the heresy of iconoclasm. For his opposition to iconoclasm, Emperor Leo the Armenian exiled him to a monastery on a remote island, where he died in 828.
On 26 March, the Russian Orthodox Church remembers the translation of his relics. In 846 his holy remains were opened and found flagrant and incorrupt. They were returned to Constantinople and laid to rest at the Church of the Holy Apostles. His hands were taken to Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos. His main commemoration is on 15 June.
