The life of the holy father of our German, Archbishop of Constantinople

His father, Justinus, a patrician, was one of the first senators to surpass others in glory and honour; he was killed by Constantine Pogonatus when he ascended the Greek throne. After the murder of this noble senator, Constantine ordered his son, then still a young man, Blessed Herman, to be exhumed and given to the clergy. This he did so that Herman, having grown up and achieved a world-famous rank and senator's title, could not avenge the house of Pogonatus for the murder of his father.

Here he fought against the Monothelithic heresy [Monothelitism arose in the early 7th century under the influence of the Byzantine rulers' desire to reconcile with Christianity the widespread monotheistic heresy that taught about the one Divine nature in the heresy of the Lord Jesus Christ, since the schism between the Orthodox and the monotheists was not only a state disaster, but also a dispute between the Church and the bishops of Cyrene and Columbanus in Iraq.

In 633 by the efforts of the emperor and Cyrus, appointed by Patriarch of Alexandria, it was possible to establish unity between the Egyptian miofelites and the Orthodox; almost all the Eastern and Greek bishops, led by Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople, joined this unity. Against such an illegal agreement, the beloved disciple of the Alexandrian patriarch John of Myra, the monk Sophronius, openly argued, proving that the doctrine of the unity is also a monophysitism or recognition in Christ of Jesus as the only one (divine) nature, the only one nature, which, of course, is the one nature.

In 638, the emperor Heraclius issued a statement of faith (ectesis) composed by Patriarch Sergius, which contained the Orthodox teaching about the two natures in Christ Jesus and forbade speaking of His will, although at the same time it was added that the Orthodox faith requires the recognition of one will. After the publication of the statement of faith, the Constantinople monk Maximus the Confessor (remember him on January 21) became a fierce defender of Orthodoxy, who successfully acted against the monophytes in northern Africa and Rome.

First they found refuge (from 680) in the Lebanese mountains; during the Crusades (1182) the teaching of the Monophytes penetrated the West, into Europe, but thanks to the activities of the popes it did not find many followers, although it existed until 1736, when the Jewish Monophytes joined the Catholic Church. In the East in Syria it still exists together with the most holy patriarch [St. Cyrus, who occupied the patriarchal throne in Constantinople from 705 to 711; Philip the Good, who died in exile in 715; Philip the Good, who died in exile in 711].

When he solemnly entered the temple of St. Sophia for the first time in his ministry, surrounded by people who wished to see the newly elected patriarch, a pregnant woman named Anna approached him and said, "Blessed is the one conceived in the womb of the sea". The Patriarch looked at her and told her about the future with his inner eyes. These are the words of the prayer of the first martyr, Stephen: "The Lord will bless you with the birth of your first child".

When Herman spoke, a woman saw a flame of fire coming out of his mouth, which later convinced everyone with an oath, which prompted her to firmly believe in the prophecy of the saint. And indeed, Anna gave birth to a male child, whom she named Stephen after the prophecy of the holy patriarch Herman. This Stephen, having grown up, dressed in pagan attire and piously climbed the mountain of Auxentium, and later became a confessor for the name of Christ, having suffered martyrdom for holy icons from the evil king Constantine Copronymus [Constantine Copronymus ruled from 741 to 776].

When he was baptized, St. German said, "This child, when he grows up, will bring great evil to Christians and to the whole Church: he will defile the sanctuary of the church with heresy and shed much blood of the faithful slaves of Christ".

The heresy of iconoclasm began during the reign of Leo Isavrenian, father of Kopronym. Leo Isavrenian, engrossed in this heresy, tried to strengthen and spread it among his people as much as possible. He sent out a wicked command to all the provinces of his state to throw out the holy icons from the temples, kick their feet and burn them, because he revered the holy icons as idols, and those who worshiped them as idolaters.

"My name is Conon", answered Leo the Isaurian. "It was given to me at my baptism, Leo, and I am called afterwards. Therefore the prophecy must be fulfilled in the days of my reign". "No, my lord", exclaimed the king, "let no such evil be done in your kingdom, for the one who wishes to do this evil is the Antichrist, the enemy of the divine incarnation.

When the king heard these words of the holy patriarch, he was ashamed, and then he became furious, trying to find such an accusation against the patriarch, to remove him from the throne not as a confessor of the truth, but as a stone-thrower. He found a partner in his evil intention in the person of one presbyter, Anastasius, a disciple of Herman. This Anastasius, like Judas, the king promised the patriarchal throne after the expulsion of Herman, and he in turn promised to help the king in confirming heresy and destroying holy icons.

"Do not hurry", said Herman to Anastasius, "the time will come when you, surrounded by a crowd of people, will be led with shouts to the Dippin". But at that time neither Anastasius nor others who heard it paid attention to these words of St. German and remembered them only later, when what was said came true, which will be discussed below. St. German, as a soldier of Christ, fearlessly and courageously fought against the heretical dreams of the word of God.

For the image of the human figure of Christ and His unspoken Mother, and the image of the holy ones pleasing to God, has been handed down to us to venerate 725 years ago, when our Lord appeared in the form of a man on earth. At the ascension of the Lord's wife, who was healed of bleeding by touching the edge of His garment (Mark.5:25-34) He made the image of the Savior in gratitude for the magicians.

I am ready to shed my blood for the image of my Christ, who shed his blood to renew the fallen image of my soul. It is clear that the disgrace inflicted on the image of Christ applies to the Primordial, that is, to Christ Himself, as well as the honor that is given to the image. Therefore, we, the faithful slaves of Christ, deserve to die for the honor of our Lord. At another time, St. Herman himself said to the king: "If I am Jonah, throw me into the sea, for without the Universal Council I have no right to declare anything new strongly concerning the faith". When the holy patriarch saw that he could not dissuade the emperor from heresy, he broke off his divine words and, having thrown himself upon his holy throne, set up his holy sanctuary.

St. Herman was a patriarch for 14 years and 6 months, and was buried in the monastery of Hora, on the north side of the fortress. St. Herman is known as a church writer: <unk>his writing is celebrated throughout the universe<unk>, testifies of him in the 7th century, says the monk who entered him into the diptychs of the saints.

Introduction to the temple of the Mother of God, to Her Assumption, to the Annunciation, to the Renewal of the temple and the position of the belt of the Most Holy Mother of God.] The richness of historical information is important in the composition about heresies from the time of the Apostles and about the church councils during the reign of Leo the Icon-bearer.

After 3 years, he gathered a large army and took Constantinople. Constantine blinded his son-in-law Artavasd and his sons, his nephews, and killed many of Artavasd's supporters. Patriarch Anastasias, the other patriarch, Constantine ordered to be stripped naked and beaten by the people at a place called <unk> lowdippin<unk>, and then, sitting back on a donkey, to lead the city with violence.

At the end of his life he was afflicted with a disease called <unk>κορδασπός<unk>, so that the abominable mouths that blasphemed the holy icons and his teacher were for him an abominable passage through which natural pus came out. From this disease Anastasius died. So Anastasius died a terrible death, and St. Herman, together with the holy hierarchs, inherited a blessed life in the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit, glory and honor, now and in the future and forever. Amen.