St Cosmas the Confessor, Bishop of Chalcedon, and the Venerable Auxentius (+815–820)

Saint Cosmas of Chalcedon and the Venerable Auxentius (+815–820) lived in the ninth century, when the iconoclasts were persecuting the Orthodox. Saint Cosmas was tonsured a monk while still young, and was later made Bishop of Chalcedon. He ardently defended Orthodoxy against the iconoclast heretics. In this work his faithful helper was the Venerable Auxentius.

Many times the iconoclasts tried in vain to bring the holy bishop over to their side; he did not obey the order of the Emperor Leo the Armenian (813–820) to remove the holy icons from the church. For his disobedience Cosmas was stripped of the rank of hierarch and exiled. Even after returning from exile he, together with the Venerable Auxentius, firmly defended the ancient and holy rule of the veneration of icons.