Athanasius the Confessor

Saint Athanasius the Confessor was born in Constantinople of rich and pious parents and from childhood wished to give himself to the Lord. Having reached manhood, he settled in a monastery at Nicomedia called Pavlopetrios, that is, of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and became a monk. The loftiness of his ascetic life became known at the imperial court. In the time of the iconoclast emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820), the defender of Orthodoxy was tortured for venerating icons, and then went through exile, hardship and suffering. He confessed the Orthodox faith to the end and died in the year 821. The Church of Georgia commemorates him on 22 February (old style; 6 March new style).