Alexis of Constantinople

Holy Martyr Alexis of Constantinople is commemorated together with the martyrs Julian, Marcian, John, James, Demetrius, Photius, Peter, Leontius, the patrician Maria, the protospatharios Gregory and others, who suffered for the holy icons in the year 730, in the time of the iconoclast emperor Leo the Isaurian (717 to 741). They are commemorated on 22 August (new style).

The emperor removed Saint Germanus (715 to 730) from the patriarchal throne and sent him into exile, raising in his place, unlawfully, the iconoclast Anastasius. By an imperial decree all icons were to be taken from churches and houses and destroyed. Above the so-⁠called Bronze Gate of Constantinople, since the time of Saint Constantine the Great, there stood a wonderworking icon of the Saviour made of bronze. The emperor and Patriarch Anastasius ordered it taken down. A soldier set up a ladder and climbed to remove it, and the gathered people were angered at this sacrilege. In the crowd was the patrician Maria, a woman of noble birth, who, followed by many others, pulled the ladder from the wall so that the soldier should not touch the icon. The ladder fell, the soldier fell and was killed. It was 19 January 730. Gregory the protospatharios and the venerable virgin martyr Theodosia also took part in defending the icon.

On learning of it the emperor put many of the Orthodox to death, whose names and number God alone knows. The protospatharios Gregory also received the crown of martyrdom. And some Orthodox nobles, Julian, Marcian, John, James, Alexis, Demetrius, Leontius, Photius and Peter, were thrown into prison and held there for about eight months, receiving five hundred blows each day; by the power of Christ they remained alive and bore the torments manfully. At the emperor's command their faces were burned with red-⁠hot iron and their heads cut off. Saint Maria the patrician, who had not been imprisoned, learning of their execution, freely accepted a martyr's death. The bodies of the martyrs were buried in the place called Pelagius, near the church of Saint Theodore the Martyr, and were found incorrupt after a hundred and thirty-⁠nine years.