Venerable John the Psichaite, the Confessor (IX)

The Venerable John the Psichaite, the Confessor (IX), lived at the turn of the eighth and ninth centuries. He was tonsured a monk in his youth in the Lavra of Psicha (in a suburb of Constantinople). For his holy life and fierce labours the venerable father received the gift of casting out evil spirits and of healing. At that time the iconoclast heresy was raging. Those who venerated the holy icons were cruelly persecuted. The Venerable John was summoned for questioning and required to renounce the holy icons. The courageous confessor of Christ denounced the iconoclasts and called even the Emperor Leo the Isaurian (717–741) a heretic. For this the saint was exiled. Persecuted and oppressed by the iconoclasts, he met his end in exile.