The life of St Emilian the Confessor of Cyzicus
He told the emperor plainly that a question of this kind belonged to the Church and to her spiritual fathers, and was not for an imperial court to decide. He did not soften it afterward.
For that answer he was taken from his see in the year eight hundred and fifteen and sent away under guard. Five years of confinement and exile followed, with much hardship and humiliation, and in none of them did he give up the icons. He died in the year eight hundred and twenty, holding at the end what he had said at the beginning. The Church numbers him among the confessors, those who suffered for the faith without being put to death for it, and Cyzicus keeps his memory.
