Gregory of Byzantium

Holy Martyr Gregory of Byzantium, a confessor of the holy icons, is commemorated with the others who suffered in the time of the iconoclast Emperor Constantine Copronymus (741-776). With his name the calendar commemorates two exiled Gregorys, and he is the second of them; otherwise we have no data on his life.

In that persecution many Orthodox soldiers were dismissed from the army or fled to monasteries, and the emperor ordered them put to death. The soldier Basil he blinded, and since he continued to venerate the icons, he stabbed him. Saint Stephen received the crown of martyrdom in Constantinople. The two Gregorys and a few others were sent into exile, where they died, and Saint John was sent to Daphne and died of the beatings he received. Of that time it is also said that the monks were the foremost defenders of the icons, so the emperor ordered monasteries burned and their heads smashed with the very icons they fought for, and the soldiers who carried out his order often returned to Orthodoxy and were themselves punished.

Saint Gregory is commemorated on 11 December (new style).