The life of St Nicetas the Confessor of Chalcedon
As bishop he became known chiefly for a wide and practical charity: he cared for the poor, opened his home to travelers, provided for orphans and widows, and spoke up for those who had suffered injustice.
When the emperor Leo the Armenian turned the machinery of the state against the veneration of icons, Nicetas answered without hesitation, confronting the emperor to his face and explaining plainly what the images meant to those who honored them. That boldness brought him humiliation, slander, imprisonment, and at last exile, and he died early in the ninth century after much suffering endured for that stand.
Healings were reported afterward at his relics, and he is remembered as one of the many bishops of his generation who paid a real personal cost for refusing to let the icons be taken from the Church.
