Saint Germanus I

Saint Germanus I (born c. 634, Constantinople [Istanbul, Turkey]—died c. 732, Platonium, near Athens [Greece]; feast day May 12) was a Byzantine patriarch of Constantinople and theologian who led the orthodox opposition during the Iconoclastic Controversy (q.v.). His writings also fostered the doctrine and devotion to the Virgin Mary. When Germanus rebelled against the execution of his patrician father by the emperor Constantine IV in 668, he was made a eunuch and pressed into the...