S. Methodius I

+ A.D. 836.

S. Methodius I., a native of Syracuse, embraced the monastic life at Constantinople. Sent as legate from Pope Paschal to Michael the Stammerer, he was imprisoned by that prince in a close cell, and there passed nine years, on account of his resolute defence of Icons. Having been scourged for the same cause, by the Emperor Theophilus, he made his escape from prison and when peace was restored to the Church was raised to the throne of Constantinople. His first care was to assemble a Synod for the restoration of Icons and it is, properly speaking, that Synod 193 which the Greeks celebrate on Orthodoxy Sunday. With this Council the Iconoclast troubles ceased. S. Methodius died November 4th, 846. His compositions are very few, and are chiefly confined to Idiomela.

That which follows seems to me the prettiest. It is for a Sunday of the Fourth Tone.²⁰²⁰This paragraph is in 1st. ed. only.