Procopius of Decapolis

Venerable Procopius of Decapolis (Procopius the Confessor) was a Byzantine monk, ascetic and confessor of the icons, of the second half of the eighth century and the first half of the ninth. He is commemorated on 27 February by the old calendar (12 March by the new); the Ukrainian source gives 13 March.

Procopius was a monk and lived in Constantinople in one of the monasteries. He had as disciple and companion in ascetic labour Basil the Confessor. The name Decapolite comes, it seems, from his origin in the Decapolis, the region east of the Sea of Galilee; by some sources from the town of Seleucia; the Ukrainian source says that he may have been from Seleucia in Jordan or in Asia Minor. From his youth he chose the monastic way and devoted himself to the purification of the soul and its elevation to God.

When iconoclasm began, he stood in defence of the icons, showing that veneration of icons is not idolatry, since Christians do not bow to dead matter but to the living saints painted on them. For this he was cruelly tortured, arrested, beaten and scraped with iron. The sources do not agree on the emperor: the Russian source says that, in the persecution under Leo V, Procopius was, together with Basil, subjected to many torments and imprisoned, where both remained until the emperor's death; the Serbian and Ukrainian sources place the persecution under Leo III the Isaurian (717 to 741), who died in 741. After the emperor's death Procopius lived in peace about ten years, according to the Russian source, in his monastery, and died a natural death.

In the Menologion of Basil II (end of the tenth century), at 27 February, there is a short common life of Procopius and Basil, both called confessors. In the Synaxarion of the Church of Constantinople (tenth century), the life of Procopius is at 27 February and that of Basil at 28 February. The Menologion of Basil II also has the image of the two venerable ones. In the Menaion at 27 February is the service of Procopius of Decapolis: three stichera at Lord, I have cried, tone 4; a troparion, tone 8; a canon, tone 6, whose author is named as Theophanes; a kathisma, tone 4; and a kontakion, tone 4.