The life of St Amphilocus of Iconium
Drawn into the circle of Basil the Great, he was chosen, against his own preference for a hidden life, to become bishop of the important see of Iconium in the early 370s, and served as the first metropolitan of the newly formed province of Lycaonia. He remained close to Basil, who dedicated to him his treatise on the Holy Spirit, written to help Amphilochius answer those who denied the Spirit's full divinity. He also worked energetically against other errors of his day, convening a council against the Messalians.
In 381 he traveled to Constantinople for the Second Ecumenical Council, where he was recognized as a leading voice for the churches of Asia Minor, and he continued to visit the capital in the years that followed. He died sometime after 394, having spent nearly thirty years as a faithful shepherd of his see.
