John the Psychaite

Venerable John the Psychaite was a Byzantine monk of the end of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth century, a confessor in the time of the struggle against icons. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 26 May by the old calendar, which is 8 June by the new.

From his youth he entered the monastic life at the Psychaite lavra, near Constantinople. His life says that for his struggle he received from God the gift of casting out demons and healing diseases. In the time of the iconoclast persecutions he refused to sign a renunciation of the veneration of icons and denounced the emperor as a heretic. The Russian source names him Leo IV the Isaurian, but Leo the Isaurian was the third of that name, so the identification is not certain.

For this he was sent into exile at Cherson, where he died.