Tarasios of Constantinople

Secretary of state to the Empress Irene, Tarasios was still a layman when he was raised to the patriarchate of Constantinople in 784. He accepted on one condition: that a council be called to settle the quarrel over images, which had torn the Empire for half a century. That council was Nicaea II, in 787, which restored the veneration of icons by distinguishing the honour paid to the image from the adoration due to God alone. Patriarch for twenty-two years, he went on to defend the poor with the same firmness he had shown for the images.